Saturday, June 28, 2003

<A HREF="http://www.dragonsdenuk.com/reviews/flirtingscholar.htm">Flirtong Scholar</a>

Yes, 'flirtong'. Depending on what dialect you view the film in, the Stephen Chow character is Tong Pak Fu or Tang Bo Hu. As the foremost of the Four Scholars, he falls in love with Chau Heung (played by Gong Li), and schemes to win her heart, posing as a poor workman to be close to her.

This is not as much fun as God of Cookery, which had more visible slapstick and Western-accessible humor. Watching Scholar, I had the definite feeling that this was a fine example of one of Chow's many talents, puns. Much dialogue flew between the characters in a manner which was obviously intended to be funny, but the literal subtitles couldn't capture the wordplay. And lacking a deep background in Chinese culture, I missed even more. Still, it is laced with enough moments of patent physical humor that I enjoyed it, watching with my work friend Burr yesterday.

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