A genuinely funny opening montage begins 1985's Let's Have A Baby. An infertile man -- well, I guess the subtitles meant impotent? -- and a woman determined not to have a baby -- she's an overpopulation expert -- meet on a campus in Hong Kong and get married. We see a montage of their first three anniversaries and their childless life seems quiet and relatively happy until...a guy leaves his kids at their apartment and they go crazy dreaming of having children of their own.Alex Man, from Hong Kong Hong Kong (1983), and Pat Ha, from An Amorous Woman of Tang Dynasty (1984) among other titles, play the title couple and they each bring a sort of class to the roles; in what could be a madcap baby comedy, the two normally serious actors manage to be funny without straining too much to be funny. That is a big plus for this viewer.
Funnyman Charlie Cho Cha-Lee gives Peter Mui (Alex Man) the equipment -- dirty movies and sex toys -- that he needs to get his wife, Yuan Kwan (Patricia Ha Man-Jik) pregnant; it seems that his exercise routine to the opening of TVB's "Enjoy Yourself Tonight" did not do the trick.
When Yuan Kwan determines she is fertile and Peter rushes home to impregnate her is exactly when Yuan Kwan's mother comes for a visit. Mom is played by an almost unrecognizable Tanny Tien Ni. For comedic reasons, the couple look themselves in their bedroom for five days and prepare to make a baby.
I don't think I'm giving away anything -- especially since this is a comedy about having a baby -- to reveal that the couple can't conceive due to a problem with Peter's...little solders. So the couple, in a nice montage overlooking Hong Kong from the Peak, discuss their options.
Soon, Yuan Kwan is going to Hawaii to get artifically inseminated which leads to another funny montage in the airport.
After some more comedy business, Yuan Kwan returns and the wait begins for the baby to arrive.
Good-looking cousin Siao Bao (Poon Jan-Wai from An Amorous Woman of Tang Dynasty and Girl With The Diamond Slipper) arrives and Peter starts getting jealous -- especially once he learns that his wife used to bathe with her cousin when they were younger.
After learning that the good-looking doctor works at the same clinic where Yuan Kwan went to get inseminated, Peter starts to get paranoid and Yuan Kwan starts to wonder about Siao Bao as a mate -- or at least as a potential father of her future child.
Here on out the film turns darkly comic. When I say dark, I mean Peter now starts to fantasize -- in more montages -- about killing his supposedly unfaithful wife. Oh, and did I mention the comedy when he tries to give her soup so she'll have a miscarriage?
It sounds worse than it is in the execution, really.
There's a nice little in-joke when Tanny Tien Ni holds up a picture of Yueh Hua and tells the baby that that's his grandfather (the actress married the action star in 1975).
Let's Have a Baby is a pleasant change from the usual Wong Jing-style comedies I'm used to from the Shaws in this era.
Not a masterpiece but a character-driven confection that doesn't overstay its welcome and provides a nice showcase for two normally serious leads.
You can order Let's Have A Baby on DVD here.
