Lockdown and New Year have something in common. They both bring family members closer (in any sense) and allow them – or force them – to share joys and pains. “Chilli Laugh Story” is the debut feature of young director Coba Cheng, who plays on this convenient communality, and sets this classic Lunar New Year comedy based on his own similar experience, in the Hong Kong community during the lockdown. Because of those same featured restrictions, the film couldn't be released in cinemas for the New Year, but it is finally out now and also due to UK theatres these days.
The house-bound Cheung family is composed by proud dad Alan (Ronald Cheng), mum Rita (Gigi Leung) eternally worrying and dreaming of owning a flat in Hong Kong one day, and son Coba (Edan Lui) who struggles to work from home, disturbed all day by dad's television and the constant chopping noise coming from the kitchen. Their rented flat is small and crammed and the forced cohabitation is not easy; Coba must find a way to get his parents off his neck to preserve his mental sanity. And here comes the great idea! After one more praise from his friends to Rita's legendary chilli sauce (she is from Chiuchow, the hot pot centre of China!) Coba conjures up a brilliant plan to turn the periodical home-production of the sauce into a proper online business. That will get the parents well busy and out of his way! Or maybe not …
After an enthusiastic start, ignited by Coba's pitch of an easy earning, the first teething problems appear, creating tensions between Alan and Rita and reflecting on Coba. However, obstacles are overcome, thanks also to the occasional external advice provided by Auntie Molly (Sandra Ng), Alan's eccentric sister, and the bank account starts fattening up with the increasing stream of earnings. Until a big corporation sets eyes on the successful sauce and offers Coba a partnership.
In the best of Lunar New Year's traditions, “Chilli Laugh Story” delivers what the title anticipates; it is a comedy about the capers of a family around a fiery and addictive chilli sauce. Moreover, it is also about familiar dynamics and connections being tested by extreme situations of stress and challenging events. Here COVID-19 lockdown is the device that brings the characters out of their comfort zone and push them to find alternatives to the disrupted routine and accept together whatever good or bad will come out of it.
The film doesn't openly ruminate about the current, increasingly unstable relation between Hong Kong and the Mainland (and New Year's Celebrations wouldn't be the appropriate time) but instead it finds an indirect way to do it; as expected from a New Year film, it is an ode to the typical characteristics that made Hongkongers so special and proud; being practical, hardworking and above all, being able to bounce back and start again in the face of adversities. In fact, it celebrates the Hong Kong dream of being successful in a global city.
The style of the film and its photography (by Wai Lun Koo and Jason Kwan) is bright and colourful, but naturalistic enough to allow the comedy to speak for itself and create a comfortable and relatable ambiance. The main actors are seasoned professionals and at ease in this very Hongkonger comedy. Sandra Ng's presence is sporadic and sometimes feels not completely necessary to the story, but her silliness and huge charm are, without a doubt, necessary to round up the comedy. To complete the festive spirit, there is the usual parade of small cameos and special appearances, Louis Koo, Kenny Wong (both very funny) and boy band Error, to name few.
A touch of social commentary cannot be missed in a Hong Kong comedy. Here we can find it in the recurrent hints to the impossible cost of properties and, sadly, in the character of Auntie Wendy's son who decides to migrate with the family to UK, hoping to give a chance of better life and education to his small daughter. I suspect the latter being a very “of-the-moment” critique.
However, “Chilli Laugh Story” manages to stay light and easy, and although it missed its original time spot due to the lockdown, it is still a timeless chilli+laugh story to be enjoyed at any time of the year.
