Hong Kong Pie (2000)

Hong Kong Pie serves up a tennis and teen romance formula, only to score foot faults with each step. Considering the plot, the main stumbling block is clear - the cast members are not very sporty, and they seem hopeless on the ball court. Not put off by this inability to film tennis action, director Hero Lip instead lets this pitiful production casually meander through coming of age affairs, sleazy intrigue, schoolboy fantasies and other diversions.

The story, at best, follows a tennis team ready to be booted out of their school unless they pick up their game and win an upcoming inter-school tournament. Ragtag team members Tin-chung, Chak and Wolf have been more concerned with the "Y2K" frivolities of PS2s, VCDs, MP3s and porno than with tennis training. Since the new prospect of bombing out of school isn't appealing, the lads head off on a training camp with girlfriends, coach and trouble in tow. Trouble, you ask? A sneaky rival school is out to distract the players from their training, wreaking havoc on relationships and leading depressed players and coach to downing booze and snorting keratine...

If that's not enough, there's more thrown in. Diana Pang Dan vaguely figures into the story as a teacher stricken with the runs. Just when you think she's going to get into a relationship with bit-parter Wayne Lai, she vanishes for the remainder of the movie. Meanwhile, one of the lads, Chak, falls for a secret admirer who has been preened for him by Wolf. The tennis coach (played by Jimmy Wong) also has some affair going on with a lady called Sexy, who suddenly shows up at a beach. And a couple of ladies playing Japanese girls occasionally propel the story and provide material for the pixelated adult images on the disc packaging.

Surprisingly, the cover art on the video release actually looks quite tasteful. But from the moment the movie commences with a sped-up sex scene insert of little apparent consequence, it's clear that good taste has been flung out the window. The plot thereafter is vague, the script awful, acting the pits and the direction uncaring. The lowest point comes in the tennis tournament climax, during which Simon Loui is the sole player on a rival school's team. And he's the team's coach too. Ranked alongside the abysmal Hong Kong Spice Gals, this is among the lowest this town has to offer its loyal cinemagoers.

Joy Sales Films and Video/Pro Film's Hong Kong Pie VCD cover

Note: This review is based solely on seeing this video release, rather than cinema viewing.

Credits:

Directed by Hero Lip
Produced by Jimbo Ng
Starring Jimmy Wong, Samuel Leung, Simon Loui, Diana Pang Dan, Wayne Lai Yiu-cheung and Elvis Tsui Kam-kong