For the second year in a row after the surprisingly better-than-expected You Are The One <我的筍盤男友> (2020), Carlos Chan has struck gold — at least in terms of quality — with another romantic comedy in Ready O/R Knot <不日成婚>, which marks the directorial debut of Anselm Chan (Mau-Yin).
The movie follows Guy (Carlos Chan), who falls in love with Ho Yee (Michelle Wai) after they first met at his best friend’s (Chu Pak-Hong’s Grey Bear) wedding with Jenny (Hedwig Tam). Since then, Guy and Ho Yee have been dating for five years and as time goes by, it doesn’t take long before Ho Yee starts talking about getting married. But Guy hesitated and often looking for excuses to avoid the particular topic.
Such a premise about fear of commitment/marriage is nothing new and yet, what makes Ready O/R Knot <不日成婚> an above-average romantic comedy lies in Anselm Chan and Cheng Wai-Kei’s witty screenplay. This is particularly evident during the first half with several hilarious moments worth mentioning here. Among them includes a scene where Chu Pak-Hong’s Grey Bear tries to cover his tracks using certain codes while calling his two best friends (Carlos Chan and Kaki Sham) in front of his suspecting wife. Then, there are scenes involving a minor typo on a phone message and the flirting-goes-wrong moment as Guy tries to resist his girlfriend’s advances using a hypnosis technique.
Ready O/R Knot <不日成婚> is also blessed with snappy dialogues and a first-rate cast, notably Carlos Chan and Michelle Wai sharing great chemistry. Chu Pak-Hong (last seen in Norris Wong’s My Prince Edward <金都> alongside Stephy Tang) and Kaki Sham deliver solid supports as Guy’s best friends, where they contribute most of the laughs in this movie.
While Ready O/R Knot <不日成婚> excels the most in the comedy area, the inevitable change of tone where the movie eventually explore the consequences of troubled relationship (i.e., break-up) is a tad formulaic. If you have seen enough in this kind of movie, you will more or less predict how the story would end.
Still, Ready O/R Knot <不日成婚> is worth checking out. Anselm Chan may direct his own movie for the first time after mainly working as a screenwriter for Vincent Kok, namely Love Is… Pyjamas <男人如衣服> (2012), Hotel Deluxe <百星酒店> (2013) and Keep Calm And Be A Superstar <臥底巨星> (2018). But he shows a lot of confidence in his direction and I’m looking forward to more of his work in the future.
