My Ghost Partner
Huang Yiliang
After messing with the wrong guy, conmen Zhang Shi (Huang Yiliang, sporting a trying-too-hard mohawk) and Yi Fei (Brandon Wong in an Ah Beng role that has Mark Lee’s name all over it) get thrown into the sea. Fei survives but Shi does not and he returns as a constantly ravenous ghost. He also acquires powers which are conveyed on screen via cheesy visual effects.
Too bad that Huang, who also served as director and co-scriptwriter, just does not fit the mould of a lovable spook along the lines of Hong Kong’s Raymond Wong in the Happy Ghost films of the 1980s.
Fatal flaws aside, My Ghost Partner could have been a mildly amusing comedy if it had focused on Shi and Fei’s partnership. But with multiple plotlines and a whole bunch of familiar small-screen faces including Dawn Yeoh, Nick Shen, Yang Libing, Carole Lin and even Taiwan’s Sam Tseng, it feels too scattered.
And in its last 30 minutes, the movie completely veers off course.

A high-stakes gambling game is hastily arranged but it is one devoid of any suspense. Bizarrely, the ones with the greatest emotional stakes in the game are not even the protagonists of Shi and Fei but some minor characters. Go figure.

(ST)