A Hearty Response (1986) is a 1986 Hong Kong romantic comedy and action thriller film directed by Norman Law and starring Chow Yun-fat, Joey Wong and David Lui.

Although they didn't exactly become the Astaire and Rogers of Hong Kong comedies, Chow Yun Fat and Joey Wong made a winning comedic couple in a handful of mid-80s productions before moving on to more successful solo careers playing ghosts and gunmen.

A Hearty Response, from 1986, is one of the pair's most engaging efforts.

The film's wildly uneven tone, which veers from goofy situation comedy to brutally unflinching tragedy, is schizophrenic even by Hong Kong filmmaking standards, but Chow's and Wong's considerable charms rescue the picture.

What might've been a melodramatic mess becomes an arresting emotional Roller coaster as rape and murder intrude on an otherwise lighthearted romantic comedy.

Sun, an illegal immigrant from the mainland, finds herself alone and on the run when the human trafficker who smuggled her into Hong Kong tries to rape her.

Lucky for her, easygoing cop Bon accidentally hits her with his car, which gives Sun the golden opportunity she needs.

Feigning Amnesia, Sun claims to think she's Bon's wife! The guilt-ridden policeman plays along and brings the young lady home, a decision he comes to regret as Sun begins to turn his previously predictable life upside-down. But romance has a way of popping up in the most unexpected places. Unfortunately, so does Sun's former tormentor, who plans to enact a gruesome revenge.

Kong-sang is a mainland Chinese girl who illegally entered Hong Kong, hoping to retrieve her birth certificate, which proves that she was actually born in Hong Kong.

She flees from her smuggler, Shing (Shum Wai), after she injures him when she was harassed by him.

Meanwhile, police detective Ho Ting-pong (Chow Yun-fat) is an upright and virtuous police officer who was assigned with his partner, Long Man (David Lui), to arrest drug dealer Addict Hung (Ng Hong-sang) in a supermarket.

There, Long Man sees Kong-sang stealing from the supermarket and arrests her.

As Ting-pong was distracted by this, Addict Hung manages to get on a car and runs over Kong-sang before fleeing.

After regaining consciousness in the hospital, Kong-sang feigns amnesia to avoid being repatriated and identifies Ting-pong as her husband.

Since Ting-pong is a man of chivalry, he takes Kong-sang home and takes care of her.

Ting-pong's mother (Lee Heung-kam) is really fond of Kong-sang and sees her as an ideal daughter-in-law.

However, when Ting-pong's mother convinces him into letting Kong-sang stay, Kong-sang leaves to wander in the streets, not wanting to give Ting-pong a hard time to face his girlfriend.

After going through many trials and tribulations, Ting-pong and Kong-sang eventually fall in love.

As everything is seemingly going well, Shing reappears and kidnaps Kong-sang.

In one of the eleven films he starred in during 1986, Chow Yun-Fat plays Bon, a cop who accidentally injures Sun (Joey Wong) while pursuing a suspect.

Sun is an illegal immigrant, so she fakes amnesia to get out of being arrested.

Wanting to avoid a lawsuit, Bon starts taking care of Sun, which angers his girlfriend (Poon Lai-Yin) but delights his mom (Lee Heung-Kam).

After a rocky start, Bon and Sun begin to develop feelings for each other, but things take a turn for the worse when the "snakehead" (Shum Wai) who smuggled Sun into Hong Kong makes an appearance.

Under the guise of what seems to be a straightforward drama, A Hearty Response throws in a lot of dopey comedy and very violent action.

The better Hong Kong directors know how to mix up any number of genres and still produce coherent and exciting movies.

Norman Law is not one of those directors.

There is a lack of any real flow to the proceedings.

When matters are played out normally, the film actually works quite well, especially as Chow Yun-Fat and Joey Wong have good chemistry with each other.

However, for any good A Hearty Response puts forth during the running time, there seems to be an equal amount of poor cinematic output.

In particular, the attempts at comedy are just not funny at all, and in fact quite insulting and repellent at times.

Now, don't get me wrong -- I'm not a prude and can enjoy a raunchy Category III picture.

But A Hearty Response just doesn't seem like the sort of movie that really needed scenes that feature stuff like a little kid urinating into someone's open mouth.

And poor Joey Wong. She must have pissed off Norman Law, because her character is treated like absolute crap.

Again, I'm not adverse to the rough stuff, but did we really need to see three rape scenes (one to "completion") with her?

The sexual violence, and the casual tone in which it is dished out, is what ultimately really undermines A Hearty Response.

Its just pure vulgarity done for titillation's sake.

That's a shame, because when A Hearty Response is on target, it really works.

Sadly, there are too many misfires present to keep this movie from getting more than a mild recommendation.

LoveHKFilm gave the film a mixed review describing the film as "forgettable", with "some decent moments."

Hong Kong Film Net gave the film a score of 5 out of 10 criticizing director Norman Law's direction and its unfunny comedy, but noting the good chemistry of Chow Yun-fat and Joey Wong.

The film grossed HK$13,461,667 at the Hong Kong Box office during its theatrical run from 10 October to 20 November 1986.

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