Reviewed by: dandan Date: 05/07/2009 Summary: pepsi... kung (stephen chow) is unemployed, a womaniser and is feigning madness after his brothers, liu tau (raymond chow) and fei (francis ng), play a trick on him. liu tau is married to yinsu (christine ng), but all is not going well and and the spark seems to have gone from their marriage. fei is a student, and has been for many years, he is currently dating kam (amanda lee), who is a bit nasty. meanwhile, and papa (kwan hoi-san) just wants his orchid to grow well... yep, a similar, but slightly different set up and cast to the first 'all's well...' film. and, as before (and with new year's comedies in general), it's all about misunderstandings, family quibbles, arguments, looking for love and everything working out in the end. and, it kinda works out. there's humour, silliness, a fight in a pool hall and the usual stuff, all rolled in to a pretty loose narrative. it entertained and made me chuckle, which is all one can really expect... fun enough...

Reviewed by: mrblue Date: 01/22/2008 All's Well End's Well '97 was a big success at its' time of release, taking in over HK$40 million, a huge sum for the period. But looking at it now through admittedly slightly-jaded glasses, this entry in Stephen Chow's filmography begs the question, "why?" This isn't a bad movie per se, but there were certainly better pictures around the time (a good number of them featuring Chow himself) that might benefitted from some of the attention -- and, perhaps more importantly, money -- All's Well End's Well '97 garnered. This is a Hong Kong Lunar New Year comedy done to the formula's tee, in that it has a huge cast, even more cameos, and a throwaway plot that uses lots of topical jokes to please local viewers looking for something non-offensive to soothe their hangovers with. The film concerns the Lo family, which is headed by Tau (Roy Chiao), a retired wealthy businessman who just wants to drink tea and putter around the garden, but instead must continually help out his sons. Leung (Raymond Wong) is smart in finance, but neglects his wife, Yinsu (Christine Ng). Fei (Francis Ng) is a perpetual student who falls for a bad girl named Kam (Amanda Lee) who treats him like dirt. Tau's biggest problem is his youngest son, Kung (Stephen Chow), who is a lazy mooch that spends his days playing "Street Fighter" and his nights with a series of women. In order to help their dad get Kung out of the house, Leung and Fei hatch a plan to fool Kung into thinking that he's won the lottery. The plan works, and Kung heads out to celebrate, but ends up running up a large gambling debt with a local gangster, Smartie (Simon Lui) instead. After Kung realizes that he's been tricked by his brothers, he decides to play his own trick, fakes being mentally ill, and hilarity ensues. Or so that's how All's Well End's Well '97 would like to proceed. However, there are so many characters and sub-plots flying about that it becomes hard to develop any real feelings about the proceedings. Complicated plots are kind of a given in these types of movies, but All's Well End's Well '97 seems to really lack an encompassing arc to reel in the tangents. It doesn't help that the comedy is extremely hit-or-miss and Stephen Chow comes off as a bit of an arrogant asshole. Of course, it's a given that as an English-speaker, a lot of the jokes and puns here flew over my head, but Chow's better films always seem to overcome this. Yes, there are some very funny bits (such as Chow imitating Bruce Lee, which is always guaranteed a laugh no matter what language you speak) but then you have some parts which just fall with a thud, like one scene that tries to get a bit serious about the then-pending handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China by poking fun at a couple of nouveau-riche HKers. Still, there is a certain charm to the proceedings, which makes the viewer forgive some of the shortcomings. And it was pretty fun trying to spot all of the cameos, of which there are a ton. There's even a bit of decent action thrown into the mix, via a scene directed by Chin Kar-Lok, in which the lovely Christy Chung beats the crap out of a group of thugs at a pool hall. Overall, All's Well End's Well '97 doesn't come close to the apex of Stephen Chow's output, but it's worth checking out if you're a fan of his work. [review from www.hkfilm.net] Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: danton Date: 01/21/2002 A sequel in name only. Same formula, different characters, slightly different cast. Stephen's still there, but Leslie is replaced by Francis Ng, who plays a shy bookworm. The female leads are Wu Chien Lien, Christy Chung, Amanda Lee and Gigi Lai. Once again, the family unit is in jeopardy, three brothers have romantic problems, and Stephen Chow at one point goes mad. Given the pending handover, some more overtly political messages are thrown into the plot (abandoning HK is bad! We're all Chinese! The handover is good! Defend Chinese business against foreigners!), but otherwise it's all zany fun and sheer lunacy. If you ever want to see Christy Chung making a complete and utter fool of herself (playing a drooling idiot), here's your chance (but you also get to see her beating up various triads with her kungfu prowess). This movie is a little disjointed, with a plot that's less cohesive than the original, but it still has plenty of laugh out loud moments and is well worth checking out.

Reviewed by: Inner Strength Date: 01/12/2002 Summary: 3rd time lucky Well, the first is a classic really in my mind, the second was a disapointment, and this the third is complete rubbish. Well, maybe not that far. The first was very funny, and the second was clearly trying to be as good as the first, but fell flat on its face. But this third installment gets very confusing, mainly as there is not mcuh comedy in it, and more serious. These were supposed to be Chinese new year comedies, but this is not the same. Stephen Chow returns this time, but still misses out most of the original cast. Rating: 2/5 (This rating is based on the year & genre, so don't think it's based as a comparison on new releases etc.) Reviewer Score: 4

Reviewed by: Hongkie Date: 06/09/2001 Summary: Shot using a camcorder... Well maybe not a camcorder, but remarkably close. The production values in this film are remarkably poor. What a waste of of Cherie Chung and Wu Chien-lien. Although, Cherie Chung does get to display some of her martial arts prowess, as well as a couple cute scenes as a mentally-ill girl. Wu Chien-lien does the best she can with the material she's given. Plus, it looks like she works in a HK version of a Kentucky Friend Chicken.

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy Date: 02/28/2001 Summary: Not comedy but DRAMA i watched this with Chow Sing Chi and expected comedy of course and i didn't get it because it was drama!! As a drama it was ok but little comedy which was what i was expecting so thats why this score is, what it is 5/10 Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: pablo Date: 12/09/1999 The story of three brothers, living with their father. When thetwo older brothers (businessman Raymond Wong, scholar Francis Ng) play a prank on the youngest brother (slacker Stephen Chiau), wackiness ensues. Meanwhile, Raymond's dutiful wife plays out a parody of _Bridges Of Madison County_ with Emil Chow. In the end, everyone realises true happiness is right under their nose. Stephen Chiau fans may be disappointed, as the film follows the standard Raymond Wong New Year's film formula. If you liked previous efforts (such as _It's A Wonderful Life_), you'll probably like this one. I did, if only for the star power. Features a disproportional amount of Pepsi cans.

Reviewed by: spinali Date: 12/08/1999 Summary: NULL Kung (Stephen Chow) is trying to trick his parents into thinking he's mad so he can live at home and cash in on the family's wealth; with her practiced idiocy and drooling, Christy Chung is doing the same thing, though in off-moments she's a kung-fu adept. Adding to the mess, Shinny (Wu Chien Lian) has been hired by the family's eldest son to stand in as a fake fiancee so he can marry the punkish girlfriend his parents hate. This quartet of shysters don't quite achieve their ends, and they're not particularly funny along the way (except maybe Wu Chien Lian, who pretends she's possessed by Judge Pao of the syndicated TV series). The production is loose and informal, and actually rather poorly made; as a result, only the sure-fire gags (like Chow staring down the front of Christy's jumpsuit) work. But there is a short, hilarious outtake reel at the end -- the only reason (aside from the world-class babe-age) to see this. (1.5/4) [Reviewed by Steve Spinali] Reviewer Score: 3