Miss Shampoo (2023)

To live and dye in Taiwan

If you created a weave out of a screwball rom-com and a gangster film with vulgar humor, you might end up with something like Miss Shampoo. Vivian Sung and Daniel Hong certainly gave it their all and they did make a strange but fitting couple. Hair warning, if you are looking for a sweet rom-com of opposites attracting, the humor is quite crude. And yes, there may be a few styling puns plugged in hair and there.

On a dark and stormy night, a wounded gangster stumbled into the shop where Fen was a shampooer. She managed to cover for Tai when the assassins barged in searching for him. Tai later returned with enormous gifts and had Fen cut his hair. Soon all the gangsters and those dependent on them were coming into the faltering shop to have her work on them. She was either a visionary or a terrible stylist as the cuts were often vibrant and bizarre. It took nearly half the movie for the two to finally hook up which was actually pretty funny as it included an introduction to her equally odd family. They didn’t have a problem with her dating a “hard working” gangster as long as he didn’t become scary and kill the family if they broke up. The gangster plot included finding the murderer of the previous boss, an urban renewal project with election ramifications, a lieutenant’s dissatisfaction with the direction of the gang, and lopping off fingers-so many fingers.

Daniel Hong was a good sport as was his gangster boss Tai. He wore several hideous wigs, including a bizarre bowl cut mullet, blonde dreadlocks, and a 1990’s ahjumma perm. Vivian Sung made for a perky shampooer with a strange vision for hairstyles. Tai had a soft side and Fen had a wild side which brought the couple closer together until the classic misunderstanding was inserted between them which would take time to straighten out. The uneven humor did have some highlights. There were unspoken dialogues that were quite funny---one between Tai and Fen’s mom and one between Tai and his lieutenant, Long Legs. Some of the humor was too crass for me and there were many crude sexual references. The director didn’t wave away the brutal lifestyle of a gangster and the permanent retirement plan for the bosses. A two-hour run time was also a drawback for this film. Few violent rom-coms can withstand 120 minutes of tangled plot progression. That’s not to say there weren’t entertaining moments and even touching ones because there were when the plot moved at a nice clip. The story even threw in an emotional twist near the end.

Miss Shampoo could be bubbly and bloody, hairlarious and cringe-worthy. The lovers both dealt with living on the fringe of society, unable to move ahead socially. While the movie gave supporting characters memorable moments it was too long and was in dire need of a cut. If you don’t mind lewd humor braided into a romance with a side of bobbed fingers this might be a movie worth giving a curl.

28 Dec 2023

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Hilarious gangster comedy, but not for the faint of heart nor 'prudes'

A "bro" (gangster) escapes from his potential murderers into a hair salon. where a hair washer is practicing hair cuts.
After the local boss dies, the bro is quickly assigned as the new boss of the gang, and his task is to seek revenge for the killing of his former boss by an unknown group of Thai men.
The boss is head over heels with the hair washer, and decides she should now cut his hair, and everyone he knows, should too. As he tries to figure out who was behind the attack, he also tries to woo the hair washer turned stylist.

Negative points: the music doesn't stand out much unless for comedic effect, and the movie is a tad long.

Positive points:
Chemistry: You may not have thought it from the start, but man these two have great chemistry.

The sense of humor:
e.g. The hair washer does an awful job throughout most of the movie, which makes for a fun watch: everyone who cares about her, or who is related to the boss, will show up in the show with a god awful haircut, potentially in a hideous color Its a brilliant way to show who's on whose team.

Keeps it light: The gruesome parts are usually exaggerated for comedic effect, but I'd still not advise this movie to the faint of heart.
There were a lot of crude sexual references I thought were pretty hilarious in how unnecessary they were (intentionally written for sure). Although others mentioned this as a negative, I thought it was funny.

The dialogues between the gang members are hilarious at times. One of my favorite scenes is when (another) hair stylist tries to walk into the salon, but gangsters are in the way. They decide to make her learn everyone's names, and there's a definite reference to Monty Python in that scene, with a mandarin (?) twist.

The scene with the boss bro and the hair stylist at her place was hilarious, especially when he comes back later.

I did not notice a single actor who was awful; all of them did a great job keeping in character. I had literal tears streaming down my face.

All in all, I highly suggest watching this if you love adult humor and a decent plot.

PLEASE watch until the very last part of the credits, as it stays funny until the literal last second. They did the actress dirty haha.

Loved this movie so much!

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