All's Well End's Well 2012 八星抱喜 [ Movie Review ]

The Pitch

When it comes to Chinese News Year period, the other activity beside celebrating new year at relatives and friends' house, it would probably be a trip to the cinemas for a He Sui Pian (贺岁片 Chinese New Year Movie).

In recent years, Raymond Wong and Eric Tsang had been consecutively churning out authentic He Sui Pian (贺岁片 Chinese New Year Movie) for the Chinese New Year period. This year, Raymond Wong is back with another installment of the All's Well Ends Well franchise and Eric Tsang has another installment of I love Hong Kong.  

All's Well End's Well 2012 八星抱喜 features the likes of Sandra Ng, Donnie Yen, Louis Koo, Kelly Chen, Chapman To, Lynn Hung, Yang Mi and Raymond Wong.

The interesting point would be to note that who has the better He Sui Pian and who takes in the biggest slice of the He Sui Pian Box office. Since it's impossible to gauge who is the winner in this box office until the end of the Chinese New Year period, let's just see who has the better Hei Sui Pian.



The Plot

All's Well End's Well 2012 八星抱喜 begins with an idea from a middle age lady. An idea to start a website (Bao Xi.com) that enables single woman to find single men with spare time to assist them. The rewards that the men get would be an embrace of gratitude from the woman if she is satisfied with the help rendered and willing to give that hug. The website helps to connect the following four couples with their respective stories.

Donnie Yen stars as Carl, a failed singer who has never given up on his dreams. He gets assigned to pose as the boyfriend of Chelsia (Sandra Ng) a member of now defunct two girls pop group. While her partner had found fame after the pop group disband, Chelsia became a has been. After a fallout with her abusive boyfriend, the desperate Chelsia took up Carl's offer and brought him to a dinner with Chelsia's mentor and ex partner. It turned out disastrous and Chelsia was mocked by her former partner. Could the failed duo reignite their music aspirations?

Raymond Wong stars as Richard, a successful lawyer who is a failure as a husband and dad. While researching online on how to be a better dad, he came across Bao Xi.com and decided to help Cecilia (Yang Mi) as her "cheap father". It turns out that Cecilia has a huge inheritance but her late father left a strange clause that requires her to marry before she turns 25 (which is in a week's time). The problem that Cecilia needs Richard to solve for her would be to figure out which of her three suitors are really worth marrying.

Louis Koo stars as Ken, a site foreman who offers to model for photographer Julie (Kelly Chen). The initial photos didn't turn out well as there's no connection between them. Under the advice of her photography teacher, Julie attempts to bring out Ken's masculinity by seducing him with her sensuality. Ken naively interprets that as love and started to woo Julie even with the apparent disparity in their social status.

Chapman To stars as Hugo, a romance novelist who couldn't show revealed his image to his readers as his publisher convinced him that will have adverse effect on sales. Feeling dejected, he decide to help a beautiful but blind Charmaine (Lynn Hung) in experiencing romantic feelings. The low esteem Hugo attempts to fake their romantic outings by bringing her to isolated places. In order to prove his publisher wrong, he brings Charmaine to a novelists dinner and tries to hide the fact that Charmaine is blind.



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