Love on Delivery. A snippet to understanding Hong Kong culture.

In an era of overused tropes, generic character plots and predictable story-lines, Love on Delivery, surprisingly, gives us a fresh take.

Love of Delivery’s plot is cliché: Ang Ho-Kam (Stephen Chow) meets Lily (Christy Cheung), falls in love, and changes himself to charm her – in this case, to become a hero, with the underlying theme of “Dork meets Ms Popular”. There is a nemesis, instructor of the Kung Fu club, Master Blackbear (Joe Cheung) who is similarly trying to charm Lily at their weekly classes. A love triangle. We've seen this done over and over again.

But why is Stephen Chow’s Love on Delivery enjoyable to watch?

I would have to credit it to Chow’s slapstick humour. It is captivating and fresh, overcoming the common boredom from such conventional movies.

Chow’s mo lei tao (冇厘頭) humour is central in Hong Kong popular culture: humour that is ... nonsense! It is built upon ridiculous and bizarre circumstances which almost seems impossible to happen, yet it does. It’s realistic, you can see it happening, but… “no way”. Think about Ang’s and Lily’s initial meeting scene: They’re confronted by Blackbear who demands a handshake, only that Ang gotten poop on his hand seconds before. Ang is reluctant, unwilling, but forced. Seen as an act of cowardice turns out to be an act of politeness. It’s incoherent, nonsensical, and a bit stupid.

Hong Kong humour is sarcastic: using vulgar language to describe your loved ones, commonly saying complicated idioms to describe mundane situations. The concept of taking something simple and pushing it to its limit by making it unnecessarily complicated and unwinding is the through-line of "mo lei tao" humour. You can see why Love on Delivery prove to be a success within the local community.

At the forefront of this phenomenon during the 80s is the collection of Stephen Chow's movies. And what I particularly enjoy about this type of humour is that it appeals to both adults and children, albeit childish. It doesn’t require previous connotations (think about how a child wouldn't understand an "adult"/socially/racially orientated joke) and plays with humour in that particular moment in time. It keeps the audience in the world of cinema and allows them to embrace humour within the boundaries of a fictional piece. It can double up as a family night movie!

Love On Delivery is on par with many other Hong Kong movies in integrating historical and cultural references . Master Lau (Ben Lam) represents the effect of Japanese occupation in Hong Kong, his actions replicating the overtaking and eradication of Chinese culture. The transformation of the underdog into a “hero” aligns with Chinese values of integrity, righteousness, and honesty. Main character Ang stays true to his sense of self, and continually pursues his objectives through honest methods. Like a children’s book, a morale of the story can be learnt. Cinema in Hong Kong has always been somewhat political and continues the commentary of cinema as an outlet for patriotic propaganda.

Nonetheless, still an enjoyable piece. So much happens in such a short time. Nonsensical snippets juxtapose with the compact nature of the dialogue, continually pushing the story forward without a second wasted. It contrasts, in my opinion, with a lot of western movies that drag out funny scenes and lay all their cards out in the trailer! New relevant characters were added, sub-plots were developed all under 1.5 hours. Finally, a plot that moves forward in a comedic movie!

Love on Delivery is one of Stephen Chow’s best films in portraying his ability to overturn an otherwise mundane movie.

And maybe that's why Love On Delivery is one of my favourite easy-to-watch movies.

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