CinemaSerf

Right, well what to make of this? The young wastrel "Alan" (Kai Ko Chen-tung) finds himself in an underworld with some administration and population issues. Basically, it is overcrowded! No way has he enough brownie points to be given a second chance up top (except as a snail) so he teams up with "Pinky" (Gingle Wang Ching) and sets off on his love god training course. Only if they can unite other couples with the magical red string that emanates from their fingertips, will they be able to reincarnate. I quite liked the premiss, and the two leads have quite an engaging banter as they try to put aside their obvious dislike for each other at the start, and to focus on their enjoyably entertaining tasks. Sadly, though, auteur Giddens Ko indulges himself (and his book) too much. The film is far too long and the plot vacillates from cheerfully engaging to just plain silly all too readily. The humour is plentiful, but basic with very little subtlety and the "Matter of Life and Death" style storyline really does start to wear thin. It is a decent production, and towards the end there is chemistry to be seen on screen, buy sadly for me, the quirkiness at the outset dried up and the rather bizarre sub-plot with Umin Boya's frenzied demon just didn't seem to fit with the prevailing romantic comedy of the theme at all comfortably. I didn't hate it, at times it is good fun - just not often enough, though.