OK, this isn’t so much a movie but a series of gags, some good some bad, strung together with a loose narrative. Written by Chan Hing Kar and directed by Patrick Leung, it is the team who brought you La Brassiere and its follow up Mighty Baby. Unfortunately Good Times, Bed Times is more the puerile Mighty Baby than the snappy La Brassiere. Although it builds itself as a sexy sophisticated farce, the material is quite shallow with little character development to begin with. Combined with splice and dice editing, the overall effect is quite muddy and inconsistent.
Despite the rather lameass material, the film is doing respectable business at the box office. It is also obvious that they are selling the film from the cheap ‘sexy thrills’ angle to the popstars’ fanbase. So we have titilating scenes of Louis and Sammi getting it on in bed, we have Lau Ching Wan lifting, nay swinging weights from his little ‘brother’, we have Charlene Choi playing a nympho, Sammi declaring she doesn’t need sex. Uh huh… Believe it or not, it’s still doesn’t warrant a rush to the cinema.
There are some good jokes and wonderful cameos though — I think this is the curse of recent HK movies: great cameos, average movie. Tats Lau [of 80s avant garde band Tat Ming pair] makes a simple character shine with his portrayal of Charlene Choi’s ditzy father. Sandra Ng and Tony Leung Ka Fai also make it into the film, playing a pair of rich and famous adultering lovers on a secret rendezvous in Japan. They are possibly the best thing in this film. Compared to the other couples who are supposedly in love, Tony and Sandra puts them all to shame while still keeping the whole thing tongue in cheek.
The rest of the cast are OK. Louis Koo is indeed the man with the tan. The tan seems to have gone darker, but the talent seem to have faded. Perhaps it’s the recent slew of leading man roles that hit all the romantic notes but are thin on substance. It’s easy to forget the more impressive work he has done such as the wonderful Bullets Over Summer and Sealed With A Kiss. With Sammi, he shares a positive chemistry but nothing astounding.
As for Charlene Choi hooking up with Lau Ching Wan — it is just plain creepy. She may be 21 but she looks 12 and paired with the casanova played by Lau Ching Wan, it makes you want to call up the authorities. Very disturbing!
Speaking of Lau, he is the other tanned person [without the aid of a tanning bed] that steals all the scenes he is in — look out for the hilarious “shake, shake, shake” seqeunce. I suspect the Lau Ching Wan scenes come out a lot better because, well, he is a good actor but probably he’s just hamming for what it’s worth and not taking it quite as seriously as Sammi and Louis. He certainly looks like he’s having a ball.
Well, at least he looked like he had fun making the movie.