Fantastic Water Babes

"The Fantastic Water Babes" was supposed to be Gillian Chung's major comeback movie after the infamous sex scandal that rocked Hong Kong's entertainment industry, if not the whole world. Sadly, the reviewer reckons that this would be a very, very sad move for her management company to push this as her ticket back to Hong Kong entertainment industry.

"The Fantastic Water Babes" starts out as Gillian (undeniably Gillian Chung herself), the Cheung Chau orphan who tries to enter a swimming competition aptly titled "Asia Water Babes Swimming Competition" in order to seek revenge against a rival lover. In the midst of making an ass out of herself, she 'kidnaps' the famous swimmer Zhi Yuen (Alex Fong) so that he could train her to win over the rival. During the training process, both develop feelings for each other. Sounds cliche, doesn't it?

The movie was painfully ridiculous from the beginning, from the part where Gillian Chung kidnaps Alex Fong (who in the right mind would be stuffed in a suitcase and live to tell the tale?) to the scene where Gillian competes in the swimming meet (swimming pools aren't supposed to have octopuses, stingrays and trash in the water!). Fortunately, there were several scenes where Alex Fong was the main salvation for the whole storyline, such as his confrontation with his manager, who had slept with Zhi Yuen's girlfriend. The dialogue in "The Fantastic Water Babes" couldn't be cheesier and silly, which made the movie look like an essay written by an amateurish screenwriter! If not for Jeff Lau ("A Chinese Odyssey", "Kung Fu Hustle") who specialises in wacky comedies, this movie wouldn't have been made into a movie.

Gillian Chung, whom the reviewer had once praised her portrayal as a vengeful ex-girlfriend in "Beyond Our Ken" (2004), was unconvincing in "The Fantastic Water Babes". Her acting comes out awfully strained and exaggerated, perhaps burdened by the lame dialogues presented? Alex Fong on the other hand, was passable in his performance, especially during his swimming scenes. He once represented Hong Kong during the Sydney Olympics 2000 in swimming, actually. As for the other supporting roles, only Eva Huang was memorable to the reviewer, the others were either forgettable or just plain unnecessary.

Avoid this movie at all cost, unless you do love Gillian Chung in swimwear (no bikinis allowed for her, bah!), or Alex Fong swimming scenes.