The Banquet
This is really only a film for die-hard HK film
fans that might simply get pleasure from seeing a boatload of HK stars
pop in and out of a film. This film was produced to make money for some
flood victims and it is nearly a who who’s of HK stars at the beginning
of the 90’s. The film is probably best enjoyed if watched with other
HK fans and then you can play a version of spot and name the star first.
Though I was able to get quite a few, there were still many others – character
actors primarily – that I could not assign a name to.
On its own merits there is not a lot to this
film. It’s really just a plot to shoehorn in as many cameos as possible
and a few humorous skits. Though this is certainly not a film that one
would want to watch more than once, I have to admit that I enjoyed this
low key and occasionally amusing film quite a lot.
There is a story (introduced by Andy
Lau and Teresa
Mo) here as slight as it is. This is a summary
with as many of the HK stars as I can name. Eric
Tsang and Sammo
Hung (and his right hand man John
Sham) are two rival contractors and Jackie
Cheung (who is married to Joey
Wong) comes to both of them and tells them
that a Prince from Kuwait is coming to HK to hire someone to rebuild his
country. While Eric and Jackie are in the restaurant they are waited on
by Sandra Ng
and May Lo (Jackie
Cheung’s real life wife).
Eric goes to his palatial home where his right
hand man (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai)
is looking on as Maggie Cheung
and Carina Lau
practice a Peking Opera number. Eric explains to his wife DoDo
Cheng that the Prince only respects those
people who take good care of their fathers – and so Eric must get his father
(Richard Ng)
who he has not seen in ten years to come stay with them during the Prince's
visit.
So Eric visits his father who is living with his
daughter (Rosamund Kwan)
and her husband (Tony Leung Ka-Fai)
and convinces him to come stay with them. DoDo thinks he needs fancying
up and so they hire gigolo, Simon Yam,
to teach him manners, Eric Kot
and Jan Lamb
to teach grammar and Lau Kar-Leung
for fencing lessons. Finally on the night of the party Karl
Mak a funeral director is brought in to apply
makeup.
While waiting for the guest of honor to arrive
and being served by his maid (Kara Hui Ying-Hung),
Eric falls asleep and dreams that guests Anita
Mui, Sally Yeh,
Anthony Chan,
Sylvia Chang,
Maria Cordero,
Michael Hui and
John Woo all
show up. Eric’s wife turns into Gong Li
and is saved by Stephen Chow.
In the dream Alan Tam,
Tommy Wong and
Raymond Wong
play the Prince and his entourage.
Finally the dream ends and the real Prince (George
Lam) shows up and a brew ha ha ensues witnessed
by Gloria Yip
and Waise Lee
among others. But everything is resolved and Eric buys dinner for his dad
and all his neighbors. Both Ti Lung
and Kenneth Tsang
serve food while Ng Man-Tat
and Leon Lai
cook it up. Among the diners are Leslie Cheung,
Aaron Kwok, Natalis
Chan, Bill Tung,
Linda Shum, Philip
Chan and many others!
Phew!! – and that’s why I enjoyed this film. Just
lots of HK stars having a good time and contributing to a good cause.
My rating for this film: 7.0
