Reviewed by: SimonYam.com Date: 12/22/2007 Summary: Boys Are Easy Wong Jing's Workshop has produced a lot of great movies, but this isn't one of them. The wacky cartoon humor doesn't really work, and even some of the better ideas, like the Triad Olympics, are not fully realized. Reviewer Score: 3

Reviewed by: JohnR Date: 04/28/2006 Summary: Laughs Are Incessant I watched this movie again last night and decided to post a review; then I saw that two others have done so already this April! I guess the fact that this is the third review of this movie in the same month, 13 years after it was released, is further evidence that the new comedies from HK generally don't match up. I just want to add my voice to the chorus of those who love this movie. Tony Leung is fabulous; he's seems to be having as much fun making the movie as we have watching it; he's at the top of his comedic form here and the movie's worth checking out just for his performance alone. Jackie Cheung's also very good, as is Sandra Ng - though regretably she's only in at the end. Chingmy is at her cutest; Maggie doesn't have a lot to do but looks awesome. Even Brigitte comes out of drag and shows her beauty! This hilarious, screwball comedy keeps entertaining from the first frame to the last.

Reviewed by: pjshimmer Date: 04/06/2006 I absolutely love this kind of movie. This kind of wacky comedy is what used to make HK cinema distinctive. HK has been losing its fine touches lately, but the exhilariating energy produced by movies like Boys are Easy will not be forgotten. Reviewer Score: 9

Reviewed by: STSH Date: 04/04/2006 Summary: Pretty good "Boys Are Easy"... but these girls certainly aren't ! After the terrific opening fight scene (the sort of stuff for which Brigitte is justly famous), things vary from so-so to just plain cruel to very funny. The wackiness often crosses the line into cruelty. Example : ChingMy pretends to be a hooker who was raped by an elder relative, identifies her kindly uncle as that relative to her intending boyfriend (Dior Cheng), who promptly beats the crap out of him. But at other times, the violent scenes are truly funny, e.g. Brigitte Lin beating up Tony Leung before bedding him. Brigitte and Tony are the wildest, the funniest and the most watchable couple. Tony plays a similar part in the appalling Rose_Rose_I_Love_You, but is vastly more effective here, and pulls out some great comic turns - for instance, the "Bo-ling" musical number with Yuen King-Tan, and a hilarious take on Bruce Lee. In part, this movie could be subtitled "Carry On Triads", with the Triad Olympics (the starting pistol is a machine-gun !), sweet Maggie Cheung posing as Vietnam Rose and intimidating Jacky Cheung's boss, and the wildly funny and exciting final fight scene. ChingMy doesn't have much to do but look cute and sweet (but who's complaining ?), Brigitte actually shows off her gorgeous looks some of the time, and Maggie is as charming as ever. In summary : After the spectacular opening, it takes a while to warm up. The first half has many scenes when you're not sure whether to wince or chuckle. The second half is very funny, sometimes touching, and even warm and romantic in places. OVERALL : Not one of Wong Jing's masterpieces, but pretty good. Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: ewaffle Date: 05/17/2005 In the 1930’s Hollywood made some wonderful screwball comedies. These movies centered on the difficulties of a couple who, despite being completely wrong for each other wound up together when the credits rolled at the end. The characters created fantastic problems for themselves and generally made things worse while trying to solve them. Examples are “The Philadelphia Story” with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, “It Happened One Night” with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert or “The Lady Eve” with Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyk. No one will ever mistake Wong Jing for Preston Stuges, but this film seems like a throwback to some of Hollywood’s best comedies—it has the same movie DNA. In “Boys Are Easy” there are three couples involved in the mistaken identities, near misses, close calls, love at first sight, disdain at first sight, meddling parents, nosy friends and general confusion. It has enough star power to light up the night sky, with Brigette Lin, Maggie Cheung and Chingmy Lau as dutiful daughters who must find men to pose as their fiancés by their father’s birthday. They have one month to do so and set their caps, respectively for Tony Leung Ka-Fai who is the King of Gigolo Karaoke, Jackie Chueng, a goofy triad and Elkin Cheng, who is the son of a friend and, at 27, still a virgin. Lin plays Ching Siu Tung, the toughest cop in Hong Kong. She dresses in men’s suits complete with vest and tie and can out shoot, out kick and out run any bad guy who crosses her path. She decides to take the easy way out and hires a gigolo to act as her boyfriend. Simon Tse Sai, the gigolo played by Leung, is immediately smitten by her, of course and goes to insane lengths to win her hand. Maggie Cheung is Ching Siu Nam, a kindhearted social worker who falls for Wu Ying, an up and coming triad guy who wins the gold medal in the triad Olympics in the “long jump while carrying bags of heroin” event. At one point to save Wu Ying from his boss she becomes Vietnam Sue, tough triad chick complete with headband, torn fishnets and bad attitude. Chingmy Lau is the youngest daughter, Dr. Ching Siu Sze, who gets involved with Lee Ching Ko, Elkin Chang’s character. For reasons that make sense only in the context of the movie, she has to pretend to be a penniless prostitute. So...Brigette Lin is a gender bending role, Maggie Cheung as a gangsta girl and Chingmy Yau as a sexpot. Each is an obvious but still very funny comment on the roles they often play. There are too many twists and turns in the plot, too many false starts and dead ends and just too much happening to try to summarize it here. There are plenty of well done set pieces—Brigette Lin meets Tony Leung after a terrific fight scene in which the head of a band of criminals takes the gigolo as a hostage. Later, at the male bordello where Tse Sai works the ladies have their choice of movie roles to play with the men. Instead of the usual, like “Gone with the Wind”, Ching Siu Tung selects “A New Beginning” and Tse Sai shows up in full Mark Gor drag—hair slicked back, shades, toothpick, trench coat, guns in both hands. She shoots him. Ching Sui Nam attends the triad Olympics and accidentally wins an event. Ching Siu Sze borrows both a baby and a mother to make her plight seem real, but runs into trouble when the real son of the woman posing as her mother shows up. There is a twist at the end, but everyone winds up with the right partner. And of course there is the big musical number in the bowling alley.... This is a very funny movie, full of over the top performances by big stars who seem to be enjoying themselves while parodying their more “serious” roles. There are several versions of it circulating—one is missing some events in the triad Olympics, another doesn’t include the bowling alley song and dance. But any version that you rent or buy will have more than enough screwball comedy to be well worth it. This review is based on a Tse Seng Entertainment DVD. It is in Cantonese with nonremovable English and Traditional Chinese subtitles. The running time is given as “approximately 87 minutes” on the packaging but the DVD itself times out at 97 minutes 25 seconds from opening to closing credits. Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: icacutee Date: 04/18/2003 I love this movie. Classic comedy, and fun to watch over and over again.

Reviewed by: annelam Date: 08/07/2002 Summary: Classic Humour. Would you believe me if I tell you that I watched this movie for at least 10 times? Thanks to the reruns and etc. Yeah, and I was still laughing after that. I guess I can say that it's a classic, one which you won't get bored despite watching it for a couple of times. Humourous, a little slapstick but still enjoyable. Yeah... the good ol' HK movies which seem to have extinct. Star-studded but the ones that stand out are Tony Leung, Maggie Chueng and Chingmy Yau! 7.5/10 Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: azn_idol Date: 08/05/2002 Summary: Hilarious By far one of the most ridiculous movies to ever come out of HK. Its slapstick without some of the tasteless and vulgar jokes exhibited in Stephen Chow movies. Loaded with more star power than one can imagine. A light story line is one of the strong points of this movie. Only weak point? story seemed rushed at the end. Rating: 8.5/10 Reviewer Score: 8

Reviewed by: Stardust Date: 07/10/2002 Summary: A Very Cute Date Movie A really entertaining and cute movie with a great cast. The story may be a bit exaggerated (what are the chances of 3 sisters finding "the right guy" at the same time?) though. The pairings are good, but too much time is given to the Lam Ching Ha and Tony Leung pair. Overall, this is a simple date movie for some good laughs and a laid back feel. Rating: 9/10 Reviewer Score: 9

Reviewed by: ICU Date: 12/09/2000 Summary: Enjoyable movie. I had a great laugh watching this movies with my girlfriend, its very entertaining. Great profromance from all the cast, Tony Cheung makes a good Bruce Lee impression. Very funny

Reviewed by: hokazak Date: 12/09/1999 Enjoyable comedy with an great all-star cast. Richard Ng plays the father of 3 lovely daughters (Bridgette Lin, Maggie Cheung, Chingmy Yau) who fears that they will remain unmarried for too long if he doesn't do something about it, so he fakes a terminal illness in order to get them to accede to his "dying wish" that they will all bring their "boyfriends" to have dinner with him. Fortunately, all three of the daughters - very independent professional women, all! - have recently encountered an "interesting" young man who is amenable to being convinced (through various means) to play the role of "boyfriend" for an evening... All three of the daughters are great: Lin Ching Hsia is very stylishly cross-dressed in her role as an overachieving gung-ho butch cop who gets paired with a femme-ish gigolo - played hilariously by Leung Ka Fai; Maggie is the "girl-next-door" social worker who changes her image in order to win over her triad errand-boy love interest, Jacky Cheung, and becomes a super-tough riot-grrrl triad babe for a day; and Chingmy Yau is the doctor who gleefully impersonates a down-on-her-luck prostitute in order to get to know the 27 year old, goody-two-shoes virgin whom she is interested in.

Reviewed by: hkcinema Date: 12/08/1999 I don't think that there is anyone in this film that isn't famous... but the one problem in this film is that too much time is just focused on the relationship between Brigette Lin and Tony Leung (at one time anyway). So by the middle, you're left wondering what happened to the other people in the movie. Also, production seemed to really want to keep this movie under the two hour mark, so the end seemed even more rushed. On a positive note though, I do recommend this film. Tony Leung does a hilarious imitation of Bruce Lee and his film fighting style (supposedly under hypnosis) and Jimmy Lin gets abused and choked enough in this film to make it a must see. [Reviewed by Anonymous]

Reviewed by: hkcinema Date: 12/08/1999 Fun spoof of almost every major HK film genre except for FlyingPeople period pieces, which Eagle Shooting Heroes covers. Not as blatantly hilarious as Eagle Shooting Heroes, but still lots of fun. Includes such goofy stuff as Triad Youth Olympics, drama karaoke of A Better Tomorrow, etc. [Reviewed by Anonymous]

Reviewed by: spinali Date: 12/08/1999 Summary: NULL Between pratfalls, three unwed girls (Chingmy Yau, Brigitte Lin and Maggie Cheung) find grooms in order to satisfy the last wish of their supposedly dying father. Piss-poor director squanders top-flight acting talent, though Leung Ka Fai's musical number with bowling balls (to the tune of Stranger on the Shore) was amusing. As usual, Lin doesn't open her mouth during kissing scenes. I didn't open my mouth except to yawn. (2/4) [Reviewed by Steve Spinali] Reviewer Score: 5