FROM BEIJING WITH LOVE is a fun and low budget scattershot spoof of the James Bond films, Hong Kong style. It's an outing for star, writer, and director Stephen Chow, who brings his quirky eccentricity to all three roles: this is the type of film that can have cheesy romance in one scene, violent death and murder in the next, and mix it up in a plot absolutely chock full of humour from film references to slapstick to some quite surreal moments.Chow plays an ordinary butcher from the mainland who has a second life as a secret agent. When a dinosaur skull is stolen (this film came out after JURASSIC PARK) he is tasked with tracking it down, beginning a fraught relationship with female aide Anita Yuen (who is very good). The twosome face internal conflict and lots of low rent action scenes, most of which are rather funny. There's a Jaws clone and Pauline Chan as a hot femme fatale. The low budget is very apparent in the staging and occasionally in the special effects, but overall the film works very well indeed and I had something of a ball with it. Sure, it's not as polished as the bigger budgeted likes of SHAOLIN SOCCER and KUNG FU HUSTLE, but it always entertains.

I think Stephen Chow is the most genius director and actor in Hong KONG,China. The way he demonstrate something is first class in Hong Kong. After seen all 9 comments i want to say something about the "gore" and something else that make some people feel uncmofortable.Actually this film has criticism to Hongkong films through the contrast of two kinds of performance,make-up,consum and other things. You can find the different way to perform violence.The shot of the robbery in the mall has nearly no blood but only with the way criminals eat,silence and few words the horror can be felt.And the next scene is the usually way diretors used in Hongkong,two people was stabbed with knives in their body and one people was sliced off his fingers.But this scene cant be compared to the previous one with respect to convulse in the audience. There is another example.The bullet removal scene nearly don't have any detail about the wound.They haven't shot the wound since they begin to work but the pain can be still strongly felt. That is what i talk about, Stephen Chow want to say performance is the best way to impress audience.The excessive detailed scene without decent performance backfired. Watch carefully,the difference of two rhythms of conversation, ways they make up, switches of scenes can be found in the movie.

I have watched this movie on cable television re-runs several times and is always amused by the comedy. I have a high humour threshold and have to admit that 'From Bejing With Love' meets my expectations.The living room scene where Siu Kam (played by Anita Yuen) tries to shoot Ling Ling Chai (played by Stephen Chow) is extremely funny. She was greeted by a reverse shot by the gun. Ling Ling Chai heard the gunshot and turns around to explain to her that the gun shoots the opposite direction. While Ling Ling Chai is testing the gun's silencer, Siu Kam points the gun towards herself and shoots Ling Ling Chai again. To our surprise, she gets shot again. Ling Ling Chai explains that the gun's bullet alternates every shot. Looking defeated and injured, Siu Kam runs comically into the toilet with both her arms badly wounded.Another scene worth mentioning is when Ling Ling Chai enters the bathroom while Siu Kam is wrapped in a towel. Ling Ling Chai with a smoking pipe and two iron balls resting on his palm, looks cool. (In the early days of Chinese gangsterism, a stereotyped powerful boss usually rotates two iron balls on a palm.) The angry Siu Kam tells him to close the bathroom door. Ling Ling Chai closes the door but he is still inside the bathroom. Siu Kam shouts him to get out and close the door.Towards the end of the movie, Ling Ling Chai was in a party function and tries to take a glass of wine from the waiter's platter. However someone took it before he has the chance. Then Ling Ling Chai and the waiter looks at the platter, waiting for a miracle to happen. This is actually a parody of the famous Guinness beer commercial endorsed by George Lam.Made in 1994, this movie is still a classic. With several notable comical 'nonsense' scenes and the funny scene of 'extinguish cigarette butt on a hand' that was repeated in Shaolin Soccer (2001).Mao points: 9/10

To Western eyes, Stephen Chow's comedies are uneven. "Kung Fu Hustle" is clearly a masterpiece, but why is "Shaolin Soccer" considered so funny? "From Beijing with Love" is an early Chow effort that does work for both East and West, perhaps because the Bond and Star Wars scenes and pretensions that he parodies are so immediately recognizable.Westerners love violent films with massive body counts, but have a strong and somewhat contradictory aversion to the gore that would ensue in real life, so like most Asian action films, this one would require some heavy editing for Western release. The juxtaposition of death and mutilation with absurd comedy is not Hollywood's style. From Beijing with Love is definitely not for children. But there are some good laughs here for adult Bond fans with strong stomachs, especially those who remember the lamentable Roger Moore effort, "The Man with the Golden Gun." Worth watching, and the soundtrack is surprisingly good too.