Archive for March, 2005
The Millionaire Chase
Stop me if you’ve heard this before—a trio of sexy Hong Kong performers wow the crowds with their peppy songs and colorful outfits, but what they really desire is love and marriage. As they sing their way through increasingly elaborate sets, they find the men who make their lives complete.
Inoue Umetsugu returns to the land of Hong Kong Nocturne for what could almost be mistaken for a remake of that Chang Pei Pei-starring vehicle. Even Nocturne’s Lily Ho returns, promoted from supporting actress to the starring role of Yip Fang, a singer fixated on marrying her playboy agent Peter (Peter Chen Ho, in the typecast role he could never escape, but was too old to play). Peter thinks Yip Fang’s just a kid, and his more interested in catting around with chanteuse Ying (Angela Yu Chien), who only wants to ditch her lecherous, elderly husband.
Yip Fang’s co-performers are also on the hunt for romance; Zhang Ping (Chen Ping) wants to marry for love, but wouldn’t mind a rich fiancé to show off to her shallow ex-boyfriend. Zhi Nan, however, has no illusions of a knight in shining armor; she just wants to catch the richest man she can find.
Less family oriented than Nocturne, Millionaire Chase cares only for hijinx and songs—it opens with a richly-choreographed number dripping with color that ends with a slapstick-laden pie fight, ends with a melee and stuffs its middle with wacky sexual romps and a surprising amount of cursing.* Lily Ho has a really dirty mouth. Who knew?
Chase has its fun, but it never really compares to Nocturne. The casting is a pale shadow—Lily Ho’s entertaining presence is more than offset by the horrible acting and dancing of Ting Pei—and the overall package is as cohesive as the cream pies the characters throw with such abandon.
The Millionaire Chase
Dir: Inoue Umetsugu
Released: May 22, 1969
*As my grasp of Mandarin is almost non-existent, I can’t tell if the cursing is due to a mis-translation or if it’s accurate.