Justice, My Foot!
Reviewed by YTSL
In 2001, Stephen Chow’s “Shaolin Soccer” became
the HKSAR’s all time highest grossing local film. This fact notwithstanding,
1992 it was that was THE banner year for Hong Kong’s King of Comedy -- what
with the top five overall hits at the local box office being works in which
he starred. For the record, and in the order of number five to one,
these major commercially successful crowd pleasers were: “Royal Tramp
2” (whose total box office gross amounted to HK$37,416,607.00); “King of
Beggars” (whose total box office haul came to HK$40,862,831.00); “Royal Tramp
1” (whose cinematic run was 49 days in length); “All’s Well, Ends Well” (more
an ensemble piece than a genuine Chow Sing Chi vehicle...but still!); and
a majorly “mo lei tau” comedy infused second filmic adaptation of a story
that functioned as “a satirical exposé of corruption among Qing officials”
(See Paul Fonoroff’s “At the Hong Kong Movies”, 1998:235-236) whose total
box office takings was to the tune of close to HK$50 million.
The Johnnie To directed and Ching Siu-Tung action-directed period comedy
that’s JUSTICE, MY FOOT! has a queue- but never clue-less Stephen Chow in
the lead role of a Canton-based, Qing dynasty-era master lawyer named Sung
Shih-Chieh (who bears the non-Mandarin but still respected rank of Secretary).
Anita Mui plays the main man’s kung fu expert wife -- and sometimes threatens
to steal the show -- as a woman who has quite the influence over him.
For example, early on in this Mona Fong produced offering, she successfully
induced him to “seal his brush” (i.e., retire) -- after noticing that whenever
her “shyster” spouse took up a court case and got his clients off the hook
(even when they actually were guilty of the crimes that they had been accused
of and it really would have been the just thing for them to have gotten punished
for their sins), as though mandated by heaven, an infant son of theirs would
end up having his life cut short.
What with Secretary Sung quite obviously feeling socially insecure as a result
of being not allowed to write anything (never mind pen official documents)
-- plus not the equal, forget superior, of his wife in terms of such as height
as well as ability to physically defend oneself -- though, it seemed to be
just a matter of time before he would end up pursuing opportunities to show
off his mental plus verbal prowess. Interestingly, when the time finally
came for him to go back on his vow to cease “turn(ing) black into white”
in front of overwhelmingly less erudite plus intelligent court officials
like the hapless Lord Ho Yu Tai (portrayed by Ng Man Tat) and honest -- but
not entirely without blemish -- high Inspector General (played by Paul Chun
Pui), it was the result of the thirteen son losing Madam Sung asking her
husband to take pity on and thus legally represent a pregnant widow (the
differently unfortunate Madam Chou Hsiu Chien is essayed by an unexpectedly
non-scene-stealing Carrie Ng) whose late husband’s premature death appeared
to have been arranged by his unfraternal-acting brother and that man’s well-connected
wife (whom comes in the form of Yuen King Tan).
As one might expect, this particular legal suit turns out to be more complex
than those that Secretary Sung was shown effortlessly as well as adeptly
winning earlier in JUSTICE, MY FOOT! Also, to be sure, some of the
complications that shown arising from the Sungs’ decision to see to the overall
welfare of Miss Chou -- and the baby she gave birth to -- is of a comic variety.
However, what might surprise those who (continue to) think that Stephen Chow
comedies contain not much more than fart and fecal jokes -- though this is
not to say that these are not present in this movie... -- is that quite a
few others of what turn out to be main plot twists in this Sandy Shaw scripted
story are pretty serious in nature and implication (as actually befits the
legal action being handled by Secretary Sung being one that involves murder
accusations and getting heard in a court where those who displease its officials
are liable to be subjected to such tortures and punishments as thirty slaps
on one’s face with embarrassing along with painful mark-making wooden paddles
as well as monetary fines or imprisonment).
Something else that this non-Hong Kong native -- and, more pertinently for
the purposes of appreciating this movie, someone whose mother tongue is NOT
Cantonese -- thinks has to be taken into account about an effort that she
found quite engrossing but far from laugh-a-minute funny is that a great
part of JUSTICE, MY FOOT!’s humor does appear to be more verbal than visual
in variety and probably also generally of the sort that will be more greatly
appreciated by those who hail from the same geographic territory and socio-cultural
plus linguistic milieu as this film’s star. Consequently, it certainly
doesn’t help those who are English subtitle-dependent that corners seem to
have been cut with regards to that facet of the movie (unlike was the case
with other, more attractive departments of this attractively lensed -- by
Peter Pau -- offering like costume and set design). Nonetheless, even
while I can’t see this particular production being the favorite of (m)any
of the Hong Kong funny man’s foreign fans, I think enough does manage to
come through the language and other barriers to make it yet another of his
efforts that we -- especially those who also have a fondness for the independently
charismatic Anita Mui’s antics and master Ching Siu-Tung’s wire work -- won’t
want to give a complete miss.
My rating for the film: 7.5