It's a walkoff!

Even though it came out in 2001, not a day goes by when I don't try to work a Zoolander line into everyday conversation (my favourite being "Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty"). So imagine my stress when I find out that there's a new Hong Kong comedy film set in the world of male supermodels. Imaginatively titled Supermodel, it looks like a pale imitation of the Hollywood version, which sounds strange, because Hollywood tends to make pale imitations of the original foreign versions.

Famous supermodel at the peak of his career, check. Feisty, fashion challenged female love interest, check. Up and coming rival male supermodel, check. Lots of cameos by famous Hong Kong celebrities, check. The trailer I saw even copied the walk-off (the supermodel equivalent of a duel where they try to outdo each other by performing complicated catwalk moves) scene but any walk-off challenge which doesn't feature Bily Zane or isn't presided over by David Bowie will be clearly inferior.

The lead character is called Mandom, and his buddies are called Freedom and Condom, even though Boredom seems like a more appropriate name for this trainwreck. Tired visual cliche alert: the female love interest is an unsophisticated girl because she falls over while practising how to walk.

Another thing I don't understand is why Mandom is always dressed in campy outfits with flamboyant headgear and constantly makes lots of effeminate gestures. This isn't a biopic about Priscilla, Queen of Wanchai. Finally, you know a movie is bad when the trailer consists largely of the characters laughing at or with each other and further outtakes as filler. It's like the actors are screaming "Can't you see?!?! This is so funny, hahahahahaha you MUST laugh along with us too! Come on, give it a go. Hahahahahaha!! Please...just a little chuckle will do."

And people wonder why the Hong Kong movie industry has been in a slump.