Full Stike's preposterous plot is a fail [Review]

Local director Derek Kwok no doubt wanted his latest film Full Strike to be a crowd-pleaser. He took a well-known cast, added a ton of clichéd scenes and distasteful jokes, and packaged them into a "hot-blooded story" about badminton, hoping it would earn him millions at the box office. His decision to do a freeze frame for every character as they appear, and slap their name onto the screen in big letters, suggests he's worried the audience will be too stupid to understand the film.

Ng Gou-sau (Josie Ho) is a washed-up badminton player, banned from playing professionally because of her bad attitude on the court. As if the screenwriter couldn't think of anything better, a meteoroid in the shape of a shuttlecock crashes down to earth and renews Ng's passion for the game. She joins four ex-cons (Ekin Cheng, Edmond Leung, Wilfred Lau and Andrew Lam), who are tired of being evil for no reason, and trains with them for a televised competition.

The film's sole highlight comes from decent performances by Ronald Cheng as the local bully and Tse Kwan-ho as Ng's supportive brother. Cheng and Tse are especially fun to watch as they speak the Weitou dialect of the New Territories' indigenous people. But Ho stuck to Cantonese, because even the director thought she sounded terrible speaking the dialect.