I had actually never seen the 1996 Hong Kong comedy "How to Meet the Lucky Stars" before now in 2023, as I stumbled upon the movie by random chance. And of course there was no doubt about me sitting down to watch it as I have a special fondness of the Hong Kong cinema.
And I figured that with the likes of Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, Eric Tsang, Richard Ng, Stanley Sui-Fan Fung and Fui-On Shing on the cast list that I was guaranteed to be in for an enjoyable movie.
However, it turned out that writers Chi-Wai Lee, Ivy Lee and Ping Kwong Lee only managed to put together a semi-enjoyable script for director Frankie Chan to bring to life on the screen. The storyline in the movie was just a tad too plain for my liking, focusing a bit too much on the card playing aspect and forgetting about the comedy.
The acting performances in the movie were fair enough, archetypical mid-1990s Hong Kong stuff actually. Just a shame that such a good cast ensemble didn't have more contents to work with and bring to the screen.
This wasn't a movie that really appealed all that much to me, so it turned out that I hadn't exactly been missing out on a milestone in the Hong Kong cinema by not watching it before after 27 years of its release.
My rating of "How to Meet the Lucky Stars" lands on a four out of ten stars.
And I figured that with the likes of Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, Eric Tsang, Richard Ng, Stanley Sui-Fan Fung and Fui-On Shing on the cast list that I was guaranteed to be in for an enjoyable movie.
However, it turned out that writers Chi-Wai Lee, Ivy Lee and Ping Kwong Lee only managed to put together a semi-enjoyable script for director Frankie Chan to bring to life on the screen. The storyline in the movie was just a tad too plain for my liking, focusing a bit too much on the card playing aspect and forgetting about the comedy.
The acting performances in the movie were fair enough, archetypical mid-1990s Hong Kong stuff actually. Just a shame that such a good cast ensemble didn't have more contents to work with and bring to the screen.
This wasn't a movie that really appealed all that much to me, so it turned out that I hadn't exactly been missing out on a milestone in the Hong Kong cinema by not watching it before after 27 years of its release.
My rating of "How to Meet the Lucky Stars" lands on a four out of ten stars.