Chasing Girls
Director: Karl Maka
Year: 1981
Rating: 5.0
I have been told
that when this film came out in 1981 it was extremely popular and to some
degree it was a groundbreaking film in the way it mixed slightly risqué
comedy with action. It was one of Cinema City’s first films and it’s success
helped generate many such similar films afterwards. Time of course can treat
all of us more poorly than we like and this film is no different. Twenty
years after the fact, this film clearly shows its age. Comedy perhaps more
than most film genres seem to age quickly and have time pass them by.
Directed by
Kara Maka, it stars Dean Shek and Eric Tsang as two footloose and free men
on the prowl for available women. The film begins in New York City where
Dean (attired in an Afro) is happily seducing gweilo females much to the
dismay of his mother. She tells him enough is enough and sends him back to
Hong Kong to find a good Chinese woman who can control him.
He hooks up with his cousin Eric who has
had no success with the opposite sex and Dean sets out to teach him how
to get women. Dean sets his eye on a model (Flora Cheng), and has Eric come
along for lessons. Things go surprisingly well – and Flora is soon demanding
that his wandering eye come to a full stop. But then a cute little waitress
becomes interested in Dean and she soon proves that Dean is an amateur when
it comes to manipulation.
There really isn’t much more to this film
than that, but it does have some enjoyable scenes. In one Dean displays some
amazing bowling skills as he bowls the ball backwards between his legs for
strikes (I wonder how many takes that needed!) and he and Flora put on a
nifty ballroom dance performance. The best is saved for last though as Dean
races wildly through the streets of Hong Kong in various cars and motorcycles
in an enjoyable and funny chase in which the crashes and car wreck count
is very high.
Even so, this film doesn’t have the snap and
energy of many of Cinema Citys later films and feels caught in a bit of
a time warp.
Sammo Hung and Maka have a quick cameo in
the film.
