The Banquet

Spot the cameo comedy. Hong Kong loves a silly flick with an elaborate ensemble cast (especially when Lunar New Year is around the corner), for this one they even landed four different directors to do the honors. Is it a very structured, coherent, and sensible film? No. Is it a pretty amusing romp that is tirelessly energetic and dynamic? Well yes.

The Prince of Kuwait is coming to Hong Kong, and a slick realtor sees his chance to make a deal of a lifetime. The Prince is planning to sell quite a bit of land, but to prove his worth the realtor will have to convince the Prince he has a strong bond with his father. The problem is he hasn't seen his dad in years. He pretends to have cancer in order to convince his dad to move in with him.

The cast is pretty phenomenal, everybody with any kind of presence at the time of shooting seems to have been included. Their roles don't always make sense, sometimes they even get a completely unrelated throwaway scene just to make an appearance, but at least the comedy remains the film's number one priority. Not great in any way, but this was pretty light and amusing Hong Kong comedy fare.