Cupid One (Oi san yat ho) (1985)

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One of popular Hong Kong filmmaker Ringo Lam's least satisfying efforts, this work-for-hire assignment can't decide whether it wants to be a romantic comedy or a suspenseful psychological thriller, and so plays it both ways to stultifying effect. Sally Yeh stars as May Yeung, a pampered rich girl… More One of popular Hong Kong filmmaker Ringo Lam's least satisfying efforts, this work-for-hire assignment can't decide whether it wants to be a romantic comedy or a suspenseful psychological thriller, and so plays it both ways to stultifying effect. Sally Yeh stars as May Yeung, a pampered rich girl whose car breaks down as she is on her way to her wedding. May tries to stop passing cars for help, inadvertently causing a car carrying Keung (Mark Cheng) and his girlfriend to swerve off the road and down a hill, which angers the man so much that he threatens to kill May if they ever meet again. Later that night, they meet in a way which neither could have foreseen, as May passes out after a drunken evening aboard the titular yacht, headed to Thailand with the unsuspecting Keung at the helm. By the time May and Keung find each other, it's too late to turn the yacht back, so they yell and scream at each other until they finally start getting friendly. Ten days later, they drop anchor in Thailand and are promptly thrown in jail because May has no passport and Keung is under suspicion for white slavery. They manage to extricate themselves from that dilemma, but then another one arises as Keung has fallen in love with May without knowing that she is already married and begins to demonstrate increasingly psychotic behavior when she rebuffs his advances. That's when the film's mood shifts from romantic comedy to stalker-thriller, and there is a way to make that transition smoothly (Something Wild being the best example), but Lam's obvious disdain for the material comes through in a scattershot presentation which falls well short of the mark. Genre enthusiasts will still be interested in the film for Cheng's spirited acting debut, a first-rate star turn by Yeh, and a supporting cast including Eric Chan, Bee Lee-tan, and Cho Yin-lung, but fans of Lam's spectacular later films may be disappointed. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi