Dummy Mommy Without a Baby
Reviewed by YTSL
Before I get to (more) properly reviewing this
2001 comedy, there are two things I feel a need to let off some steam about.
An arguably nitpicky complaint concerns the latter tendency on the part of
Chinese-to-English translators of film titles and dialogue to opt for American
rather than British English words (Hence this offering’s English language
title failing to having two words that really rhymed as well as there having
been those hex errors in “Shaolin Soccer” that arose from a false supposition
that “soccer” can be used in all of the contexts as that of “football”).
The far more serious grievance that I have pertains to the truly unnecessary
casual racism -- like that embodied in the throwaway remark in this effort
of “She is afraid of black” (although those who are willing to thank goodness
for small mercies will note that “at least” the “n” word was not used in
this instance) -- that still is prone to crop up and threaten to ruin my
Hong Kong movie viewing experience.
For better or worse, the above mentioned issues
actually irked me much more after I spent time ruminating about them than
over the course of my viewing the memorably as well as descriptively titled
DUMMY MOMMY WITHOUT A BABY. Part of the reason for this is that they
really didn’t have all that much to do with the movie itself (whose plot centers
on a woman who fakes being pregnant after learning of a new government ruling
that forbade employers from sacking their expecting employees for ten months).
Another is that this (re)viewer found herself devoting more thought than
she had expected to on trying to decide whether this film with the novel
premise -- that threatened early on to turn out to be not much more than
a one joke work -- could be generally considered funny; what with the Brilliant
Idea Group production that unexpectedly outgrossed Jet Li’s “The One” at
the HKSAR box office in the first week that they were released in the former
British Crown Colony having certain sections that really did cause me to
laugh out loud but there being long stretches in between these during which
I don’t think that I cracked even a single, small smile.
To some extent, it made sense that DUMMY MOMMY WITHOUT A BABY couldn’t be
laughter-inducing right from the get go on account of certain events needing
to occur to cause the effort’s lead character (L.K. Fong -- who actually
isn’t the world’s worst worker -- is played by Miriam Yeung) to be moved
to come up with the desperate plan that she did to ensure that her budding
career in advertising would not be brought to a sudden halt. Also,
while it is true that many of the film’s plot developments -- notably that
which involved L.K. being unable to hide the truth about her “pregnancy”
forever -- were too predictable in nature, some others -- including that
which pertains to the nature of her relationship with her boss (Edison Chen
is surprisingly charming as the younger Mr. Wu) -- are less so. Indeed,
there were certain ones -- such as those which had L.K. feeling a need to
take lessons re how to act pregnant and interview other women about what
pregnancy honestly felt like along with that which brought a real pregnant
female character into the picture (and had her in the strong financial position
that she was) -- that seem downright inspired.
Nonetheless, I don’t think that -- if the question were put to them -- scriptwriters
Joe Ma (who also co-directed this movie with Mak Kai Gwong and co-produced
it with Ivy Kong), Chang Wing Sun and Taures Chow would deny that much of
DUMMY MOMMY WITHOUT A BABY is mere padding for an otherwise thin story.
And should anyone who has already viewed this work wonder, I am most definitely
not only referring to the cameo appearances made by the likes of Chor Yuen
(as a sad tea shop owner who looks to have more pregnant employees than he
has customers), Cheung Tat Ming (as an overly theoretical acting instructor)
and Moses Chan (as a big bellied lawyer). Rather, it also generally
felt rather unnecessary for L.K. to have all that many (platonic male) friends
(a couple of whom were played by Wyman Wong and Samuel Leung) -- other than
to show that so much (deceit) seems to be achievable if you have chums who
are willing to lie for you -- as well as a bitchy superior/rival who, to
add insult to injury, proved to be pretty toothless (through no fault of
the actress who played her, Pauline Yam).
Perhaps the brains behind this movie thought that, what with DUMMY MOMMY
WITHOUT A BABY being the first work in which the Cantopop singer-actress
-- whose career may well be headed in the same direction as that of Sammi
Cheng’s -- had a starring role, Miriam Yeung could not be expected to carry
an entire film (and thus had to be surrounded by more experienced actors
as well as fellow fresh faced personalities). Whatever the reason for
it being so, I am glad that Hui Siu Hung had a part to play in this effort
(as Edison Chen’s character’s boxing enthusiast father); this not least since
the running gag that involved the elder Mr. Wu believing that L.K.’s good
friend, Dina (who was played by Niki Chow) was his son’s single pregnant
employee was one which did serve up some of this offering’s more humorous
moments.
My rating for the film: 5.5
Reviewed by Brian
I rather enjoyed this rambunctious if far
from cutting edge family comedy. It has the feel more of a TV sitcom than
a theatrical film with Miriam Yeung and Niki Chow taking on roles that would
have felt at home on a I Love Lucy episode. Interesting that YTSL compared
Miriam to Sammi Cheng because her comic delivery and speaking voice reminded
me constantly of Sammi’s. She doesn’t have quite the charisma or the looks
of Sammi – and perhaps for that reason romance doesn’t play much of a role
here – but I thought she brought a fun “average” working woman persona to
the film. Not at all glamorous or marriage minded - she just wants
to keep her job and things start getting out of control in a warped logical
kind of way.
Another aspect of the film that appealed to me was the staunch and loyal
friendship between Miriam and Niki – always protecting the others back in
the dirty world of office politics. This must be the third or fourth
film recently that Niki has popped in on and I have to admit to finding her
quite attractive and a welcome presence. Hopefully she can continue to get
larger roles as time goes by.
My rating for this film: 6.5