My Wife is 18

Director: James Yuen Sai-Sang

Writers: James Yuen Sai-Sang, Chan Hing-Kai, Andy Lo

Year of Production: 2002

Language: Cantonese

Cast:
Ekin Cheng Yee-Kin - Thirteen Cheung
Charlene Choi Cheuk-Yin - Yoyo Ma
Bernice Lui Bik-Yee - Miss Lee
Stephanie Che Yuen-Yuen - Miss Lau

Story Overview:

Set in UK, Thirteen Cheung (Ekin Chen) is a 30-year-old man, who's been working for years already on a thesis about women -- which has been rejected every single time he submits it in, mostly because he "doesn’t really understand women" and the executives are all made up of prejudiced women. So why doesn’t he just do his thesis on another topic? Mostly because he’s been working on it for way too long.

Anyway, Cheung’s extremely old grandmother wanted him to get married into an arranged marriage -- and he agrees to it, just to make her happy. Yoyo Ma (Charlene Choi), the 18-year-old he’s going to marry also agrees to it, to please her parents. Cheung also bases his thesis topic on Yoyo (when he flies to Hong Kong and Yoyo offers to be his thesis) and they both agree on divorcing one year later. They get married quickly then Yoyo flies back to Hong Kong and Cheung stays in UK.

Soon enough though, Cheung’s grandmother dies, straight after he shows her the marriage certificate of him And Yoyo’s. Cheung realises that his grandmother’s been stuck all her life in Chinatown, UK and has never once stepped out of Chinatown. Now he wanted to go and see the world what would be his first visit but Hong Kong -- he also lives with his wife now too. After agreeing to use Yoyo in his thesis, she demands him to pay her HK$300 for every question -- which is stupider than it sounds, as stupid as it sounds already. Anyway, the psychology teacher in Yoyo’s all-girl school suddenly goes crazy and Cheung applies for the job -- and of course, he gets it. Miss Lee (Bernice Lui), the virgin P.E. teacher, as with another teacher (played by Patrick Tang) falls in love with Cheung, while an ever-obsessed boy pines away for Yoyo.

Despite all these things, Cheung and Yoyo eventually for in love and decide to stay together, straight after Cheung (finally) gets his thesis approved.

Review:

A cute romantic-comedy with two pretty strong and popular leads, Ekin Cheng and Charlene Choi. Even if the plot is more than just slightly predictable and not as amusing as some other movies, it’s still a good, enjoyable movie with a fluffy, if not loose, plot. The character of Miss Lee (played by cutie Bernice Lui) is somewhat refreshing and different, as with the gay Art teacher (played by Patrick Tang). And what would a school be without the mean headmaster, Miss Lau (Stephanie Lau)?

Charlene Choi proves herself to be a better actress than one could expect -- a better actress than she is singer, in all honesty, although I am a fan of Twins. She has this irresistible cute, carefree and refreshing look which not a lot of actresses now carry. Maybe it’s because she’s pretty young (age 20, to be exact) -- why are the actresses in Hong Kong cinema getting younger and younger all the time?

Characters:

Thirteen Cheung (Ekin Cheng): Nice to see Ekin Cheng as a dope who knows nothing about women, rather than his usual leather-clad, gangster characters so often seen in movies. Cheung is a cute, if not immature man of 30 -- really, I’ve never seen or met a 30 year-old that’s like Thirteen Cheung; I think that’s one of the negative things about the movie -- the character of Cheung is not exactly realistic, whereas some others, like Yoyo Ma, Miss Lau and even Miss Lee are more common here in the world. Ekin did a nice job as Cheung, and I applaud him for that.

Yoyo Ma (Charlene Choi): First time I’ve seen Charlene Choi in a movie and she’s not bad at all as Yoyo Ma. Yoyo is one of them flirty, carefree teenage girls you see on TV and real life. I guess her character appeals to me most considering I’m in the middle of my teens. It’s kind of hard to watch TV and actually see a realistic character you’d be able to meet just down the street or whatever. Anyway, Yoyo is also one of those girls whose never really experienced true love or been dumped and had just broken hearts of other teenage boys, though she soon learns how it feels to have your heart broken.

Miss Lee (Bernice Lui): It’s been a year or so since I saw Bernice Lui in the TVB comedy, "Virtues of Harmony", and I must say, she has improved greatly during that time -- plus her Cantonese is getting better and the accent isn’t so strong anymore. Miss Lee is the virginal P.E. teacher who's in love with Thirteen Cheung -- she’s also determined to get what she wants and says whatever’s on her mind, which I suppose is what most women are like right now -- except for the virgin part. Anyway, like I said, Miss Lee was a refreshing addition to the movie and yeah, she was cool.

Memorable/Favourite Scenes (spoilers!!):

- When Cheung and Yoyo get married.

- Whenever Cheung asks a question and Yoyo demands money.

- When Cheung saves Miss Lee from a snake.

- When Cheung and Yoyo are in the supermarket and they’re trying to get away from Miss Lau and her boyfriend (cameo by Ronald Cheng) as well as the obsessed admirer of Yoyo’s.

- When Cheung has dinner with some old friends and Yoyo comes along, dressed up in a keipo with huge hair and tries to impresses Cheung and his friends.

- When Cheung and Yoyo *ahem* "do it". (It’s not my favourite but it certainly is memorable).

- The day after they "do it" and she’s walking around naked (again, not my favourite, but definitely memorable).

- When Yoyo goes to the UK and tries to help Cheung with his thesis interview.

- And there are probably more but I can't think of any right now!