From Beijing with Love

From Beijing With Love (Chinese: 國產凌凌漆) is a 1994 Hong Kong spy comedy film directed by Stephen Chow and Lee Lik-chi. The film is a very direct spoof of the James Bond films.

From Beijing with Love
Hong Kong film poster
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	國產凌凌漆
Literal meaning	The Domestically-produced 007
Transcriptions Yue: Cantonese Jyutping gwok3 caan2 ling4 ling4 cat1
Directed by	Stephen Chow Lee Lik-chi
Written by	Stephen Chow Roman Cheung\Vincent Kok Lee Lik-chi
Produced by	Charles Heung Jimmy Heung
Starring	Stephen Chow Anita Yuen Law Kar-ying Lee Lik-chi
Cinematography	Lee Kin-keung Tom Lau
Edited by	Ma Chung-yiu
Music by	William Hu
Production company	Win's Movie Production Ltd.
Distributed by	Golden Harvest
Release date	14 September 1994 (1994-09-14)
Running time	83 minutes
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese
Box office	HK$37,523,850.00

Plot

A mask and armored criminal Golden Gun steals a valuable Tyrannosaurus fossil from the Government of China. Chow, starring as a hawker-turned-secret-agent 007 named Ling-ling-chat, is dispatched to Hong Kong by the commander of the Guangzhou Military Region to recover the cranium. When he arrives in Hong Kong, he meets Lee Heung-kam (played by Anita Yuen), who offers to help him in his mission. However, she turns out to be a subordinate of Golden Gun, who is revealed to be the commander himself.

The commander instructs Heung-kam to send Ling-ling-chat on a false lead suggesting that the cranium may have been stolen by a smuggler. 007, with the help of Heung-kam, sneaks into a cocktail party held by the smuggler. Before he enters, he tells Heung-kam that he will fetch her some white roses. Heung-kam tells 007 to find evidence implicating the smuggler. Meanwhile, Heung-kam hides in a tree, preparing to assassinate 007 from a distance.

The party is interrupted by a mysterious man (modelled after Jaws from James Bond) and a mysterious woman who are out to kill 007. Taking this opportunity, Heung-kam shoots 007 several times, including once in the leg with 007 thinking another assassin has shot him. 007 (who is wearing a bulletproof vest but not bulletproof trousers) escapes, grabbing three white roses on the way out.

Heung-kam is touched by this gesture and saves his life. She decides to defect from Golden Gun. Together, they dismantle the criminal organisation behind the fossil theft. 007 eventually wins the hand of Heung-kam and is rewarded with a meat cleaver engraved with the calligraphy of Deng Xiaoping.

Cast

• Stephen Chow as Ling-ling-chat (Homophonic pun of '007' in Cantonese)
• Anita Yuen as Lee Heung-kam
• Law Kar-ying as Tat Man-sai (Homophonic pun of Leonardo da Vinci in Cantonese)
• Wong Kam-kong as Golden Gun, a corrupt commander of the Guangzhou Military Region
• Pauline Chan as Mystery woman
• Lee Lik-chi as Executed martial arts master
• Wong Yat-fei as Executed illiterate person
• Yu Rongguang as Chinese agent killed by Golden Gun
• Lee Kin-yan as Regent Motel manager
• Yip Chun as Deputy commander Chan
• Leung Hak-shun as Lai Yau-wai
• Spencer Leung as Man about to be executed
• Johnny Dang Siu-Juen as Man about to be executed
• Raymond Tsang as Man from Hunan
• Joe Cheng Cho as Metal Death Killer (clearly based on Jaws from Moonraker)
• Indra Leech as Guard
• Jerry Ku as Firing squad commander
• Chow Yee-Fan as Bald waiter
• Quinton Wong Liu-Che as Photographer
• Wong Kar-Leung as Soldier
• So Wai-Nam as Soldier
• Tang Tai-Wo as Soldier
• Lam Kwok-Kit as Soldier
• Chung Wing as Soldier
• Wong Shiu-Keung as Hotel clerk
• Lo Gwok-Wai as Firing squad soldier

Sources:^[1][2][3]

References to other films

DVD cover.

• The name of the film in Chinese means "the domestically-produced 007".
• The scene where Stephen Chow meets Anita Yuen wearing a green blouse in the park feeding dogs is a direct reference to a scene in the film C'est la vie, mon chéri, also featuring Anita Yuen.
• The scene where the commander explains the Tyrannosaurus fossil to Chat includes the two using Jurassic Park as direct references when the commander describes Tyrannosaurus as "the one that roars".
• The name of the "ultimate weapon" invented by Tat Man-sai, 攞你命3000 (Lifetaker 3000), is also the name of a Hong Kong, low-budget blue movie.
• The Universe Laser DVD cover (pictured on right) of the movie parodies that of the 1987 James Bond movie The Living Daylights.
• The Golden Gun's signature weapon is a spoof of the golden gun used in the James Bond novel The Man with the Golden Gun. Unlike the one from the James Bond series, this one shoots out extremely powerful explosive bullets instead of a one-hit fatal fragmentation bullet.

Music

The song Stephen Chow sang while playing the piano is 李香蘭 (Lǐxiānglán; the chinese name of Yoshiko Yamaguchi) by Jacky Cheung, a Chinese-language adaptation of the 1989 Japanese song "Ikanaide" (行かないで) by Kōji Tamaki.

Box office and reception

The film grossed HK$37,523,850 in Hong Kong and has garnered positive reviews in Taiwan as well. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 50%, based on 6 reviews.^[4]

Award nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result
1995	14th Hong Kong Film Awards	Best Actor	Stephen Chow	Nominated
		Best Supporting Actor	Law Kar-ying	Nominated