A Smiling Ghost Story (1999)

This was supposed to be a supernatural romantic comedy. It failed on all three counts. The only thing it was good for was a cure for your insomnia.

The writers reimagined present day hell as a space-agey Spirit World. Sadly, this place was kind of dead, in more than one way. It never felt real or convincing as a world parallel to our own. Everything about it was willy-nilly. Rules were set, broken, ignored, rewritten to drag out a plot that went absolutely nowhere.

The show was funny, if your idea of funny was watching a bunch of people scream and shove each other around. There was a lot of that, ad nauseam. Jerry Lamb, as the guardian spirit Siu Bo, managed to squeeze in a few zingers. I got some chuckles, but mostly yawned my way through the episodes.

Roger Kwok and Maggie Cheung were excellent actors, separately. As a couple they never really clicked. They went from boring to downright annoying and selfish by the end of the story. Poor Siu Bo had to risk his neck whenever these two flouted the rules of the Spirit World in the name of “love.” In the end, Siu Bo sacrificed to himself to turn back time, so Maggie’s Ka Yi didn’t have to have to die in the first place and can be together with Roger’s Dak Ming. Let’s be clear about what that meant: everything after episode 1 never happened. All the storylines and character growth were wiped clean. Just because the writers couldn't think of a better way to give the main couple a happy ending. I really couldn't care less if they get together.

The only decent thing about this series was the Nick Cheung-Monica Chan pairing. Neither were likeable at first and their bickering was more tedious than funny. Then sparks started to fly and their love made them better people. But none of that mattered, because every good moment they have together was erased from existence thanks to this cop out of an ending.

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