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Anna in Kungfu-Land

AKA: Anna in Kung Fu Land

Year of release: 2003

Genre: martial arts/comedy

Director: Raymond Yip

Action director: Stephen Tung

Stars: Miriam Yeung, Ekin Cheng, Wong Yau-Nam, Denise Ho, Hui Siu-Hung, Yasuaki Kurata, Charles Ingram, Chloe Chiu, Lo Meng, Tats Lau, Cheung Tat-Ming, Lee Lik-Chee, Cha Yuen-Yee, Maggie Lau

Rated IIA for mild violence and language

Version reviewed: Universe VCD


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I must preface this review by saying that I am not a fan of Miriam Yeung. I've only seen a few films with her, but personally, I find her annoying, and I'm puzzled as to her current "queen of the HK box office" status. So take the following review with that in mind. Once again, I'm risking my mental well-being and expecting an onslaught of angry fanboy e-mails here, but I really just needed to get that off of my chest. Anyway, on to the review.

Anna in Kungfu-Land stars Ekin Cheng as an ad executive who comes up with an idea to promote a new health drink by holding a martial arts tournament. The usual motley crew (including three child monks and the mandatory evil American) show up. Ekin falls for one of the competitors (Miriam), but he already has a girlfriend (Denise Ho). The "bad boy" Ekin tries juggling both women for a while, but after the secret comes out, Miriam wants to withdraw from the competition.

The plot is your standard throwaway romantic comedy fare, but I didn't find much to laugh at here. Even though I am generally an uncaring man with little tolernace in films for things other than boobs, booze and blood, I actually wanted, for some putrid, far down, "call ex-girlfriends at six in the morning" reason to like Ekin and Miriam. The movie just couldn't deliver on even that most simple of requests.

Anna in Kung-fu Land's main problem (besides having a very stupid title) is that I didn't feel any sympathy for any of the main characters. Ekin just came off as smarmy and Miriam seemed so nutty and high-strung -- one wonders why someone would be so attracted to her in the first place. It doesn't help matters that the jokes used are just plain tired and worn-out. One particular "gem" -- which is dragged out way too long -- has Ekin trying to fool Denise into thinking that his brother (Wong Yau-Nam) is actually the one going out with Miriam. Wah ha ha. That's some hilarity right there, kids.

You might think that the action scenes would save the day, but sadly that isn't the case here. Stephen Tung's talents are totally wasted with "fights" that are way too short and much too heavily dependent on CGI to be exciting. I know Miriam isn't supposed to be Michelle Yeoh or anything, but I had a very hard time taking her or any of the other contestants -- much less the movie as a whole -- seriously. As such, I can only give Anna in Kungfu-Land a very mild recommendation.

RATING: 5


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