Johnnie To and his frequent collaborator Ka-Fai Wai (Running on Karma, Mad Detective) send up the medical industry and hospitals in particular in a rather nasty black comedy on how its cheaper for a hospital not to help anyone. When an old man is brought into the hospital after being struck by lightning, no one will help him until they find out he's the guy paying the bills. Disgusted the old man decides to let the one person who cared for him to reform the hospital and with the help of two other doctors who care they try to help people. Mean while the highest management tries very hard to thwart their plans because it cuts into their profits.For much of the first half this is a very funny, very biting satire of the battle between greed and caring. It's funny in all the wrong ways as the supposed helpful hospital staff goes out of their way not to help anyone ever. They also go out of their way to thwart the efforts of the three crusading doctors. The mayhem that ensues is the sort of thing that only a truly cynical satirist would come up with. Its wonderful. The problem is that as the film goes on the film kind of develops a heart and finds a direction that doesn't work as well as the earlier part of the film. Certainly the large scale car crash set piece in the second half kind of derails the film. Its well done but doesn't seem to belong in the film. The film remains watchable, and had the opening 40 minutes not been so funny the film would have been good across the board with no sense of let down. Actually the film trails off into oddness after the crash ending with a denouncement that made me go WTF even as it amused me. I have a feeling that the directors had half a movie and some points they wanted to make, but no way of getting off the stage (or filling the second act slot). Still the film is worth seeing, especially for those who have a black sense of humor and a cynical view of the medical profession.

Ekin Cheng in skin tight jeans and sparkly tight sleeveless top. Alternated with mechanic overals and hospital scrubs. What more do you need?This film prooves that Ekin can do far more than the young and dangerous triad boss or fantasy swords master. He has alot of variety in his acting, making him not just a pretty face. Jordan Chan and him make an admirable pairing.Weird black comedy with slapstick horror, but that's just chinese humour for you. The ending...I was in shock disbelief untill the 'twist'...the twist just made it perfect!Any Ekin Cheng or Jordan Chan fans' must have.

This is another quality production from Milkyway Images, directed by Johnny To.Normaly it's difficult to apreciate comedy in Hong Kong movies but this time they managed to pull it of! The story is about three young doctors who try to fight the burocratic system that causes chaos in the hospital.The movie is fast paced with lot's of weird situations that reminded me a lot of Monthy Pyton.So if you're into this kind of weird black humor this one is for you.And watch out for the surprise ending....

It looks like 2000 isn't turning out to be the year for Johnny To and Milky Way. Following the debacle that is "Needing You...," the company brings us the strange hospital farce, "Help!!!" Again, like "Needing..." it is admirable that To & Wai Ka Fai have elected to tackle another genre. This one is slightly more successful, but it's general premise never quite takes shape amidst a lot of chaotic elements. Ekin Cheng, Jordan Chan, and Cecilia Cheung star as a group of determined doctors who work at a hospital where the employees slack off and do nothing to help their patients. This, of course, leads up to some interesting slapstick, incl. a great sequence where a deceased patient's ghost reappears to haunt the physicians. A parody of the opening title sequence of "ER" is also quite successful as well as a 70's disaster movie climax with an overturned bus & a person caught between bamboo sticks (reminiscent of a certain scene in Spielberg's "The Lost World"). Unfortunately, that's about all that really works here and the game cast is left stranded with a couple of disconnected plot threads. Will Johnny To eventually return to the gangster/cop dramas that are his forte? Stay tuned.