The new remake of Stephen Chow’s “Hail the Judge” is finding no fans when it was released in theatres recently.
The mainland movie, which stars Peng Yusi in the lead as county magistrate-in-waiting Bao Long Xing, made less than RMB 1,000 on its opening day, with netizens slamming the movie for “self-inflicting humiliation”.
It is noted that the movie has the same story as the 1994 Stephen Chow-starrer, where the originally-corrupt Bao embarks on a journey in order to seek justice for a woman accused of killing her husband and his family.
From plot to characters, the new version is a complete remake of the 1994 movie, and even features Kingdom Yuen and Gabriel Wong, who played the brothel owner Auntie San and the Emperor of China respectively in the original film.
However, netizens who saw the trailer were not shocked over the lack of reception towards the film. Some criticised the lead actor Peng Yusi of fully imitating Stephen, and others were unhappy that the character Panther, originally played by Elvis Tsui, is now being played by a woman.
Others are saying that the movie simplified the content of the original version and was as boring as most online movies.
One netizen wrote, “Why must anybody remake the movie? It ruins a Stephen Chow classic.”
(Photo Source: ULifestyle, IMDb, HK01)