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The Eighth Happiness
also known as: (no alternate titles)

year of release: 1988

Principal cast.

Fang Chien Lang:	Chow Yun-Fat
Fang Chien Hui:	Raymond Chow
Fang Chien Shien:	Jacky Cheung
DoDo:	Carol Cheng
Beauty:	Cherie Chung
Wu Hsiu-Fang:	Fung BoBo

Directed by: Johnny To

Additional info.

IMDb link:	IMDb title 0094695
other links:	DVD cover image
	opening theme (.mp3 format)

version reviewed: DVD (Universe 5108)

Ratings.

audio:	8 of 10
video:	8 of 10
subtitles:	7 of 10
story:	7 of 10
performances:	8 of 10
CYF:	8 of 10

First off, if you have only seen Chow Yun-Fat in his Gentleman Assassin or Rogue Cop roles, hold onto your hat because you're in for a wild ride.
Chow Yun-Fat plays Lang, one of three brothers in what can only be termed the Most Dysfunctional Family of All Time. Brought up by his elder brother Hui (Raymond Chow) wearing girl's clothing (for reasons left unexplained, but Hui never denies it), Lang is a sly "sissy boy" who uses his effeminate looks to charm women. "They think I'm harmless!" Lang says, with an evil chuckle. That's why he has not only a steady air-hostess girlfriend (Carol "DoDo" Cheng) but a girl in each of the 19 districts. To determine which lucky woman is graced with his presence that evening, he uses a dart thrown at a map.

Lang and Hui have a younger brother Shien (Jacky Cheung - and if you remember him mainly from Bullet In The Head, you're in for another surprise) who is a shy cartoonist who has a crush on a young girl he met in a park. Torn between the rascal's advice of Lang and the cautious broody-hen advice of Hui, he does his best to win his girl without scaring her too much. Good thing she has an open mind about future brothers-in-law.

Hui is the host of a daytime cooking show, "Mainly For Women". That's about as close as he ever gets to a real, live woman until one day the special guest on his show is Wu Hsiu-fang, a Chinese opera singer. He falls for her right away, and in his bumbling way goes after her - not that she's very thrilled with that idea at first, especially when she finds out that it's his brother Lang who has been making crank phone calls to her at all hours of the night.

So with these three brothers and their three girlfriends you have the basic plot: each brother sets out to woo the girl of his dreams (or, in Lang's case, the girls of his dreams). Along the way there are lots and lots of comic complications, including midget flashers, sword-wielding mothers, smartass kids, stomping Rolex watches for amusement, Chow Yun-Fat in various types of drag and Cherie Chung being tossed (literally) from one brother to another. Plus it all winds up with a spoof of Princess Chang Ping - with all three brothers and DoDo in full operatic costume (CYF as a woman and DoDo as a man, of course) singing their little hearts out in an effort to patch up the differences between Hui and Hsui-fang.

"Mark Gor" makes a cameo appearance - look for him in the audience at the final opera, applauding Fang Chein Lang's performance.

This was a big-budget New Year's comedy - the silliest of types - for 1988. If you are willing to accept Chow Yun-Fat as a womanizing queen (you have to love those red plaid pants with the suspenders) then you will like this movie. Lots of very silly gags - CYF dancing in his underwear as he air conducts is a favorite - and generally good-humored ribbing at various stereotypes. The humor isn't as sophisticated as that of Diary of A Big Man and isn't really a romantic comedy like Fractured Follies, but it's a fun movie and some of the subtitles are incomprehensible enough to be funny in and of themselves. This is the movie to trot out to that big fan of The Replacement Killers you probably know (the one who says things like "that Fat guy looks so cool killing people!") and show him just how far-ranging CYF's talents really are.





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