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Cast:
Stephen
Chow Sing Chi
Anita
Yuen
Law
Kar Ying
Pauline
Chan
Joe
Cheng Cho
Writer:
Stephen
Chow Sing Chi
Roman
Cheung
Lee
Lik Chi
Vincent
Kok
Producer:
Heung Wha Sing
Director:
Stephen
Chow Sing Chi
Lee
Lik Chi
Score:
 
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FROM
BEIJING WITH LOVE
AKA:
From China with Love
Year:
1994 Reviewer: Andrew
Saroch
Chow
Sing-Chi's in an awkward situation. In Hong Kong, he can
barely put a foot wrong, with his incessant Cantonese delivery
having the audiences rolling in the aisles. However,
non-Chinese audiences are often left cold and bemused by his
humour but he has made various films which manage to bridge
the gap between the two audiences; 'From Beijing With Love'
sits near the top of this list.
Whereas
the Austin Powers films choose (unsuccessfully in my opinion)
to parody James Bond in an almost infantile and certainly
crude way, 'From Beijing With Love' puts the laughs within a
real narrative. Indeed there's some nicely executed action
set-pieces alongside the excellent comedy of the film. Chow
takes one of his usual personas - the bumbling bumpkin with a
peculiar skill - as a mainland butcher. After a secret
operation goes wrong, this James Bond wannabe is
called out of retirement to take charge of operations. Aided
by his trusty meat cleaver and a fellow agent (Anita Yuen), he
sees to foiling the plans of the eastern version of 'The Man
With The Golden Gun', however, is his assistant hiding
something?
Chow
puts in a fine performance and is well-matched by the
always-charming Anita Yuen. The humour is sharp and often hits
the mark which therefore makes this one of his best and
certainly most accessible films.
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