PAPER MARRIAGE – Eureka Review: Classic Action And Thrills With Antiquated Comedy Romantics
Paper Marriage is the second of three feature films on Eureka Entertainment’s Triple Threat: Three Films With Sammo Hung, which arrives on Blu-Ray from December 9.
Second on the docket for Eureka Entertainment’s Triple Threat: Three Films With Sammo Hung, Alfred Cheung’s 1988 action comedy Paper Marriage has some truly remarkable qualities characteristic of any venerable Hong Kong actioner. A quick aside though, as the more brusk traits of this film are ado with just how badly this film has aged in certain aspects, even on matters of comedy writing.
To start, we meet Bo (Sammo Hung), a gambling addict living in the U.S.. Desperate for cash and after consulting with a friend whose boxing him he used to be a member of, Bo decides to marry a woman named Jade (Maggie Cheung) so she can obtain American citizenship. What follows is a breakneck romp as this odd couple meanders its way through the system, trudging through Immigration gatekeepers while dodging loansharks, and surviving one wacky science experiment after another for money.
Paper Marriage spends most of its duration watching Bo and Jade teeter through their makeshift homemaking. Bo is a conservative man recovering from a past heartbreak, and his modicum of decency at times is often outmeasured by his vociferous misogyny and skirting of responsibility. He’s not a complete scumbag, but he’s less-than-likeable at times, and that’s really only until the laughs and the slapstick roll in, or the action arrives.
Jade is in this mess at the behest of her fiancée who promised to pay Bo, only to end up disappearing and complicating matters for the young woman who now finds herself at the height of her own fish-out-of-water drama. To this, you kind of have to give it to Cheung with a character who definitely gets put through the wringer from time to time, in addition to her requisite adaptability and performance caliber as a Hong Kong artist. I was especially charmed during the film’s training montage wherein Bo’s bag work cuts right to Jade working on her mean-mugging ahead of a mud-wrestling match with a cash prize in toe.
Paper Marriage eventually conveys its preferably more admirable characteristics in its characterizations of Bo as the story truly begins taking off in the second half. Bo and Jade soon find themselves as the accidental owners of a leather bag of cash belonging to a gang of suited crooks who soon track them down, and then take Jade hostage until he trades up.
Fans of Hong Kong action will be happy to spot several other famous faces in this film, namely Hung’s wife, Joyce Mina Godenzi, and eminent Hong Kong cinema pugilists Billy Chow and Dick Wei among the cast, with Chow playing the significant other to Godenzi’s character, Bo’s ex. Wei dons all-white and a fistful as the lieutenant man-to-beat to the big bad in the film’s half-baked addendum to the initial narrative, which, needless to say, won’t be too much to handle considering Hung – backed firmly by the stylings of action directors Lam Ching-Ying and Yuen Wah – delivers the action and comedy goods that make this film bankable, in all earnestness.
The most golden moment for me was seeing Chow and Wei fight each other on screen. I feel like there should have been a little more prudence and focus on these two characters, and I reckon a better film could have made this more incumbent. Either way, Paper Marriage isn’t terrible as a film that stacks up pretty well with enough wiggle room to hold to the scrutiny that it also commands.
The film’s presentation comes with an English and Cantonese track, as well as an audio commentary by Arne Venema and Domini Ting who goes by “Dom” in the track. It’s a great discussion about the film, the cast and production along with some cool highlights about the film’s Canada setting used as the film’s makeshift American backdrop, co-star Frankie Lee’s boxing gym and Hung’s brother Lee Chi Kit, and more. Venema and Ting even make it a point to convey the film’s focus on our characters’ chaotic means of survival as a thematic bookmark in the film’s narrative, even into the science experiments and what they entail.
A seperate interview segment hosted by Frank Djeng titled “Happily Ever After” covers some more bases, with Cheung going into detail about the production of Paper Marriage. He even dishes a bit on how the fight scene was shot between Hung and Wei at Bo’s home, and a hilarious moment with Hung during the theme park finale atop a water slide. The disc also includes a classic trailer to the movie.
I’d never seen Paper Marriage until now. I caught a few of the fight scenes online in years prior so it’s awesome that this disc bundle is now making its way out this month. To this, Paper Marriage isn’t exactly Hung’s best work, but it’s viable enough to add to your collection from MVDshop.com if you’re keen.
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