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甜心粉絲王 (2007)
Super Fans


Reviewed by: evirei
Date: 11/14/2011

It's been a while since I gave such a high rating for a chinese comedy show. Of course the simple storyline is being made known up-front via the movie title "Super Fans".

Everyone is definately a fans of someone and I guess that is how everyone could relate to the show easily. I totally love the underline meaning of the whole show about being a fan of someone.

Best of all, for the first time... I think all the actors or actresses suited their characters as if they were tailor-made for them.

Reviewer Score: 8

Reviewed by: mrblue
Date: 07/05/2007

In Super Fans, Sammy Leung plays Sum Lee, the star of an American Idol-type show. But he's facing some stiff competition from the upcomer Yee Cheng (Cheng Ga-Wing), so one of Sum's obsessed fans, Sussie (Charlene Choi), plays a prank during a press confrence that seems to have clinched the trophy for Sum.

That is, until Sussie finds out Sum's true personality and sets out to make Yee the winner. Oh, yeah, there's also a plot line about Sussie's childhood love Shui (Leo Koo), who still holds a torch for her. Believe me, this is all as truly compelling as it sounds.

Anyway, first off, can someone please, please, PLEASE, tell me how in the holy hell Sammy Leung (I refuse to call him just "Sammy") continues to get starring roles in movies? I used to think Ekin Cheng was bad, and Edison Chen was even worse. But compared to the vortex of suckitude that is Mr. Leung, those two come off as classically-trained thespians. It seems like any movie Leung is in is destined to fail, and Super Fans doesn't break that trend.

Now, seeing as how I am not a fan of either Cantopop or TV "talent" shows, perhaps I am not in this movie's target audience. On the other hand, if director Eric Kot and screenwriter Anselm Chan were actually smart about their process, we might have gotten an actual honest-to-God entertaining movie here -- even with Lil' Sammy stinking up the proceedings.

The film-makers could have seemingly fairly easily created a picture which pokes fun at the insane tabloid-driven world of stardom in Hong Kong -- something that might cross borders and been interesting to someone other than lonely 13-year-olds. But instead, we get a long, boring, and annoying commerical for the pop stars planted in here under the guise of making an actual movie.

Super Fans represents pretty much everything that is wrong with Hong Kong films nowadays. It's so obviously obsessed with making a buck by any way possible that it's hard to consider it anything but a blatant attempt to cash in on the stars' names, much less anything close to an actual work of art.

Whether it's through music videos disguised as plot exposition, or some of the most blatant product placement ever (for Hong Kong productions, that's saying an awful lot) the film-makers apparently forgot that people like to watch movies to be entertained, not to be hammered over the head with a cheeseball message delivered by horrible acting.

I have a really hard time believing that even the most dedicated teenybopper fan of the stars here would be willing to slog through this crud, but then again, I never thought I'd be talking about Sammy Leung as a lead actor. But, honestly, even if you're a glutton for punishment and/or the world's biggest Charlene Choi fan, your time and money would much better be served elsewhere. Life's too short to waste it sitting through trash like this.

[review from www.hkfilm.net]

Reviewer Score: 3

Reviewed by: Brian Thibodeau
Date: 07/01/2007
Summary: Super phonies...

Ostensibly a film—and a good-looking one at that—about fan worship and the merry lengths to which obsessives will stoop to be nearer their idols, this obvious, toothless misfire reveals its true intentions right on the poster, which features most of the cast of pop stars screaming at some unseen performer, waving colourful signs featuring their own names! Including Benz Hui! This isn't about the darker side of fandom; if it was, it might be a deliciously cruel satire, a pop-psychological thriller or even a straight-up slapstick comedy. It might also be good. No, this is about a major Hong Kong karaoke conglomerate funding a film featuring a handful of recording artists and not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings. So, no "who's that really supposed to be?" moments as we watch asshole pop-idol-du-jour Sammy soundly trounce his closest ratings competitor, quiet, sensitive pop idol Kevin, thanks to the dirty trickery of super fan Charlene. And also no "what have I become" moments of introspection as Charlene wises up to her own self-deception. Of course not! Why would she, when she can so believably land the job of assistant to a big pop star simply by saving him from a comparitively more deranged fan, and later waltz right into another pop star's apartment and make friends over his favourite food, and finally blame her droopy-poopy helper, rural mailman Leo Ku, for his own lovesickness because he simply misread what her slavish devotion to superficial celebrities was all about? One suspects screenwriter Anselm Chan Mau-yin may have based his characters on idealized notions of celebrity/fan cultures rather than any kind of known reality. Sammy chews the scenery with abandon, Kevin is a handsome non-entity, Benz Hui makes for an awkward gay man (as Kevin's manager), director Eric Kot needlessly plays Charlene's dad as a disconnected weirdo, and Charlene runs through the same pout-mumble-stomp-grin routine she's been doing for over five years now, long past the cuteness expiry date. And what's the point of the final scene? Charlene Choi, Leo Ku, Sammy Leung and Kevin Cheng each perform one song on the soundtrack. 3.

Reviewer Score: 3