Best known for his martial arts flicks, Hong King cinema legend Sammo Hung branched out with 1988’s Paper Marriage. Though it comes with some action, the movie leans more comedic in nature.

Hong Kong immigrant and former boxer Bo Chin (Hung) scrambles to stay afloat. In debt to gamblers and desperate for cash, Chien agrees to a sham marriage to Jade Li (Maggie Cheung) to help her earn citizenship.

This comes with complications, as it turns out others hope to use this circumstance to fleece of her money. Bo and Jade attempt to foil this plot as they also get to know each other.

Gee, you don’t suspect maybe these mismatched strangers will eventually fall in love, do you?

Cynicism aside, Paper actually leaves the future of the leads somewhat up for grabs. No spoilers, but it doesn’t provide the explicit finale I anticipated.

Beyond that, Paper follows a fairly predictable path, one that emphasis the conflicts between Bo and Jade. The film plays these for laughs.

Well, for attempted laughs, that is. Though it shows occasional charms, Paper seems too broad and disjointed for its own good.

Essentially a contrived collection of set pieces, the movie lacks much real plot. Instead, it simply throws antics at the wall and hopes that some will stick.

Which happens occasionally, but the batting average seems pretty low. It doesn’t help that the depiction of Bo becomes a problem.

For far too much of the story, Bo simply seems like a jerk. A tale such as this needs us to embrace the lead, but it becomes difficult to root for such an unlikable lead.

Of course, Paper softens Bo eventually, but this doesn’t really work. The role built too much audience animosity to allow us to truly care about him.

This becomes more problematic because Cheung seems natural and likable. We find Bo all the more obnoxious because the sweet Jade does nothing to deserve his rudeness.

Given his flabby physique, Hung does seem well-suited to comedy, and he can often pull off those beats in a positive manner. I do think he oversells the gags too much, though.

Even though Paper mostly exists as rom-com, it comes to life best in the third act when it finally embraces its action orientation. The final segment brings solid thrills.

Nonetheless, Paper remains too contrived and spotty to really gel. While it delivers occasional entertainment, it feels awfully erratic.

Paper Marriage appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though not without some iffy moments, the image usually looked good.

Overall sharpness seemed positive. Occasional soft shots materialized, but the majority of the movie looked reasonably accurate.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain seemed natural and I witnessed no print flaws.

Colors seemed fairly natural, albeit with something of a blue tint. The hues felt mostly full.

Blacks came across as deep, while shadows brought good delineation. Nothing here dazzled but the image held up nicely.

Unfortunately, the movie’s LPCM monaural audio didn’t fare well. Dialogue tended to seem edgy and rough.

Music could sound somewhat shrill much of the time, and the score and songs lacked range. The same went for effects.

These usually seemed distorted and lacked much range. Though I expect the soundtrack reproduced the source, this still felt like an awfully problematic mix for a movie from the late 1980s.

The disc also came with an English dub of Paper. It suffered from the same sonic issues as the Cantonese original and also came saddled with largely weak voice acting.

We get an audio commentary from film historians Arne Venema and Dominie Ting. Both sit together for a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, genre domains, cast and crew, sets and locations, various production elements and their thoughts about the movie.

Fast-paced and energetic, Venema and Ting combine to make this a bubbly and informative track. They cover a lot of territory in a little time and ensure we get a fine view of the flick.

In addition to the movie’s trailer, the disc includes a featurette called Happily Ever After. It goes for 21 minutes, 32 seconds and involves director/co-writer/actor Alfred Cheung.

The filmmaker looks at the movie’s development, story/characters, influences, cast and performances, sets and locations, general production notes and the film’s legacy. Cheung delivers an engaging and informative chat.

A comedy with sporadic action scenes, Paper Marriage fares best when it sticks with martial arts mayhem. As a rom-com, it feels forced and only sporadically charming. The Blu-ray comes with largely good picture and a few useful supplements but audio seems problematic. While breezy and watchable enough, Paper Marriage never quite gels.

Note that this version of Paper Marriage comes as part of a three-film “Triple Threat” package. This bundles Marriage with fellow Sammo Hung movies The Manchu Boxer and Shanghai, Shanghai.