It's a Mad Mad Mad World 1

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World I - IV

From 1987 to 1989, this series of family comedies was brought to the screen with a fair amount of popular success in HK. All three films had the same five actors portraying a middle class family - the father (Bill Tung), the mother (Lydia Shum) and their three daughters Elsie Chan, Loletta Lee and Pauline Kwan. Hong Kong audiences found these films appealing because they humorously spoke to a number of issues that troubled them at the time. The small indignities of daily life in HK, the fears of the Mainland take-over and a wish to emigrate before it was too late, how to keep your head above the economic waters, the desire to get rich quick and finally the importance of family.

The film seems to say that in the end it is family that truly matters. Money and success come and go but your family is always there. As Bill Tung says at one low point "My three daughters are the real treasures in my life". The comedy tends to be low key - more situation and character driven than typical HK slapstick or word play humor - and though there is some universality to it - much of it is clearly directed at the local HK audience.

The performers are very appealing and never become tiresome over the course of this series. Bill Tung is perfect as a father trying to keep what little control he can of his wife and three daughters, Lydia Shum as his large mahjongg playing wife with dreams of getting rich is amusing, Elsie Chan as the oldest daughter on the verge of womanhood is sweet with just the right amount of sex appeal, Loletta Lee is adorably full of pouts and smiles as the middle daughter and Pauline Kwan is surprisingly charming as the youngest in a film industry that is notorious for it's annoying child actors.

These themes of family, economic turmoil, get rich, get poor, money can't buy you happiness and fear of the turnover run through all the films - but here is a short rundown on each of the three films.

Part I - 1987, Director - Clifton Ko

Bill is a news announcer on TV (clearly they are paid much less in HK than in the U.S.!) and his family lives in a Public Housing building where the quarters are tight, the walls are thin and items fall dangerously from the building onto the streets below.

The daughters are in those teenage headache inducing years - Elsie is being courted by a very hip fast talking Eric Tsang and Loletta is into J-pop and wants to travel to Japan to study their culture. Bill reminds her that the Japanese invaded their country and she has nothing to learn from them. I should also mention that a strong touch of xenophobia runs through these films as well - whether Japanese, Canadian or from the Mainland.

Lydia's day finally comes and she wins HK $19mm in the Mark VI Lottery. They all dream of different ways to spend it – but at the same time don't want anyone to know they have won for fear they will try and borrow money. Bill's brother (David Chiang - credited here as John) comes to visit and advises them to invest the money in his bank. They do and the bank goes under and there goes the money. At the same time, three fellows who don’t believe all the money is gone kidnap Pauline.

My rating for this film: 6.0

Part II - 1988 - Director - Clifton Ko, Francis Sung

Bill has a new job (after insulting management, he quit his last one on air after winning the lottery) working for Yip Wing Cho and Wong San in a newspaper. The two of them conclude erroneously that Bill knows that they are embezzling money from the firm and send him and the family to Vancouver, Canada to work there. So again, the factor of a dislike of foreigners is brought into the story as most Canadians are portrayed as silly idiots.

Loletta goes off to university and Elsie picks up a new boyfriend - Lowell Lo (one of HK film's better composers). The family adjusts to life in Canada - the cold, the fact that no one speaks Chinese - Lydia finds some Mahjongg partners and plays the Canadian lottery - but eventually Bill’s two employers realize that Bill knows nothing about their shady dealings and fire him on the spot and kick him out of the house.

So it is back to HK - with no job and no prospects and living in an apartment that is a level lower than Public Housing. It's like they are starting all over again - but then Lydia learns that she has a winning ticket in the lottery and it is a mad rush back to Canada to claim the prize before it expires. Yip Wing Cho and Wong San learn of this and try and steal the ticket from them.

My rating for this film: 5.5

Part III - 1989, Director - Stephen Shin

Clifton Ko directed the first two films, but he passed this duty off to two directors for this third instalment and it shows. The film is much more jumbled than the previous two and feels very much out of ideas. They also introduce too many new characters in an attempt to put some spark in the story, but this only causes it to lose much of its focus and chemistry. It also did much more poorly at the box office bringing the series to a halt for three years.

The family is in the money once again - but you know it is just a matter of time before they lose it - and they do in perhaps the lamest manner imaginable. Elsie is still being courted by Lowell Lo, but Eric Tsang reappears as a love rival and Loletta picks up a boyfriend (which infuriates her protective father) who's father is played by Ng Man-Tat.

There are other elements thrown into the mix - Lydia thinks Bill is having an affair, she gets the gambling bug - but as expected all ends up happily for this little family.

My rating for this film: 4.5

Part IV - 1992

It is nice to finally catch up with this Hong Kong film - the fourth and final one in the Mad, Mad, Mad World series. There was one each in 1987, 1988 and 1989 but a three-year gap before this one. I was expecting it to have lost some of the cast and characters of those early comic films, but it takes off right where the others ended. These films center around the sweet Lui family - husband, wife and three daughters - and the films are all very Hong Kong with this loving and sometimes fighting family having to manage the ups and downs of life in Hong Kong. Having to deal with financial struggles, real estate concerns, noisy neighbors, three daughters all growing up, triads, making money and losing it. The foibles of chance. The aggravation of everyday living in a crazy wonderful city.

Not only is the setting as Hong Kong as you can get but so are the parents played by Bill Tung who many may know from the Jackie Chan films and the rotund Lydia Shum, one of the top comedians in Hong Kong since she was a teenager. Often called Fatty. They were both institutions. In these he is the calm let things pass spoil the girls father while Lydia is a whirlwind of emotions, mahjong and kung fu in her Bruce Lee yellow sweat suit. No one escapes her wrath. All five of the family were the same actors through the series - Tung, Shum and the three daughters played by Loletta Lee, Elsie Chan and Pauline Kwan.

Elsie is now married to Lowell Lo and very pregnant - he was a suitor of hers in the second and third film. They all move into an apartment that they purchased and life is good. For a while. Two neighbors next door are part of a rock band and play their music loud and late. Lowell it turns out has a mistress in Shenzhen who is warning him that she is coming to Hong Kong. But the major plot revolves around a rotten real estate developer (Henry Fong Ping) who wants to buy the building - at a reduced price. When the building residents refuse, he orders his main henchman (Tommy Wong) to drive them out. He tries every dirty trick he can think of such as switching the water pipes with the sewage pipe, keeping them up all night, putting up brothel signs in their building, threatening them - but this little family bands together and fights back. Finally, they come with machetes. It sounds serious but this is all played for laughs and generally succeeds. Lowell Lo who almost always plays this nerdy guy that a strong wind or an angry woman could blow away was one of the top composers of soundtracks in history - an amazing set of films.

My Rating for this film: 6.0