Don't listen to the negative reviews

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This is a must watch for all Stephen Chow fans and I highly recommend this for everyone that loves random comedy. The characters were compelling, the story was surprisingly not so predictable like thought from the beginning and the dialogues were well crafted. I really enjoyed this movie because it was very entertaining and there were so many new ways of making me laugh which was great.The movie is about a noble scholar who is not pleased with his gambling wives, because they play majhong all day. Stephen Chow's character in this movie can paint, sing and write poems. Then later he and his scholar friends sees this girl whose beauty outshines all other girls near her and then the Scholars try to disguise themselves just to get near her in weird but funny ways. The girl comes from a rival family which hates his family. So he tries to find a way inside to approach her without being noticed. But there is much more than just romance and comedy, so I highly recommend this hilarious movie to everyone. The movie wasn't as slow as I thought. Stephen Chow is just pure awesome in his genius way of making his audience laugh out loud.

Tangbohu was a very famous artist in ming Dynasty of China, but in Chow's film, (I said Chow's, not only for his acting as the hero but also for his affection in the film, because he usually took the role of director as his) his image was greatly changed. but the changes were not done random. Chow cast his feeling of his early life in it. Chow is a clever actor, but when he was young, everybody, especially his boss thought he was just anybody else. he felt disappointed and lonely, because no one amid his talent. so in the film this feeling was expressed through the role. though it is a very good comedy which makes you laugh through out the film, you can still get some complex feeling of life. Chow showed his excellent acting talent in the film, and the other supporting roles were also very good, such as Peipei Cheng, James Wong etc. if you can speak Cantonese, you can get more interest from it, because it contained a lot of vivid and interesting oral language in Cantonese.

To call Stephen Chow the Jim Carrey of Asia, would be an understatement. His shows never fail to make me laugh, especially because of the means he use to try and get the girl he likes.Tang Bohu, one of the 4 great scholars, is the envy of many men. He has 8 beautiful wives, he has talent, but unknown to others, he does not have happiness, because his wives do not understand him.One day, he meets Qiuxiang (played by Gong Li), a maid to Madam Wah (who unknown to him, is actually his father's ex-girlfriend; well-played by Cheng Pei Pei), and is so smitten by her. He disguises himself as Wah An, an orphan from a rural village and comes out with a story that his family was killed by Tang Bohu, so that he can enter the house.Qiuxiang is in love with Tang Bohu's poetry and hopes to meet the man himself, not knowing that the man himself, is in the same house as her.Gong Li looks beautiful as ever in her role as Qiuxiang. Stephen Chow makes me laugh with his witty remarks during the poetry competitions as the Wah household faces off with King Ning. Add the comedic talent of Yuen King-Tan who plays the very horny Shek Lau, Pak-cheung Chan, who plays the rather unreliable friend, Chuck Chi-Shan, and you are pretty much guaranteed comedy at its best! Will Bohu get Qiuxiang? Will the Wah household defeat King Ning's man, Evil Scholar? Will Bohu restore honor to his father's weapon, the steel spear? Watch and find out?

The previous review is quite unfair. This movie can only be understood and hence enjoyed by Cantonese (not even by other Chinese). I laughed all the way. You will, if you can enjoy this kind of lower intelligent jokes (same level as Jim Carrey's). It has so many local jokes that I missed some since I left Hong Kong for a long time. I can feel they're funnier if I stayed in HK long enough. The performance is great for Chow. It is not a good role for Gong Li. It is a comedy rather than the serious roles she is usually in. Unlike some stars such as Chow Yun Fat, she is only good at certain roles. The song at the end is great and I believe it was copied from another movie with a similar name, which is a serious version of this movie.