Siu Laaht
Yeah, yeah, there are toilet jokes but the Covid-delayed ‘Chilli Laugh Story’ has more on its mind than farts.
Chilli Laugh Story
Director: Coba Cheng Tsun-hin • Writers: Coba Cheng Tsun-hin, Matt Chow Hoi-kwong
Starring: Ronald Cheng Chung-kei, Gigi Leung Wing-kei, Edan Lui Cheuk-on, Sandra Ng Kwun-yu
Hong Kong • 1hr 32mins
Opens Hong Kong July 14 • IIA
Grade: B
At this point everyone knows what to expect from a Hong Kong Lunar New Year movie. Some fart jokes, some poop jokes (admittedly appropriate this time around considering the star is chilli sauce), a ton of wordplay and an affirmation of the value, importance and eternity of family. It is arguably a more significant holiday than Christmas is in the West, unless you’re talking about people who believe December 25 is Jesus born day. So when ’rona went wild and put a crimp in LNY releases this past February, first-time filmmaker Coba Cheng Tsun-hin’s Chilli Laugh Story | 闔家辣 found itself the first ever LNY comedy to open during the traditionally franchise-driven summertime. Hey, there’s something to be said for counter-programming, and let’s face it. The last three (we’re past the halfway mark of 2022 so I’m rounding up) years have been grim ones in Hong Kong, four if you go back to protest-laden 2019, and if anyone could use a laugh it’s Hongkongers. And if you “get it” so much the better. Cheng and veteran co-writer/actor Matt Chow Hoi-kwong (Dog Bite Dog, Missbehavior) most definitely “get it.”
At least they’re not making sourdough
Arguably among the strongest “COVID films” to come down the pipe from anywhere (Locked Down anyone? Songbird? Hard pass), CLS revolves around an average Hong Kong family, housebound by social distancing restrictions and climbing the walls from sheer boredom. The action starts in July, 2020, the first Summer of our Discontent, with aimless, oafish blabbermouth Alan (Ronald Cheng Chung-kei) watching from the sidelines as his wife, Rita (Gigi Leung Wing-kei, and I got to get me some of that Fancl House shit ’coz she’s looking fabulous) and son Coba (Mirror’s Edan Lui Cheuk-on in his film debut, a little mannered but it works here) make a work-from-home chilli sauce project turn into a runaway success. Rita’s homemade condiment is an old family recipe and it’s delicious. Everyone’s at home. Restaurants are closed or in limited service. And Hongkongers want their chilli sauce. Meanwhile, Alan’s sister Wendy (Sandra Ng Kwun-yu) is feeling isolated and lonely, particularly with her son Bon (Tony Wu Tsz-tung) preoccupied with his own family, and her one social outlet – a dance group (titter titter) – shut down. Eventually, a slick, co-working space renting, yogababbling venture capitalist, Arnold (Carl Ng), gets wind of the sauce and offers to make it a global, artisanal sensation. Chilli Laugh Story is three tight acts; three 25-minute blocks that cleave closely to the LNY formula. You know what to expect.
Wait…is that sourdough?
Though some of those expectations include sappy, wholesome bonding, Cheng and Chow’s script has some bite to it, and there are more than a few sequences that will raise the eyebrows and inspire a “How the hell…?” But the film’s sap is also flavoured with a shot of melancholy and poignancy that’s not usually so pronounced in the sub-genre. The privileged dance group that infuriated us all is referenced, but Cheng and Chow make subtle comments about the insatiable thirst for home ownership in a city lacking pension security, the recent brain-drain and emigration spike, class divisions no one will acknowledge (Coba’s a working-class kid at a distinct disadvantage to his pals), the con of modern capitalism and the inherently altered landscape of post-protest Hong Kong. It’s a lot for a fluffy comedy, which on its own is difficult to translate, and it’s even harder when the original language is one ripe for puns and wordplay. Needless to say, the better your Cantonese is, the funnier Chilli Laugh Story will be (though the producers/translators/sub-titlers do their damnedest to explain). But anyone who’s lived in the Fragrant Harbour for the last few years will find something that speaks to them. It’s not fancy or innovative with its filmmaking, it doesn’t try to re-invent the wheel, but it does spice things up (see what I did there?).
If you go, make sure to stick around for the stingers and high profile cameos mid- and post-credits. There’s enough of them to rival Marvel. And fair warning: Anyone with a mobile phone in Hong Kong could be triggered by the lunatic honk we all talked about for a week this past winter. Shudder. — DEK