The Eighth Happiness

Amazon.com

One of Chow Yun-fat's most successful comedies of the 1980s, a fundamentally conventional romp about three bachelor brothers (a cartoonist, a TV cooking instructor, and an aspiring actor) who stumble into romance. But it's spiced up by an unusually rich mix of indigenous Cantonese flavors. The careers of several characters link them to the Chinese opera stage, and the characterizations are stylized in an intentionally "operatic" way. Chow plays a man who pretends to be gay in order to ingratiate himself with women; and his flamboyant camping--complete with limp wrists and Black Lagoon mud packs--is only a little more flamboyant than the other key performances. In the finale, the entire cast appears in traditional makeup and performs a scene from the classic Cantonese opera The Purple Hairpin, with the lyrics satirically altered. The ethnic seasoning here may finally be too exotic for Western tastes: in fact, most of the mile-a-minute wordplay is inaccessible even to speakers of other Chinese dialects. (A few key puns are translated in the helpful subtitles, including a running gag conflating the Cantonese words for "love bite" and "chicken curry.") But the fun of watching Chow Yun-fat strut, squeal, and preen his way through an entire movie transcends cultural barriers. No film performer on earth seems to have more fun earning his living, and the pleasure is infectious. --David Chute

Customer Reviews:

Fabulous!.......2003-11-07

I've seen hundreds of HK movies, this might just be the funniest one ever. All-Star cast, great actors. Chow Yun Fat, Cherie Chung, Carol Cheng, Jackie Cheung. Raymond Wong
Must see!

Non-stop fun - and CYF in drag........1999-08-07

While the plot of this movie is funny unto itself, the one true reason to see this film is the *incredible* performance by Chow Yun-Fat. You've seen him as the ruthless cop, the compassionate assassin, the toughened prison inmate. Now you can see him as "a sissy girl" (to quote the subtitles in the plot) - but it's all a sham to cover the fact he's a shameless womanizer. Well, it makes sense when you see the film.

Also included is one of the wildest spoofs of Chinese opera you'll ever see.

Funny from the opening credits ("The Blue Danube Waltz" with Chinese lyrics!) to the end of the closing credits. Obscene telephone calls, Chow Yun-Fat crossdressing, a sword-wielding mom and Cherie Cheung in a wild cameo role as a girl just wanting to have fun. What more could you want?

Super fun.

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