Flirting Scholar (1993) User Reviews (21)

The role Stephen Chow was born to play.

[thebeautifulones · 9/10 · 5 January 2006]

To call Stephen Chow the Jim Carrey of Asia, would be an understatement. His shows never fail to make me laugh, especially because of the means he use to try and get the girl he likes.

Tang Bohu, one of the 4 great scholars, is the envy of many men. He has 8 beautiful wives, he has talent, but unknown to others, he does not have happiness, because his wives do not understand him.

One day, he meets Qiuxiang (played by Gong Li), a maid to Madam Wah (who unknown to him, is actually his father's ex-girlfriend; well-played by Cheng Pei Pei), and is so smitten by her. He disguises himself as Wah An, an orphan from a rural village and comes out with a story that his family was killed by Tang Bohu, so that he can enter the house.

Qiuxiang is in love with Tang Bohu's poetry and hopes to meet the man himself, not knowing that the man himself, is in the same house as her.

Gong Li looks beautiful as ever in her role as Qiuxiang. Stephen Chow makes me laugh with his witty remarks during the poetry competitions as the Wah household faces off with King Ning. Add the comedic talent of Yuen King-Tan who plays the very horny Shek Lau, Pak-cheung Chan, who plays the rather unreliable friend, Chuck Chi-Shan, and you are pretty much guaranteed comedy at its best! Will Bohu get Qiuxiang? Will the Wah household defeat King Ning's man, Evil Scholar? Will Bohu restore honor to his father's weapon, the steel spear? Watch and find out?

Forget Shaolin Soccer. This is slapstick comedy at its finest.

[elephant1024 · 9/10 · 5 December 2004]

One of the funniest slapstick comedies out there, this movie rivals Royal Tramp and Tricky Brains in its comedic value. This movie absolutely requires knowledge of Chinese history, especially of the main character, Tong Bak Fu. It also requires knowledge of Hong Kong popular culture from the 50's to the 90's. Indeed, this movie references everything that is Chinese, from Tong Bak Fu's scholar friends to the Cantonese dub of Dragonball Z, and everything in between. Of course, without such complete knowledge, what is supposed to be funny is not even mildly amusing, as the comedic element in scenes are often subtle or obscure or both.

Tong Bak Fu is a malcontent scholar of great renown who has eight wives. Somehow, his wives have come to take complete control his life, and he finds himself constantly at their mercy, who do nothing but gamble with each other. His friends too, have become nothing more than an annoyance. Desiring romance, he ventures out to seek true love--and finds himself fallen in love with a servant of a wealthy household. Back in those days, servants, though often socially lower than family, were considered a part of the household and subject to the jurisdiction of the family, especially--in this case--the matriarch. Tong Bak Fu must disguise himself as a peasant and sell his services to the family in order to woo the girl and eventually marry her. With the help of a manservant, he gets in and finally learns the name of the girl--Chou Herng. That of course, is where everything goes wrong.

Stop now if you cannot identify the three places that are blatantly set up for comedy in the above narrative. Now, I don't mean that my rather apathetic introduction is funny in and of itself, but rather that at least three of the things I've described have the potential to develop into a very funny scene. If you can find all three places exhibiting the potential for comedy this movie will be absolutely hilarious. If you can find two, this movie might be pretty funny, but nothing special. If you can find one, don't expect too much. If you cannot find any, then move along--this movie isn't for you.

Would some one please put away the comment from dje2000

[garnettxd · 9/10 · 21 March 2008]

This is a great film for us,maybe also for those who can speak Chinese and know about Chinese culture. Of all the comedies I've seen,this one could be the best. If any could claim better,it would only be chow's another film,which I can't provide with an English name. This dude,dje2000,obviously knew nothing about China,and his words should not be on the first page of this film. Everybody has to find it not helpful,this could be the real silly thing. I'm saying this because IMDb Rates and page links are seen almost every movie site.This comment could kill the new comers.

replace it! replace it! replace it! with any of the others.

A Classic Stephen Chow Master Piece

[holyabdul · 10/10 · 4 January 2015]

To be honest, I am not a big fan of Stephen Chow's earlier works. Not that they were bad, but they were not as good as the classics such as God of Cookery, King of Comedy, Shaolin Soccer, and of course, this film. I found the early films with Stephen talking in a cartoonish "comedic" voice annoying.

The ones where he has more creative control tend to have him speaking in a more natural, and more deadpan voice and those films tend to carry deeper messages than just a mindless comedy. Seriously, some scenes are moving.

Now back to this movie, there's really not much to criticize here. The acting, the dialogue, the typical Stephen Chow style of humor, all fantastic. There aren't many ROFL moments, but there are endless classic funny moments that the film will make you grin from ear to ear pretty much from start to finish. And I know that I personally still quote some lines from the movie in my everyday life... :)

The one knock I do have is Gong Li, whose talents seem wasted in the film. No doubt she looks great in the film, but she's not given much to do and seems rather wooden as if she did not enjoy herself in the movie. Knowing Gong's talent, it felt strange to see her character just be a "vase" love interest and nothing more.

I guess you don't want to have anyone upstage Stephen but in that case why not cast a starlet with a less impressive resume than Gong?

However, overall, this is a great film and I highly recommend it.

Rap battle before it was cool in poem style!

[kiwing94 · 10/10 · 31 July 2014]

This is a must watch for all Stephen Chow fans and I highly recommend this for everyone that loves random comedy. The characters were compelling, the story was surprisingly not so predictable like thought from the beginning and the dialogues were well crafted. I really enjoyed this movie because it was very entertaining and there were so many new ways of making me laugh which was great.

The movie is about a noble scholar who is not pleased with his gambling wives, because they play majhong all day. Stephen Chow's character in this movie can paint, sing and write poems. Then later he and his scholar friends sees this girl whose beauty outshines all other girls near her and then the Scholars try to disguise themselves just to get near her in weird but funny ways. The girl comes from a rival family which hates his family. So he tries to find a way inside to approach her without being noticed. But there is much more than just romance and comedy, so I highly recommend this hilarious movie to everyone.

The movie wasn't as slow as I thought. Stephen Chow is just pure awesome in his genius way of making his audience laugh out loud.

Another Hilarious Stephen Chow Film

[wordmonkey · 7/10 · 12 May 2002]

"Flirting Scholar" follows Stephen Chow's long tradition of inspired looniness, and made me giggle out loud in reaction to its pure enthusiasm to entertain. His riffs on Chinese tradition are funnier when you have some context, but much of his humor is so outrageous that you'll laugh regardless, as many jokes, especially the physical comedy, are universal. While this isn't quite my favorite Chow film, it's definitely worth watching, and still a must-have item in any Chow collection.

Like many Chow films, "Flirting Scholar" takes a typically over-the-top approach to its comedy, and incorporates such elements as extremely physical slapstick, parody, kung-fu, cartoonish surrealism, and wacky references to other HK movies. To truly appreciate Chow you need to watch lots of HK cinema -- and after you have watched several of Chow's films, you will begin to pick up on running gags that appear in successive movies.

While not as masterfully executed or as narratively tight as one of his truly brilliant films, such as "God of Cookery," this film is simply so utterly crazy at times that it will nonetheless make you laugh out loud, as all of his films inevitably do.

laughing all the time

[K_C · 9/10 · 14 July 2002]

This is a typical Stephen Chow's commedy. Inside you see all the necessary elements: jokes, love, kungfu. Well, the story is not new. This is a traditional Hong Kong/Chinese story, but the reproduction in this new style has been quite successful. I must admit that this movie has given me one and a half-hour of continuous laughing. However, this is a very "Hong-Kong-ish" movie. I think only Hong Kongese can appreciate its jokes. Because of difference in culture and inability of translating exactly, non-HongKongese may find the movie stupid and uninteresting. If only Hong Kong people rated this title, I'm sure the rating would be higher.

Very funny if you can speak Cantonese!!!!

[pbtips · 9 January 2002]

The previous review is quite unfair. This movie can only be understood and hence enjoyed by Cantonese (not even by other Chinese). I laughed all the way. You will, if you can enjoy this kind of lower intelligent jokes (same level as Jim Carrey's). It has so many local jokes that I missed some since I left Hong Kong for a long time. I can feel they're funnier if I stayed in HK long enough. The performance is great for Chow. It is not a good role for Gong Li. It is a comedy rather than the serious roles she is usually in. Unlike some stars such as Chow Yun Fat, she is only good at certain roles. The song at the end is great and I believe it was copied from another movie with a similar name, which is a serious version of this movie.

Another Funny Chow Comedy

[boblipton · 7/10 · 2 November 2022]

Stephen Chow is the greatest of the Four Scholars in Ming-era China. His paintings go for 30,000 taels a pop, his poetry sells like mad, he has eight wives who spend all their time playing mah-jong, and he is thoroughly miserable. Then he spots Gong Li and falls in love. She is a servant in the household of James Wong and Pei-Pei Cheng (who is very funny), so he sells himself to the household under a fake name. He quickly rises because of his scholarship, and is overjoyed when Gong Li confesses she loves his poetry and the man who wrote them. Unfortunately, she doesn't believe Chow is that man. Also, Madame Cheng hates him, sight unseen.

There are also various subplots involving Wai Lam as King Ning, and the big fight at the end is with Chia-Hui Liu, who killed Inigo Montoya's father. I mean Chow's father.

The only star to compare with Chow is Jacky Chan. However, while Chan performs his comedy stunts using practical effects and takes that often injure him, Chow's gags verge on cartoons. Chow also plays with Chinese mythology, and while I am unclear as to which legends this movie refers to, there's no need to understand the details if you have any familiarity with your typical Kung Fu movie. The details of the silly plot take up a lot of time, but there's still plenty of gags to make the audience laugh.

My Number 1 Favorite Stephen Chow movie!

[kluanghitam · 10/10 · 17 May 2008]

One movie that makes me laugh all the way 'til the end. This movie is strictly to show how good Stephen Chow is, regardless of other actors and actresses. Seems the others were just a prop for Stephen Chow to utilize and shines unlike other movie where his most ideal comical partner Ng Man Tat (who plays the limp coach in Shaolin Soccer) would provide equal idiotic humor and balanced of his act.

This movie have the most of my favorite scene in Chinese comedy, especially Stephen Chow comedy, if you can understand his type of comedy. His slapstick is not Jim Carrey's or Charlie Chaplin's slapstick, and I don't see any other actor in the world who does slapstick like he did, making it his trademark.

Watch for these scene:

1)The whole chicken wing scene (using paint brush to apply sauce; the chicken wing song)

2)The courting scene in the monastery (the flying kick monk)

3)The who is poorer scene (having cockroach as pet)

4)The Chinese rap scene

5)The boast who got the best poison ala commercial scene

6)The scholar duel scene (air kiss; spitting blood)

and many more!! If you like Cantonese silly movie especially Stephen Chow's, this is a must have gem!

An artistic, weird simp doing the most.

[INFPBAE · 7/10 · 27 July 2022]

I was exposed to this film as a kid.

It was dubbed in my language and I found it very funny during my childhood so I re-watched it a lot.

It is one of those bizarre Chinese comedy films from the 90s.

It is basically about a popular painter who got bored of his wives and fell in lust over some girl he saw while his friends convince him that she was the most beautiful girl ever.

He desperately does the most to make her his.

A movie you can't get enough of

[y-26698 · 10/10 · 9 April 2020]

Gong li's play is very wide, from the rough peasant woman to the powerful queen without a sense of peace, chou-heung such a role can also be competent.

Almost a self-parody.

[eminkl · 6/10 · 21 November 2019]

A well-functioning comedy among all Stephen Chow's early works (not as nice as "From Beijing with Love" made in 1994). Chow plays legendary artist on the basis of a popular old Chinese story who leaves his house to seek true love. Li Gong plays the heroin (still young but already used as his inspiration in so many films by Yimou Zhang). She shows completely different charm from the other movies she's in. It's also nice to see Pei-Pei Cheng (my idol) playing such a comic role as almost a self-parody. Actions are relatively good, but there are too many issues in the movie, as Chow himself says, so it lacks the cohesion as a whole.

Gong Li will always regret this movie

[dje2000 · 2/10 · 11 August 2000]

This is a silly, silly movie. It is no surprise, of course. Much Chinese Cinema from Hong Kong is over the top, bad Jerry Lewis type shtick. Chow Yun Fat and most Hong Kong actors paid for lunch making silliness while waiting to be discovered by serious directors.

The surprising part is Gong Li. It is excruciating to watch her obvious embarrassment being on camera with fools. She does her best to look dignified while the 'famous scholar' does Rap in traditional Chinese dynasty garb.

Story? Who cares? Anyway, it concerns a famous painter in ancient china who sees and falls in love with Gong Li. Gong Li loves the work of the painter, although for story purposes, the painter becomes a poet suddenly to make props easier to manage. He disguises himself as a pauper to become a worker in her household. The logic isn't there. Don't try. Lots of people throw up pus looking white slime every few minutes while Gong Li tries to look dignified. You get the picture.

Trying to collect all the work of Gong Li may necessitate that you own this and Chinese Box, another horrible film. Just put it on the shelf. Not too close to Jou Du, please.

Rating 20 out of 10

[madbird-61243 · 10/10 · 24 February 2019]

Classic among the classics of Stephen Chow production. Almost every Chinese New Year, we rewatch his old film and laugh a lot.

Gongli did not fit the film. She is too serious, not hilarious enough. But that did not affect the comic effect, because the other 3 scholars, and the other maids are as funny as Chow.

The best of the best. A classic nonsense funny movie that will live through generation and generation.

Thanks for creating so much fond memory of my youth, Stephen Chow

excellent comedy

[Mazzeno · 14 October 2006]

Tangbohu was a very famous artist in ming Dynasty of China, but in Chow's film, (I said Chow's, not only for his acting as the hero but also for his affection in the film, because he usually took the role of director as his) his image was greatly changed. but the changes were not done random. Chow cast his feeling of his early life in it. Chow is a clever actor, but when he was young, everybody, especially his boss thought he was just anybody else. he felt disappointed and lonely, because no one amid his talent. so in the film this feeling was expressed through the role. though it is a very good comedy which makes you laugh through out the film, you can still get some complex feeling of life. Chow showed his excellent acting talent in the film, and the other supporting roles were also very good, such as Peipei Cheng, James Wong etc. if you can speak Cantonese, you can get more interest from it, because it contained a lot of vivid and interesting oral language in Cantonese.

Nonsense of the highest quality

[johannesaquila · 8/10 · 24 October 2021]

Technically this film is a romantic comedy, inspired by a well known (though likely invented) story from the life of Táng Yín (1470-1524), also known as Tang Bohu or Tong Pak Foo. According to Wikipedia, the real Tong Pak Foo "was a Chinese painter, calligrapher, and poet of the Ming dynasty period whose life story has become a part of popular lore".

At the beginning of the film, Tong Pak Foo starts out unhappily married to 8 wives. In the end, after going to extraordinary lengths to pursue a slave girl, I guess he ends up with 9 wives.

Even in a Hong Kong movie, Tong Pak Foo might have been, like Kung Fu Panda, the son of a restaurant owner. But the film plays it safe and goes the traditional route of making him one in a line of Kung Fu artists.

Tong Pak Foo has inherited one dangerous enemy from each parent. The Evil Scholar killed Tong Pak Foo's father and wouldn't mind finishing his job by killing Tong Pak Foo himself, if and when a convenient opportunity happens to present itself. And there is a spurned lover who is probably still jealous and extends her hate of Tong Pak Foo's mother to Tong Pak Foo himself.

So much for the basis of the overall plot. But it doesn't really matter because the plot's only purpose here is to provide a sense of overall direction to a series of jokes and funny episodes. Everything is subservient to the humor. At any time there is a chance that in the next second something completely unexpected happens, possibly moving the film in a new direction, possibly being forgotten a second later.

The film has the familiar Hong Kong feel of British humor transferred into a Chinese context, which I love in Jackie Chan films. Only here it's a bit cruder and I think slightly more Chinese. More in the direction of Carry On or Benny Hill, though fortunately not far enough to make this a bad film.

The English subtitles aren't optimal. I imagine they are surprisingly good at capturing the original Cantonese jokes; but the English is often wrong and says the precise opposite of what it should say. This can be a bit distracting.

In my opinion this is a very good film (8 stars). If the crude jokes were replaced by slightly more sophisticated ones and there were stronger sense of overall coherence -- tying up the loose ends in a convincing way without damaging the overall flow of the film -- I would easily call it excellent or even perfect. But as it is, I can also understand those who rate it 7 stars or less for being a bit too low-brow.

it makes me laughing

[x-16380 · 8/10 · 20 March 2020]

It's a classic Chinese comedy.when I am young,I have watched it.And I still like it very much

Brief feelings about the movie

[k-66579 · 9/10 · 3 October 2023]

This movie illustrates a simple story through a completely nonsensical plot. Tong Pak Fu goes in and marries his favorite girl through his own efforts. The storyline is compact and organized, with smooth connections back and forth, especially since there exists a certain degree of ambush in the main story line, so that the back and forth plot connection will not be very abrupt. The whole plot is compact and simple and interesting, and does not require excessive in-depth thinking, just need to haha a laugh to watch the whole movie, very suitable for repeated viewing in the boredom of the time. LOL.

it's a great viewing experience!

[hhffyhff · 9/10 · 10 August 2023]

Personally, I don't think Tang Bohu is just a side shot of the Star Master! Brilliant and humorous, yet incredibly lonely and lonely. In recent years, his white hair has become more and more bushy, and an aura of aging has swept over his face. How many people regret that this genius has given us a lot of laughter but is still alone. I hope he can find his ideal partner soon and give him happiness! Then I hope he can find his Qiuxiang sister soon! Genius also needs beauty to accompany, and beauty also needs hero to accompany!

Finally, give a call to Xingye's acting skills and humorous plot! There are really not many humorous moments that make people think about life after laughing loudly. I always watch Zhou Xingxing's dramas! The plot and acting skills are captivating, and Zhou Xingxing's youthful appearance was also great. Hmm, it's a great viewing experience!

My Tears!!!

[invisionguardian · 10/10 · 16 March 2019]

Its the tears of joy,, cant stop laughing,, would rate it 20 of 10

weel done, sir