La Brassiere (2001)

Two Guys Design "Perfect" Bra: Hong-Kong Romantic Comedy, Very Silly and Unsophisticated

`La Brassiere' is a romantic comedy made in Hong-Kong. It was so popular after the release that it went on to become a franchised series including `Mighty Baby' and `Driving Miss Wealthy.' Well, I said `romantic comedy,' but `La Brassiere` does not exactly provide the Hollywood-type humor. It is more direct and crude, and if you remember `What Women Want' and its most unsophisticated sequence -- Mel Gibson using hair-removing cream, you can imagine what you will see in most of the `comical' scenes of the film.

The film does not attempt to hide its obvious inspiration. A lingerie company (of which employees are all women) breaks its tradition, and hires two males Johnny (Ching Wan Lau) and Wayne (Louis Koo). They have to design a perfect bra within three months, but J & W (as their names indicate) are too `macho' and male-centered to understand the needs of the marketplace, or `What Women Wants.'

These males with misguided ideas about women - though one of them is a handsome womanizer and the other has a girlfriend - completely fail to understand the women's heart until they fall for female office workers of the same company, Samantha (Carina Lau) and Lena (Gigi Leung). These guys come to understand women not by supernatural power, but by just falling in love. No listening to women's inner voices here.

While the romantic story of `La Brassiere' is driven forward to the inevitable ending by formulaic episodes, it also gives some comic moments during the course. Some of the viewers might find the film's gags too gross and childish because they include such scenes as Johnny prowling naked in the office (don't ask why), or Johnny and Wayne trying to wear the bra in the proper way (with artificial breast in it) in front of advising Lena and all the co-workers. You find these scenes either hilarious or downright embarrassing, and probably it depends on your mood of the day.

`La Brassiere' has some cameo appearances from Karen Mok and Patrick Tam, but the film's strongest point is the good acting from Ching Wan Lau, who makes the character of Johnny an amiable one. Unfortunately not amiable enough for us to forget the negative sides of these two males, and I don't believe a girl as sweet as Lena would fall in love with a womanizing man like Wayne. And very cute Gigi Leung should be one of the merits of the film, but the film sadly fails to use her charms to the full.

After all `La Brassiere' is a typical case of comedy of which quality is decided by its directness of the gags. You see lots of women in underwear but no social commentary on gender or business, not even a cursory one. Actors just do or say silly things, and we laugh. It is simple as that. I liked it for that, but you may hate it for exactly the same reason. July 22, 2006

Not Gigi's best

Gigi Leung is the big female star here and she's known mostly as a singer in Hong Kong and the Pacific Rim area. She's gorgeous but has a reputation of being a wooden actress. She's getting better but La Brassiere is not her best role. The humor is typical for most modern Hong Kong films, bawdy, tasteless, broad and -- as one reviewer has already stated -- very similar to Benny Hill. It's just not done as well as Benny Hill did it. You can watch it to watch Gigi, there's much worse things to do than that. Karen Mok appears for a few minutes in a completely nonsensical role. That was a waste of her time. Hope she got paid well for it. Lau Ching Wan is always funny...except this time. Louis Koo is on hand for the ladies but you'll have more fun watching him in Why Me Sweetie. This is for Hong Kong film aficianados and Louis and Gigi fans only. November 6, 2005

cute in an embarassing way

This movie made me think of a Chinese version of the Benny Hill 1970s British TV series full of leering men and busty women who are sexy but pretend not to know it so the guys can leer unmolested (the guys are unmolested as they leer--the women are totally leeringly molested).
The actors in this movie are very cute. Not so the actresses: one actress looks gorgeous in one scene and like a total dog in another scene. They need better make-up and lighting. The movie is embarassing but also cute.
The constant intermingly of a few words of English with the Chinese dailog in Hong Kong seems to be the hallmark of being hip and modern in HK. I guess all the women characters have English names for the same reason:"I'm a hip HK chick because my name is Samantha or Jolene..."
It was interesting seeing how incredibly modern HK is and how computers and the most elaborate software are used to make bras in HK. This is in contrast to the old style architecture of centuries old houses in London during a short business trip to England. I guess to the HK eye what makes Europe so exotic is how old it looks!
The subtitles are the pits. Way too tiny to see, never mind trying to read them. Whoever translated the dialogue into English subtitles obviously doesn't know very much English. I kept trying to guess what people were saying from what they were doing because the subtitles were no help at all.
Still, one of the male stars is very very cute (I guess he must be a big romantic lead in HK.) The fat guy's repeated "but it felt so good" in talking about sex with his boss gives a whole new culinary meaning to lust.
My mother hated it and couldn't watch it to the end. I managed to make it to the end because I love films and will watch a film of paint drying on the side of a barn. This movie was a little more lively but with a plot about as predictable as drying paint. January 30, 2004

Very Funny!!

This is a very funny movie which brings out the acting ability of it's star Lau Chin Wan. Previously I was familiar with him potraying only the cool and deadly cop image but this was a pleasant surprise.. The story tells of a company who wanted to create the ultimate bra. They felt that only a man could offer advice in this area as he stands to benefit the most from this creation. To this end they hired two men as consultants then love stepped in and all hell broke loose. April 17, 2003

Pretty funny

It's about a bra company that decides to hire a couple of men to gain a new perspective over an all-female work force. The men are fish out of water and it's just a cute comedy. It's worth watching. ... June 2, 2002

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