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Edmund Lee

1.5/5 stars
A goofy Lunar New Year comedy that is awkwardly framed around a premise taken straight out of a dark psychological sci-fi thriller, Ha Ha Ha Happy New Year is scattershot, often terrible, and as confused about what it really is as its temporarily amnesiac protagonist.
A Hong Kong-Malaysia co-production that looks to be a passion project for Philip Keung Ho-man, who is both its producer and leading man, the film reunites him with Malaysian filmmaker Wu Peiji, who directed Keung in 2023’s The Locksmith, and boasts an “original story” from Keung’s wife, Anna Kam.
Keung plays Duan Yu-chen, a business tycoon and boss of a biotechnology company that specialises in pioneering cloning techniques. After he is abducted by rivals and left for dead in a fire, the injured Duan ends up in a nearby village with no memory of who he is.


There he is nursed back to health by So Hua (Jessica Hsuan), the resourceful caretaker of the local temple. Meanwhile, a mystery man has used Duan’s “skin cloning” procedure to replicate his face and take over his company.
The abrupt change in personality of the fake Duan (also Keung) immediately arouses the suspicions of Xiao Hao (Sam Lee Chan-sam), the man’s trusted assistant, even though he also becomes very much adored by Duan’s wannabe romantic partner, Isabelle (Dada Chan Ching).
On paper, the film has the potential to be just the kind of wild ride that Keung aficionados must have been yearning for: a mind-bending psychodrama in which the veteran Hong Kong actor plays two characters – one good, one evil – who face off in a sci-fi conspiracy threatening the world.
In reality, Ha Ha Ha Happy New Year is so ill-served by its frivolous and tonally uneven screenplay that it barely registers as a nonsensical comedy, family melodrama or sci-fi suspense thriller – all of which it lays claim to being at different points in its narrative without ever coming close to succeeding.

In there somewhere is a backstory involving Duan, Xiao Hao and the villain back when they were all pals living in an orphanage, as well as a criminal father figure who prepares children for a secret plan of world domination. This part is so poorly developed that it is eventually shuffled into the end credits.
None of these disparate elements would have felt as disappointing if the film were actually entertaining. However, the only remotely funny performance comes from Bob Lam Shing-bun, who plays So Hua’s not-so-secret admirer in his usual zany way and otherwise contributes little to the central story.
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Is it a sci-fi suspense thriller? A nonsense comedy? A family melodrama? Hong Kong-Malaysia co-production’s script so weak it’s hard to say


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Review | Ha Ha Ha Happy New Year movie review: Philip Keung leads comedy with odd sci-fi premise

Is it a sci-fi suspense thriller? A nonsense comedy? A family melodrama? Hong Kong-Malaysia co-production’s script so weak it’s hard to say