Whatever You Want (1994)
Renowned writer/director/actor/producer Wong Jing created this charming fantasy comedy, featuring a top notch cast. The sweet, lovable Anita Yuen Wing-Yee stars as an illegitimate daughter who inadvertently finds a pearl with a genie in it. Michael Wong Man-Tak is the genie who gives her three wishes, which leads to a lot of hilarity and even a little heartbreak.
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Reviews
Very disappointing...
Memorable, crazy movie
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Ko San Ping (Anita Yuen, perennially cute) can't find a job. But her luck turns a corner when she finds three magic pearls in an antique store; she gets three wishes from a scantily clad genie named Bolobolo (Michael Wong). Ko's biggest wish is to meet her long-estranged conductor/director sister Pearl Ko (ultra-cute Christy Chung). They both end up chasing after the studly genie, a god-in-training who doesn't have "a dicky." The plot is okay, but the film parodies are what make this one roll: included is a famous satire of SPEED (with Yuen as Sandra Bullock), Chinese TORTURE CHAMBER STORY (with Yuen getting tortured with office supplies [!?]) and Christy Chung's clunker MERMAID GOT MARRIED; but HK art-film director Wong Kar Wai gets the worst of it -- his ASHES OF TIME is recast with a hideous female impersonator playing Brigitte Lin's role (!), and CHUNGKING EXPRESS gets some nasty jibes, too.