Funny 'Men' harks back to Hong Kong's heyday

Let us now return to the glory days of Hong Kong cinema, when goofy masterpieces such as ''The Eagle Shooting Heroes," ''Fight Back to School III," and ''Rose, Rose, I Love You!" filled Chinatown movie houses across this fair land. Narrative sense and genre were mere shackles to be broken, and a director needed only a vague idea, a half-dozen gaffers, and some takeout to create a work of genius. Or a flop. But before anyone could figure out which, it was on to the next paycheck.

That was a good decade ago, however, and since then some of the most shameless Hong Kong filmmakers have achieved a measure of what might be called respectability. Even Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, who churned out such doozies as ''Raped by an Angel," went on to codirect last year's ''Infernal Affairs," currently being given an American retread by Martin Scorsese.

But Edmond Ho-cheung Pang, director of ''Men Suddenly in Black," clearly has little use for propriety. He's young and only too happy to take a suitcase full of dusty Hong Kong movie cliches and kick them down a staircase. What pops out at the bottom is an unholy splice of two now standard genres, the randy-husbands-run-amok comedy and the gangland-triad tear-jerker. If the results are uneven, the thought -- and thoughtlessness -- are greatly appreciated.

After a Pierce Brosnan-era ''James Bond"-ish title sequence, four men are seen making phone calls coordinated to the split second. Each targets a woman, and the goal -- not a heist, scam, or hit, but to obtain simple goodbyes. Their dearly beloveds are going on an overnight trip to Bangkok, and to four men (and one filmmaker) chafing at societal limits, that means opportunity.

''You decide your own fate," Brother Tin (Eric Tsang) tells his posse as they assemble in a dingy pool hall after the women are safely on their way. A nod, and the die is cast. ''These are your pills, for strength," says Cheung (Jordan Chan), the group's doctor. ''And condoms, nine for everyone, the limit for a man. . ." And so begins a mock-heroic war, with the out-of-practice lotharios charged with executing adulterous ''missions," each one on an intertitle zipped across the screen.

Throughout, Tsang channels every crime boss he's ever played -- including the one in ''Infernal Affairs" -- and film after film is parodied. There's a John Woo-esque battle with photographers, warriors-in-peril songs, and constant invocations of a spiritual leader, Ninth Uncle (Tony Leung Ka Fai). It seems that years ago he took a fall for the group, claiming sole responsibility for a debauch that we see in a hilarious flashback. He's now locked up by his wife at home, wan and beatific, living through the idea of his acolytes performing their sacred duty -- whooping it up -- out in the real world.

As if. This being a comedy, what can go wrong does, and with much slapstick involved. The movie also takes a left turn when the men's wives have a premonition about what's going on. Then begins a rival-gangs parody, with the women squaring off against the men in a red-light district and a high-rise no-tell hotel. ''Wives in action! Get back!" shouts Carrie (Teresa Mo), Tin's keeper, as she kicks open a door in search of her wayward mate.

A great film? Not a chance. But here the director gets even what's wrong right. Props are skimpy, sets approximate, the acting pitched just off-key. So how about the subtitles, the mark of any true made-on-the-fly Hong Kong film? Tin, thinking the gang has been betrayed, growls something deadly serious. ''I smell a cat," the screen reads. Perfect.

Leighton Klein can be reached at lklein@globe.com.