Perhaps a little surprisingly, 72 Tenants of Prosperity works admirably well in the grand tradition of Chinese New Year comedies. In fact, don't mind the "New Year" at all, the movie is enjoyable even beyond its intended timeframe. Judging from the box-office numbers, the 2010 Spring Festival blockbuster beat all competition and grossed over HK$34 million, a rather impressive feat for Hong Kong films nowadays, and that suggests the prospect of more Tenants in the Chinese New Years to come.

Produced and co-directed by Eric Tsang, 72 Tenants of Prosperity has got a lot going for it. It's got a huge celebrity head count, one that easily gives The Founding of a Republic a run for its Renminbi. Every frame is meticulously filled with familiar faces and casual cameos from movie actors, pop singers, and virtually the entire crew of TVB artists to keep the audience busy. Of this extravagant ensemble cast, Jacky Cheung and Wong Cho Lam stand out in the main leads with their pitch-perfect performances, while Prudence Liew and Bernice Liu are inspired in their supporting roles, too. Despite the enormous size of the cast and all the song-and-dance sequences and movie parodies, the movie is positively noisy without being annoying. Some of the gags involve AV starlets and "lang mos" and poo poos, but they are all harmless and funny without feeling dumb or tasteless.

The new Shaw studio made a smart move with the movie by inheriting the unique Hong Kong characteristics from The House of 72 Tenants while updating its plot to keep up with the times. The opening flashback sequence where Joyce Cheng mimics Lydia Shum instantly sets up this movie as a direct descendant of the '70s classic. Unfolding in modern day Mongkok, 72 Tenants of Prosperity concerns mainly friends-turned-foes Eric Tsang and Jacky Cheung, as the two cellphone sellers fight over a girl in the past and customers in the present. Amidst threats of rental increase and acid bombs, the two renew their rivalry, and their children end up smitten with each other in a Romeo and Juliet kind of forbidden romance. In the end, of course, the delightful Mongkok couple and everyone else get nothing short of a happy ending.