Review: Normally I would agree with you. Andy Lau in a skin tight, full body muscle suit, and Cecilia Cheung acting uber-cute/goofy, should be a winning combination for the perfect romantic comedy, right? Wrong. Instead, what we have here is Milky Way director Jonnie To, shouting at the top of his lungs “I DON’T WANT TO MAKE GANGSTER MOVIES ANY MORE!!!!” Seriously though, the premise of the story truly does not do manage to give a proper indication as to just how unusual this film is. As if the opening visual of Andy Lau doing a strip tease in that muscle suit is not ridiculously disturbing enough, we soon find ourselves introduced to a man who can stuff himself into places that good decent folks just don’t belong, only to pop out in some strange cg manner and combat the local police force, who are armed to the teeth mind you, with his bare hands. Are we in a Takeshi Miike film? Not quite, but during your little trip through the Twilight Zone that is “Running on Karma”, you should be prepared to see strange anomalies and a cinematic combination the likes of which the world has never known. That, and an unhealthy abundance of Andy Lau’s foam covered ass.

Early on, “Big” is established as a man with a lot of emotional baggage. We find that “Big” spent much of his life training in a temple, learning the finer points of Buddhist dogmatic practice, but eventually left the temple to pursue a more worldly life. The relationship he forms with Yee, conjures up some old demons and establishes a deeper aspect to the character as it reveals a desire for vengeance against a man who is responsible for killing the woman he cared for. That coupled with the problem that “Big” sees a grim destiny in store for Yee, adds up to a man torn between his desire to help and his instinct to bury the past.

Credit must be given to Andy Lau, though, for even being in a film like this. That is not to say that it isn’t a good film or anything, but his character isn’t exactly the most charming guy ever, despite all the fake muscles, and I just cant envision the same Hong Kong audiences that took so well to his recent Infernal Affairs films, to get into a film like this. As for Cecilia Chung, she gives a fairly predictable performance, even though the simplicity of her character seems somewhat out of place. She looks cute and acts even cuter, which after all, is really what you are looking for in any film with her name in the credits.