original Hong Kong/Chinese title XING JI DUN TAI
[Interstellar Odessey]
director: Cheung Kwok-Ming (as Alfred Cheung)
starring: Cherrie Cheung · James Yi Lui · David Lo ·
Alfred Cheung · Tin Nam Tam · Eric Berman
Here's
a rare madcap comedy, stylistically similar to THE
BIG DEAL. In that one, everybody was trying to get a glimpse of
Yukari Oshima's inflating breasts; while, here, Cherrie Cheung's wardrobe
malfunction causes a car pile-up and abduction from a flying saucer. The
story deals with a buffet of ideas [some much better than others] from
parodies of Star Wars and Close Encounters of the
Third Kind to Doctor Jekyll gags to cross-dressing/trans
humor. There's a Cherry-Cheung-tied-to-the railroad-tracks sequence, bumbling
cops and gangsters, a press conference [with a very animated Tsui Hark
hamming it up for the camera], plenty of film reference shtick and sexual
assault on a UFO. Plus some clever (but jarring) musical/dance numbers.
Whew! This could easily be dismissed as a bad movie, but the problem is...
it's a Shaw Brothers production so it looks great, the Special
Effects are admirable [reportedly, director Cheung took two years perfecting
them], some of the sequences are VERY funny [especially
the Darth Vader frenzied ending] and Cherry Cheung is knockdown gorgeous.
James Yi Lui plays
a second-rate private eye named Eden. His assistant is the gigantic, lumbering
Columbo (Tam Tin-Nam). Their business has dwindled to a dead end, little
more than a trickle of debt collecting jobs. Cherrie Cheung is Li Tien
Zhen, a ditsy young virgin engaged to wealthy Mr Kwok (David Lo), until
she is abducted by a UFO and emerges considerably less virtuous. Detective
Eden decides to help her - and earn some fame and fortune - by exposing
the aliens and their rape/probe agenda.
A
Hong Kong/Chinese film with optional ON/OFF English subtitles, (92 minutes)
widescreen in DVD format, encoded for ALL REGION, playable on any American
DVD machine.
Extras include original theatrical trailer.
SemiNudity/Sexual
Humor/Drugs/Rape/
For Mature Audience
