Yes, dear reader, I know what you might be thinking. It's a Wong Jing movie called Love is a Many Stupid Thing, so you should never order the DVD, and if you already have, it should be promptly burned in a pit of lava as to spare any of your future offspring from being subjected to a cinematic massacre. But, hey, even putting aside the fact that your friendly neighborhood is the internet's biggest (and some would say only) supporter of Wong Jing, this is actually a very funny comedy that's definitely worth checking out.

Pulling a dog-eared and wine-stained page from his own well-worn playbook, Wong here riffs (well, okay, rips off) many of the elements from Infernal Affairs, to the point of casting several actors from that series (such as Eric Tsang and Shawn Yu) to basically play comedic versions of themselves from that runaway hit trilogy. However, unlike many of Wong's takes on the current flavor of the month in Hong Kong cinema, the parody here seems to be much more focused, and thus that much more successful.

At times, the comedic barbs become almost a bit too personal, as with the ending coda which shows the script of Infernal Affairs (a series that was helmed by Andrew Lau, a former protege of Wong) as something that was literally thrown away -- a sort of insult which becomes more biting once one realizes that Wong has long been criticized for his "flying paper" style of screenwriting. However, Wong never lets his personal feelings interfere too much with Love is a Many Stupid Thing's intended aim of making the audience laugh.

The film has a wonderfully loose and free style that leads the audience into thinking they know the punchline to the jokes and then manages to pull a 180, generating true laughs, rather than stifled chuckles. Like many Hong Kong comedies, the jokes aren't going to fully work on a western audience, but Wong's batting average here is on Barry Bonds level. Wong does employ his own version of cinematic steroids by going to the well a few too many times, but, ultimately, one can forgive a few duds if the overall product actually creates genuine belly laughs versus disgruntled groans.

RATING: 7