My Darling Genie

The story is of a construction worker who falls into a hole and finds an umbrella which by opening up and having water sprayed on it materializes the genie, played by the beautiful and sexy Cherie Chung. The worker, Cheng, becomes her master and she will do anything he wishes, except for sex. She does a few good deeds, but once it is found out that she exists, a few others, including a loanshark, try to steal the umbrella. Eventually her powers are used to win at gambling by Cheng’s girlfriend’s dad, the hapless gambler Feng. This is where the movie loses its way. It could have been a fun, sweet story about a guy who has the genie, but she is used only for monetary gain. Cheng’s girlfriend Zhu is young and very pretty, but her character is shrill and constantly fighting with him about the presence of the genie (she doesn’t believe it for most of the film, Cheng tells her she exists). This is not a children’s film, and it lacks the sweetness that Cherie Chung’s character could have been, which would have endeared me more to this film. Billed as a romantic comedy, it really isn’t. It becomes a typically frenetic Hong Kong comedy, very run of the mill for that time. Still, I’m giving it a six because Ms. Chung’s character is fun, but I felt it missed its mark in terms of being an actual romantic comedy. It’s okay, it is a fast moving film, but it should have been more of the romantic comedy it bills itself to be.