Love on Delivery (1994)

I know that Stephen Chow is an acquired taste in the west due to the fact that his Hong Kong comedies feature very Chinese-style humour which takes some getting used to. LOVE ON DELIVERY is no exception, a farcical and furious madcap comedy about a downtrodden delivery boy who falls in love and gets involved in a wide-ranging storyline involving martial arts champions.I'm pleased to say that this is one of the better Chow comedies I've seen, up there with FROM BEIJING WITH LOVE and much better than the last one I saw, the wearying MAD MONK. It's not up with the highs of SHAOLIN SOCCER or KUNG FU HUSTLE but it never disappoints and it remains entertaining from beginning to end. The jokes come thick and fast and most hit home. I love the breadth of humour, from surrealism to out-and-out Japanese-style wackiness, pratfalls, and slapstick. Even the low brow humour, like a scene involving dog's mess, really works.Chow can be relied upon to always give everything in these performances and just watching him act makes you feel tired at how much he achieves. The action stuff here features some incredible stunt scenes and physics-defying moments and is very good. The random cameos from Jacky Cheung, Billy Chow, and Philip Chan are much appreciated and Ben Lam makes for a suitably imposing antagonist. If you love Stephen Chow, you're going to adore LOVE ON DELIVERY.

Stephen Chow is a comedic genius. Sure, Love on Delivery can at times be childish or even banal, but the overall effect is one of sheer insanity of the best kind. One of my favorite scenes is the satire of the Terminator. The characters are genuinely funny caricatures of the down on his luck loser delivery-boy, the dreamy lover girl, the penny-pinching boss, the cocky martial arts instructor, the dirty cheat out to make a quick buck, and many more.Like Shaolin Soccer, Chow manages to create a mindless romantic comedy mixed with chopsocky martial arts and it works, but expect something more like a cartoon that your typical western comedy.

Don't expect any kind of substance in this film (or in most of Chow's films). Director/producer Wong Jing has a knack for putting together ridiculously shallow but hilarious plotlines and throw them altogether like the way one tosses a salad. This film is no different. However, if you like Chow or if you like whacky comedies then you won't be disappointed; it sure has some ridiculously funny moments.

This is the funniest Hong Kong movie I've seen (though I've only seen a few dozen) -- even better than Jackie Chan's stuff. In fact, it's one of the funniest comedies of any kind that I've seen.The scene where the seemingly indestructable hero keeps popping up, fists on his hips (in a Superman pose), wearing that incredibly ridiculous Gar Fai (AKA Jim Davis' Garfield) mask, is to die for.