Tricky King
Director: Aman Chang
Year: 1998
Rating: 6.5
The idea of being
trapped in a movie with Eric Kot and Natalis Chan for ninety minutes is headache
inducing. Their comedy is as subtle as a pie in the face or a kick in the
groin. But strangely enough, it was not as painful an experience as I would
have thought. Three lovely co-stars may have had something to do with that,
but there were actually some chuckles generated by their bizarre antics.
Eric Kot - kind of a Jerry Lewis on
drugs - has a crush on Athena Chu who he sees everyday at the train station.
He thinks her name is Dkny because those initials are on her handbag. He
annoys someone at work and the wrath of the Tricky King is brought down upon
him.
I don’t know if these tricksters really exist in HK, but the Stephen Chow
film “Tricky Brains” also revolved around such a character. They are hired
basically to destroy people’s lives and reputations and they use an assortment
of tricks and schemes to do so. In this case Eric’s hand is poisoned by a
substance that allows him to have no control over it. It goes wild chasing
after girls, squeezing the boss’s private parts and eventually delivering
a baby!. He gets fired and is unable to find a job.
Finally, he finds employment with Natalis
Chan who is also a trickster. They get hired to ruin the reputation of the
very beautiful Lee Ann d'Alexandry d'Orengiani who is the daughter of a
very rich guy. I wish I knew what her background is, but she is a knockout.
She was also in another film I saw Love Generation HK. Needless to say the
boys (and a girl) can’t bring themselves to hurt this sweetie and so her
evil step-brother brings in the Tricky King and it is war ! Some of the weapons
used are the fake swimming pool, magnetic sugar, photo illusion, horny smoke
and of course the honest chicken wing.
A Preston Sturges comedy this isn’t, but
some of the routines are amusing and underlying it is a fairly sweet nature.
