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Cast:
Richard
Ng
Jacky
Cheung
Joey
Wong
Cecilia
Yip
Kent
Cheng
Wu
Fung
Pat
Ha
Charlie
Chin
Eric
Tsang
Cherie
Chung
Director:
Jeff
Lau
Score:
 
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CARRY
ON HOTEL
AKA:
N/A
Year:
1988 Reviewer: Andrew
Saroch
Comedy
director Jeff Lau takes the helm for this series of loosely
related vignettes that centre on a plush Hong Kong hotel.
Naturally, as this is a comedy from the late-80s, there are
the usual assortment of familiar faces and character
performers; Richard Ng and his fellow 'Lucky Stars' cohort
Eric Tsang are thrown together with well-loved actresses Joey
Wong and Cherie Chung to create a star-filled cast.
The
series of stories opens with the visit to the hotel of a
jealous rival (Kent Cheng) who is keen to investigate the
hotel's success. After these brief introductory scenes, the
focus then reverts to the hapless viewer's of the hotel's
video surveillance system who are take an interest in the
interaction between two characters who'd prefer to remain
anonymous. Meanwhile an expert thief (Ng) is mistaken for the
hotel's rich financial backer and, while he's treated like a
king by the staff, plans to rob the contents of the main safe.
Then an unfortunate travel guide (Tsang) finds himself the
object of affection for a beautiful, yet disturbed stalker -
only to have her 'counsellor' join in the attempt to kill him.
The compilation ends with a tale of unrequited love as a
tomboy mechanic (Yip) puts aside her own feelings for her
colleague (Cheung) in order to help him chase one of the
hotel's beautiful guests.
As
the description implies, 'Carry On Hotel' combines very broad
comedy, darker mystery overtones with a closing story of
romance. Such a massively contrasting mix would take a
film-maker of Kurosawan proportions to produce a classic -
alas, Jeff Lau is not such a man. While comfortable with
keeping the proceedings moving without losing the viewer, Lau
struggles when it comes to consistency and pacing. The first
twenty minutes are particularly arduous with two very
uninvolving stories taking centre stage and hardly inspiring
the viewer - things improve with Richard Ng's introduction and
the closing two stories. The beauty of such an episodic
format, though, is that Lau can afford to have a few of the
scenes fall flat while compensating for better quality
chapters at the end.
'Carry
On Hotel' should work better than it does, but, due to
uninspired writing and direction, is merely passable
entertainment.
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