Review | Chilli Laugh Story movie review: Mirror’s Edan Lui leads Lunar New Year comedy that mixes family antics, naughty jokes and social commentary

Mirror star Edan Lui’s first big-screen outing engages with the realities of post-protest, mid-pandemic Hong Kong – albeit in the silliest ways possible

The comedy – which co-stars Gigi Leung and Ronald Cheng – offers something for everyone, from Cantonese wordplay to dirty jokes and pop culture references

Reading Time:2 minutes

Edan Lui (left) and Angela Yuen in a still from Chilli Laugh Story (Category IIA; Cantonese), directed by Coba Cheng. Ronald Cheng and Gigi Leung co-star.

Published: 5:15pm, 12 Jul 2022Updated: 8:24pm, 7 Jan 2025

3.5/5 stars

Anyone seeking a window on life for the past two years in post-protest and mid-pandemic Hong Kong – a vaguely depressing experience – could do worse than watch Chilli Laugh Story.

An amusing and sometimes unexpectedly poignant comedy, it was intended for release at Lunar New Year before a wave of infections with the Omicron variant of Covid-19 earlier this year scuppered that plan.

Directed by first-time filmmaker Coba Cheng Tsun-hin from a screenplay he co-wrote with comedy veteran Matt Chow Hoi-kwong, Chilli Laugh Story is leaving its spicy impression on the Hong Kong box office. Fans are flocking to see the first big-screen outing of Edan Lui Cheuk-on, a popular member of Canto-pop sensation Mirror.

Lui plays Coba Cheung, a music festival promoter who is stuck at home with his parents – and no jobs to do – during the pandemic.

His father (Ronald Cheng Chung-kei) is an unemployed taxi driver who is so annoyingly talkative, he couldn’t keep a secret if his life depended on it; his stay-at-home mother (Gigi Leung Wing-kei) is devoted to making chilli sauce.