Shing (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), a talented but generally unsuccessful comic book artist, accidentally drives his car into the underworld, releasing two spirits into the living world. One, an anonymous murder victim known only as ‘the Ghost Whore” (Deanie Ip), seeks to secure a prestigious reincarnation for her son. The other, Ching (Joey Wong), is a character from Shing’s comic book mysteriously released into reality.

There is not much to recommend about Fantasy Romance, which is a deeply ordinary and scrappily-made supernatural comedy from 1991 Hong Kong. Possibly its most interesting aspect is in its casting of Joey Wong, star of the much-loved Chinese Ghost Story trilogy, as yet another ghost character. Indeed three months after the release of Fantasy Romance Wong would be reunited with her co-star here, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, in A Chinese Ghost Story III. That, if you are actively seeking a supernatural fantasy about these two actors in particular, is far and away the better choice.

Fantasy Romance, for what it is worth, is a throwaway comedy made on a low budget and with comparatively little effort before or behind the screen. The direction – by Taylor Wong – is lacklustre and unenthused. The performances, save for Deanie Ip’s fairly entertaining Ghost Whore (really, that is all they call her), are demonstrably lazy. If I was to learn that Fantasy Romance was one of those Hong Kong productions that exist solely because everyone involved had two weeks free and eight thousand spare feet of film – and such films did occur back in the 20th century – I would be entirely unsurprised.

There is little in popular cinema less enjoyable than a comedy that is not funny. I appreciate that the genre is subjective, and highly prone to cultural difference. Even taking that into account, the humour on display here is awkward, lazy, and overly familiar. There is honestly not much else one can write or say about it. Unless one is a fan of one of the actors, to be extent of being a completist, it does not seem worthy of the effort in tracking it down. Indeed, the only effort justified is the exertion in picking up the remote and turning off the television.

A year after making Fantasy Romance Tony Leung got a huge career break by co-starring in John Woo’s Hard Boiled. Two years after that received the Best Actor prize at both the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Horse Film Festival for his performance in Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express. Since then, his career has been a long cavalcade of worthy, talented, and interesting performances. I can see it might be tempting to check out his earlier work here, but it is not. Fantasy Romance is simply a waste of time and talent.