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From Beijing with Love

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From Beijing with Love
Hong Kong film poster
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese國產凌凌漆
Transcriptions
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutpinggwok3 caan2 ling4 ling4 cat1
Directed by
Written by
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography
  • Lee Kin-keung
  • Tom Lau
Edited byMa Chung-yiu
Music byWilliam Hu
Production
company
Distributed byGolden Harvest
Release date
  • 14 September 1994 (1994-09-14)
Running time
83 minutes
CountryHong Kong
LanguageCantonese
Box officeHK$37,523,850.00

From Beijing With Love (Chinese: 國產凌凌漆) is a 1994 Hong Kong spy comedy film directed by Stephen Chow and Lee Lik-chi. The film is a very direct spoof of the James Bond films.

Synopsis

Golden Gun steals the cranium of China's only dinosaur fossil. Chow, starring as a hawker-secret-agent 007, is sent to Hong Kong by a high-ranking government official to recapture the cranium. When he arrives in Hong Kong, he meets Lee Heung-kam (Anita Yuen), who proposes to help him in his endeavour. However, Heung-kam turns out to be a subordinate of Golden Gun. Golden Gun is in actuality the government official who directs 007 to find the cranium.

Golden Gun instructs Heung-kam to send 007 on a false lead and tells him that the cranium may have been stolen by a smuggler. 007, with the help of Heung-kam, sneaks into a cocktail party held by the smuggler. Before he enters, he tells Heung-kam that he will fetch her some white roses. Heung-kam tells 007 to find evidence that the smuggler stole the cranium; meanwhile, Heung-kam hides in a tree, planning to snipe 007 from afar. The party is interrupted by a mysterious man (modelled after Jaws from James Bond) and a mysterious woman who are out to kill 007. Taking this opportunity, Heung-kam shoots 007 several times, including once in the leg with 007 thinking another assassin has shot him. 007 (who is wearing a bulletproof vest but not bulletproof trousers) escapes, grabbing three white roses on the way out. Heung-kam is touched by this gesture and saves his life. She decides to defect from Golden Gun. Together, the two destroy the organisation that is behind the theft of the cranium. 007 eventually wins the hand of Heung-kam and is rewarded with a meat cleaver emblazoned with the calligraphy of Deng Xiaoping.

Cast

  • Stephen Chow as Ling-ling-chat (Homophonic pun of '007' in Cantonese)
  • Anita Yuen as Lee Heung-kam
  • Law Kar-ying as Tat Man-sai (another Homophonic pun of Leonardo da Vinci, transliterated in Cantonese)
  • Pauline Chan as mystery woman
  • Lee Lik-chi as man about to be executed/martial arts master
  • Wong Yat-fei as man about to be executed
  • Yu Rongguang as Chinese agent killed by Golden Gun
  • Lee Kin-yan as Regent Motel's manager
  • Yip Chun as Deputy Commander Chan
  • Leung Hak-shun as Lai Yau-wai
  • Spencer Leung as man about to be executed
  • Johnny Dang Siu-Juen as man about to be executed
  • Raymond Tsang as man from Hunan
  • Joe Cheng Cho as Metal Death Killer (clearly based on Jaws from Moonraker)
  • Indra Leech as guard
  • Wong Kam-kong as Golden Gun, commander of the former Guangzhou Military Region
  • Jerry Ku as firing squad commander
  • Chow Yee-Fan as bald waiter
  • Quinton Wong Liu-Che as photographer
  • Wong Kar-Leung as soldier
  • So Wai-Nam as soldier
  • Tang Tai-Wo as soldier
  • Lam Kwok-Kit as soldier
  • Chung Wing as soldier
  • Wong Shiu-Keung as hotel clerk
  • Lo Gwok-Wai as firing squad soldier

Sources:[1][2][3]

References to other films

DVD cover.
  • The name of the film in Chinese means "the domestically-produced 007".
  • The scene where Stephen Chow drinks a dry martini is a reference to a scene from Chungking Express in which Tony Leung Chiu Wai drinks coffee.
  • The scene where Stephen Chow meets Anita Yuen wearing a green blouse in the park feeding dogs is a direct reference to a scene in the film C'est la vie, mon chéri, also featuring Anita Yuen.
  • The name of the "ultimate weapon" invented by Tat Man-sai, 攞你命3000 (Lifetaker 3000), is also the name of a Hong Kong, low-budget blue movie.
  • The scene where the camera pans slowly around a room of various James Bond posters to focus on Stephen Chow combing his hair and admiring himself in the mirror is a parody of the last scene of Days of Being Wild, in which Tony Leung prepares to go out. The music used is the same.
  • The Universe Laser DVD cover (pictured on right) of the movie parodies that of the 1987 James Bond movie The Living Daylights.
  • The Golden Gun's signature weapon is a spoof of the golden gun used in the James Bond novel The Man with the Golden Gun. Unlike the one from the James Bond series, this one shoots out extremely powerful explosive bullets instead of a one-hit fatal fragmentation bullet.

Music

The song Stephen Chow sang while playing the piano is 李香蘭 (Lǐxiānglán; the chinese name of Yoshiko Yamaguchi) by Jacky Cheung, a Chinese-language adaptation of the 1989 Japanese song "Ikanaide" (行かないで) by Kōji Tamaki.

Box office and reception

The film grossed HK$37,523,850 in Hong Kong and has garnered positive reviews in Taiwan as well. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 50%, based on 6 reviews.[4]

Award nominations

Year Award Category Nominee Result
1995 14th Hong Kong Film Awards Best Actor Stephen Chow Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Law Kar-ying Nominated

References

  1. ^ "From Beiling With Love (1994)". hkmdb. Retrieved 17 June 2016
  2. ^ "From Beiling With Love (1994)". Hong Kong Cinemagic. Retrieved 17th June 2016
  3. ^ "From Beijing with Love (1994)". chinesemov.com. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
  4. ^ "From Beijing With Love". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
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