Not even bad in a good way

An action-packed slog

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This stylish, vividly stunning film is about three women who couldn't be more different: Fanfan (Zhoe Xun) is an x ray technician who has "selective sclerosis", she can't touch a man. Her look reminds me of Josephine Siao, a HK actress from the 80's. The DVD blurb calls her homely. Despite the bowl haircut and big glasses, you know she's actually beautiful. As beautiful CEO Lu (Kitty Zhang)steals men left and right, seemingly unfulfilled in love. Tieling (Kwai Lun-mei) is a rock singer, the youngest of the three at 19 has a boyfriend "X", who is actually her imaginary boyfriend. How do these ladies meet? Fanfan develops pheromones by accident, and the to sexes are drawn to each other. I was reminded somewhat of "Sex And The City", a show I liked (I haven't seen the two films), but this is set in ultra modern Hong Kong and I think guys will like this film. It has some heart, goes a little crazy, and that is okay. Its not a great film and I doubt that was the goal. It does entertain, the characters are fun to watch (especially Zhoe Xun, you can barely take your eyes off her) and its a fun way to spend two hours. Don't expect profundity and I think you'll enjoy it.

This is a comedy about three women trying to find, well deal with, love, and the transformations that take place as a result. One is a scientist who ends up experimenting with pheromones, one is a young rock singer who's best friend is an imaginary version of a big rock star and the third is the head of a huge corporation that is the object of lust for every man she meets, but who herself feels nothing.This is Tsui Hark's first solo directing effort in many a year that isn't bad, actually its pretty funny and something I will recommend to friends. Imagine that. (Honestly I was a good way in to the film when my thought became "Hey this doesn't stink") Hark never the greatest of directors, his recent films like Seven Swords, Missing, and Zu Warriors were for the most parts busts. This isn't a a bust. I really liked this film a great deal. I'm guessing that Hark's success is due to the work of Jae-Young Kwak the writer/director of the original My Sassy Girl. Looking over my review for the earlier Missing I said that Hark's problem has been in his scripts, something that isn't the problem here. An added bonus is the music used. I like the choices and the songs that characters sing. (Bonus points for the DVD company subtitling the lyrics since they do move the plot at time.) A winner. Which is something I haven't been able to say about a current Hark film for a long time.

Mark it down: "All About Women" (2008) is the single most entertaining Chinese romantic comedy in existence.One might think that such a claim really doesn't say much considering the rather unexceptional output of quality rom coms from Hong Kong and Mainland China. "West Lake Moment" (2004) was probably the best up to this point, but there have been other entertaining titles such as "Good Times Bed Times" (2003), "Drink Drank Drunk" (2005), "Love Undercover" (2002), etc. Nevertheless, the Chinese are still far behind the Koreans, who have literally dominated the rom com genre during the 21st century. Enter "All About Women", which knocks out the competition in a surprisingly effortless fashion that will have professional critics dumping in their Depends. Like most great Chinese films made after the year 2000, this one is destined to be trashed up and down the block while earning an IMDb average score well below the latest fad (which just so happens to be the endless line of big-budget Chinese historical epics that ape Hollywood with poor scriptwriting, zero energy, and overblown pretentiousness). So how – exactly – does "All About Women" accomplish such a high level of entertainment? Well, it uses the following strategy.1. Kwai Lunmei plays a badass punk rocker/amateur boxer/internet novelist with an imaginary boyfriend; and 2. Zhou Xun plays an uptight doctor with selective full-body stiffness and a lifetime supply of pheromone-enhanced love potion. Absolutely brilliant! Both actresses are amongst the most charismatic in the Eastern hemisphere, and the mere idea of having BOTH in the same film is a good one. Add to this the scheme of having both actresses play over-the-top roles, and the idea becomes – that's right – absolutely brilliant! The only possible way that this faultless strategy could fail is if the script was terrible. Most unexpectedly, this movie almost feels Japanese in its restrained quirkiness and use of creative scriptwriting. Despite the high octane wackiness that's packed into two full hours, it's difficult to think of one moment that doesn't succeed. That's quite an accomplishment for a Chinese movie of this kind, and with two awesome lead actresses eating up the camera, there's enough starlet firepower to make this the single best Chinese rom com in existence. In other words, "All About Women" will garner a whole lot of bad ratings and furious reviews. Not because it's a bad film, but because it panders to moviegoers who purely and simply want to be ENTERTAINED. An unforgivable sin in these cinematic dark ages we currently live in, where most lemmings seem incapable of delineating between good popcorn entertainment and soulless garbage. How do you think "Red Cliff" (2008) earns so much acclaim? It's essentially a brainless film with subpar scriptwriting, exaggerated/forced dialogue, and lame action scenes; but its overblown reputation precedes it with such marketing force that 90% of the movie-going public decide to love it even before witnessing the opening title sequence. I tell you this, John Woo's return to Chinese film-making was enough to earn an IMDb average rating of 7.0 regardless of the essentially worthless byproduct that was actually made. In like manner, "The Warlords" was driven by coupling the testosterone of three of the most popular East Asian actors with the big-budget historical epic. This project didn't even qualify as a successful popcorn film, and it ends up winning a BEST PICTURE award. What a joke."All About Women" isn't graced with the same self-fulfilling prophecies, leaving it wholly underrated and under-appreciated. There are so many effective comedic set pieces within that it's almost beyond my understanding as to how someone could possibly hate this film. How can you not laugh at how Kwai screws up that live concert? I've never seen a scene quite like that. How can you not be entertained during that crazy wedding gown scene with Zhou? This is great stuff that arguably rises above simple brainlessness for no other reason than for it's impressive creativity that tosses lovable protagonists into dubious situations by using their character flaws and quirks in a variety of ways. Heck, the script for "All About Women" is qualitatively better than any Chinese historical epic in recent memory because it kept me engaged, amused, and on the edge of my seat for practically every minute of its running time. Perhaps most viewers confuse "quality" with "pretention", but that still didn't stop me from going online and purchasing a DVD of this film within 10 minutes of watching it.

Yes, Director Tsui has gone chick flick. Trotting down his streak of hits-and-misses, this flamboyant director never shuns from exploring new territories. The new "Mountain Zu" in 2001 was definitely a miss. "Seven Swords" in 2005 was a hit. This year's "Missing" which ventured into the realm of psychological-supernatural thriller, has not been particularly well received. "All about women" starts by looking like another miss but manages to pull everything together as it unfolds, to look quite decent in the end.Those attracted to this movie would probably have watched Sylvia Cheung's "20, 30, 40" (2004). While the similarity is obvious – both are about the stories of 3 women – there is a big difference. In "20, 30, 40" the three stories are entirely independent and the connections are extremely inconsequential. In "All about women", the stories are intertwined, first through the connecting characters but, even more importantly, through a new love potion (not the one you get from you neighbourhood witch, but something that is scientifically invented) which can almost be considered the true star of the movie. It is a study of its effect on each of the 3 women. Ultimately, it's really all about women and, more specifically, their way of looking at love.ZHOU Xun is an actress that one never grows tired of watching. In this movie, she assumes yet another new persona, 27-year-old bespectacled medical technician with a bizarre ailment: whenever touched by a man, she goes absolutely stiff, becoming something like the dummies you see in shop windows for displaying garments. KWAI Lunmei, whose sweet innocence in "Blue gate crossing" (2002) made her the dream idol of many a Taiwanese adolescent boy, is cast here out of type, playing the 19-year-old tempestuous rock singer who gives "My sassy girl" (2001) a run for her money – a good step to take for this talented young actress. Youngest of the trio is ZHANG Yuqi (she's 20), Stephen Chow's latest discovery, in "CJ 7" (2008). She plays the oldest of the 3 women, a 31-year-old CEO who, behind her looks that guarantees to set every hot-blood male in flame, is hard as a nail. She does reasonably well, and I'm all for giving opportunities to new comers.Complementing the principal cast are two men, FONG Chung-sun and FUNG Tak-lun, heartthrobs to the female audience in Hong Kong in their respective age groups. Not exactly Director Tsui's best work, this movie is a lot of fun to watch.