Ai ye nu peng you (1992, Hong Kong)



Man discovers his new body
 A man (confusingly named "Ah Man") dies when a woman carelessly knocks a heavy flowerpot off a balcony. His spirit goes to the anteroom to heaven and hell, but they weren't expecting him yet. The demon attendants there are very careless and tell him that he can re-occupy his own body provided he does so at a specific time. If he misses this he will be sent to the lowest level of hell. On returning to earth to get back into his body, he misses the deadline and it is cremated.

Back on the main road Man sees that a young woman has just been fatally injured in a road accident, and he enters her body instead. The demons decide not to intervene. He goes back to his old flat -- the key is under the mat -- but when he goes to the lavatory he is surprised to realise that he is now in the girl's body.

Shortly his own girlfriend and a male friend come back to the flat after the funeral, and when the man makes advances to the girl, our hero intervenes, and demands to know how the girlfriend can be so heartless as to allow this immediately after burying him[self].

But Man has trouble persuading them that he is actually Man, and in the end he says he is Man's cousin Mandy, and that [s]/he is going to stay in the flat now. Moreover, the next morning she goes to work in Man's place; she goes to the men's lavatory and lines up with a lot of men there; she makes a bit of a mess, but they are more concerned than she is. When the boss protests that he doesn't know her, and anyway a woman could never hold down such a job, she blackmails him about his marital infidelity, saying she will tell his wife.

So she gets to stay in the job, and surprise surprise, she does better than anyone expected, and goes from strength to strength. However an important business deal is coming up, and the client insists on a meeting in their own building on the 13th floor.




Mandy is run down by a truck
 This inauspicious location worries everyone, and outside on the main road, Mandy is run down by a truck -- the same driver that knocked her down in the first place. Man's spirit goes back up to the heavenly ante-room again, and the demons are as inefficient as before, so in disgust Man says he is happy to stay in Mandy's body on earth, he returns and does so.

But that isn't the end of the film, yet; romantic complications now arise when the important businessman wants to take advantage of Mandy.

It's an amusing film with a different take on the after-death switch theme. It is also known by the subtle title of False Lady.

HF March 2007



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