This movie is a difficult one to review, since I walked out of the cinemas with mixed feelings after seeing it. One part of me felt that I was robbed, and agreed with my sister that it was a pretty lame film since everything was so inconsequential, shallow and over-the-top silly. After all, it was just days after I've seen the old Chinese New Year screwball comedy Eight Happiness (starring Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Cheung and Raymond Wong, along with Bobo Fung, Dodo Cheng etc), despite how dumb the latter was, it was a film with heart and sincerity, the scenes between the siblings and their loved ones were affecting.
Why am I comparing Eighth Happiness with The Shopaholics? It's simple, The Shopaholics is directed by long-time Johnnie To collaborator, Wai Ka Fai. And Johnnie To was the one who directed Eighth Happiness (long before he became known for shooting his gritty crime drama and stylish triad films, Johnnie To was known for Stephen Chow movies like Justice My Foot!). And during their collaboration, both Wai Ka Fai and Johnnie To have done some great comedic gems like 'Needing You' (the film that entirely changed my perception of Andy Lau), 'Love on a Diet' and 'My Left Eye Sees Ghosts' (this film made me believe that Sammi Cheng, despite her commercial success, had always been very underrated as an actress).
I have wondered how Johnnie To and Wai Ka Fai collaborated in their films, if I ain't wrong, I think Johnnie To was the one who did most of the planning whilst Wai Ka Fai would be the one directing the people on set. And The Shopaholics might have confirmed my assumptions about their collaboration. Johnnie To is the storyteller, Wai Ka Fai's the technical guy.
