Pao zhi nu peng you

If we needed yet another Chinese Pygmalion, you'd hope the writers would take the trouble to inject something fresh and new into such a well flogged horse. As it is, even this stalwart Vicki fan can't find much nice to say about this unfunny mess of a film.

Joe (Cheng) is a HK rogue living off his clearly long suffering girlfriend. When he's inexplicably hired as an image consultant by Shanghai millionaire Cheung (Ng), to spruce up his long-lost, street urchin daughter Ning (Wei), the scene is (or at least, should be) set for a fun ugly duckling tale in the tried and tested rom-com style.

Unfortunately, we're asked to suspend belief on too many levels to make investing in this flick a possibility. It's difficult to care for any of the characters, and when the inevitable character transformations occur they're jarring, and even a bit annoying.

The leads are cute in their respective ways, so if that's all you're after you may get your money's worth. Just don't expect a decent story. More importantly for a comedy, don't expect many laughs either.