My Lucky Star

I had the opportunity to sit down in 2022 and watch the 2003 romantic comedy "Hang Wan Chiu Yan" (aka "My Lucky Star") for the second time. I remember watching this movie around the mid-2000s, but I honestly couldn't recall the story. So as I had the opportunity to watch it again, of course I did so.

And while "Hang Wan Chiu Yan" definitely is watchable, it was also at the same time a rather generic romantic comedy that pretty much followed the How-To-Make-A-Romantic-Comedy-For-Dummies book by the letter. So writers Vincent Kok and Patrick Kong didn't really put together anything outstanding here.

Even with an impressive cast ensemble that had Tony Chiu-Wai Leung and Miriam Chin Wah Yeung in the leading roles, and supporting roles from the likes of Ronald Cheng, Chapman To, Alex Fong and Josie Ho, then the movie was suffering and behind restrained by a mediocre storyline and script.

Sure, "Hang Wan Chiu Yan" is watchable, but it is one of those many, many, many romantic comedies that flooded the Hong Kong cinema in the early 2000s. But hey, if that is your go-to genre of movies, then by all means you should give "Hang Wan Chiu Yan" a chance.

In my honest opinion, then there are far better and more enjoyable romantic comedies from the Hong Kong cinema from that same era.

My rating of director Vincent Kok's 2003 "Hang Wan Chiu Yan" movie lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

It's all about luck-- literally. Poor Miriam Yeung (Hung)is the reigning poster child of bad luck until she enlists the aid of legendary feng shui expert to turn her life around. The master Lai Liu Po (Tony Leung Chiu Wai)agrees to help her even though he has been warned it's risky to do so. Can his feng shui break the curse set forth by his nemesis-- the evil numerologist Crab Duen (Ronald Cheng)? A surprisingly engaging foray into what can only be called "feng shui romantic comedy". Major points for originality and sheer goofiness that sustain most of this light weight piece, though it does stumble a little toward the end. Yeung and Leung Chiu Wai have an enjoyable chemistry and clearly had fun making this little oddity of a film.

A very offbeat but oddly sweet, breezy little comedy.

Honestly, come on. This movie was really cute and definitely had its own humorous moments. I definitely don't think Tony Leung made any sort of mistake in doing this film. I don't consider myself the kind of girl to ordinarily be taken in by romantic comedies, and even that aside, I think the concept of a Fung Shui expert falling for a girl cursed with bad luck is an eclectic enough concept to be worthy of some credit. The ending definitely kind of fell apart... But in contrast to similar North American releases, I contend that half the movies with a equivalent rating couldn't hold a candle to this. I find myself to be the kind of person who rarely enjoys something "simplistic", but there was really no detractor to seeing this, in fact I really enjoyed it and have *forced* others to watch it. There's nothing wrong with a movie you can watch and appreciate when you don't feel the necessity for hardcore thinking.