AllMovie

The last of a whopping four pictures in Hong Kong to be released over two years bearing the name Those Were the Days, this film -- directed by Dick Cho Kin-nam -- is a wacky screwball comedy about the Hong Kong film industry. After bad-mouthing Cantonese classic films of the 1960s, director Wong Ching-wai (played by Dayo Wong, who is clearly imitating art house auteur Wong Kar-wai) is cast back to the '60s as punishment. He will be returned to his rightful time period if he can make a film that a single person likes in that era. After his overbearing ways get him pulped on the set of a Wong Fei-hung flick, Ching-wai makes a point to befriend future rising stars Ngau Tat-wah and Li Kei, who he casts in his own productions: Days of Being Wild, Happy Together, and Ashes of Time. All are massive flops, but Ching-wai does discover one person who loves his work -- a young future exploitation producer Wong Jing.