Movie review: 12 Golden Ducks

12 Golden Ducks (NC16)
Comedy/83 minutes
Rating: 1/5

If there's anyone in Hong Kong's entertainment industry who can pull off a cross-gender role, it has to be veteran actress Sandra Ng.

She does it so convincingly in her new film that some will wish she ditches her heels and butch it up more often - because she looks pretty hot as a man.

The 49-year-old plays the role of a young and charismatic gigolo named Future in upcoming sex comedy 12 Golden Ducks. It follows the lives of a group of male gigolos who struggle to make a living in the economic downturn.

Their job? Tease, entertain, and ensure their female clientele are always happy and, ahem, satisfied.

Ng, who is also the film's producer, undergoes a huge transformation for the comedy. Not only does she sport a short crop and stubble, Ng also flashes her realistic-looking prosthetic chest and pectoral muscles, while sauntering around in a manly gait.

In earlier interviews, Ng revealed that her male body was created by the same Thai special effects master who was behind her artificial 38G bust in Golden Chicken 3 (2014). In fact, 12 Golden Ducks is an intriguing spin-off from the hugely successful Golden Chicken comedy series in which Ng plays the role of a prostitute.

While Ng is no stranger to mad-cap comedy, 12 Golden Ducks seems to be only that. The plot is weak and roles undefined. There isn't much character development for the main team of 'ducks' (Cantonese slang for gigolos), played by actors Wilfred Lau, Babyjohn Choi and Philip Keung, and the various scenes are rather disconnected from the main storyline.

One would expect a sex comedy to be, at the very least, a bit titillating, but there is no raunchiness to be seen in 12 Golden Ducks.

While the film does serve up a good dose of eye candy - think hunkalicious men - the comedy is simply camp and frankly, quite ridiculous.

As if to make up for the lack of substance, director Matt Chow throws in a long list of big name actors who appear in cameo roles. Audiences can expect to see A-listers such as Nicholas Tse, Eason Chan, Simon Yam, Louis Koo, Zhou Xun, and Joey Yung, among others.

Overall, 12 Golden Ducks is quite forgettable but thank goodness, Ng's performance is not - that is, if no-holds barred hilarity is your form of entertainment.

klim@sph.com.sg

12 Golden Ducks opens in cinemas here on Feb 19.