Dickson Leung’s Good Game is a classic underdog story mixed with the contemporary world of eSports. It follows Solo (Or), a brash and talented gamer, who gets dropped by his highly-rated corporate team after his ego-fueled gameplay sees his team lose a major final. After seeking solace in the local internet cafe, he reluctantly joins a fledgling eSports team comprised of Tai (Lam), the brash owner of the failing cafe, his daughter Fay (Chan), and retired action star Octo (Meng), who play under the name Happy Hour. Leading the team in his own, selfish way, Solo aims to reach the final of Hong Kong’s premier eSports competition, but he’ll have to learn teamwork and humility if he is to succeed in his goal.

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Combining the well-worn conventions of the sporting underdog story with comedy and, sometimes, drama, Good Game is a charming, quirky, and fun story that felt fresh given the digital setting, but one with an emotional core that grounded proceedings nicely. Narratively, it’s fairly safe and mostly predictable; it follows people who have been knocked down but fight their way back up, but that doesn’t bother me when you have a cast that is having fun and characters that make it easy to root for them. The unlikely team that is strung together offers plenty of opportunities for jokes, warmth, and emotion, especially with scenes regarding Octo and his wife Lan (Fung), who is suffering from dementia and uses gaming, alongside Octo, as a cognitive aid.

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Good Game sets up some interesting discussions surrounding ageism in eSports, with the idea that only the young can play and truly excel, though, like many of the subplots, it doesn’t really run too far with it. Similarly, with budding relationships and long-running injuries, the film offers these as tantalising threads but leaves them mostly as just that. It’s fair to say the film rushes through many of its beats, including a late film training montage. Obviously, the idea of finding family and friends in unlikely places takes centre stage, and the chemistry between the cast sells this brilliantly.

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Whilst Solo is the focus of the film, and Or’s performance as the character evolves from a selfish introvert to a pure team player is great, the heart of the film is Andrew Lam’s Tai. Tai enters the eSports tournament in the hope of winning the hefty prize money to pay off his debts and keep the internet cafe open, but also to prove to Fay and his ex-wife, played by Ng, that he is more than just a layabout. He is the glue, but everyone brings something to the team. Fay, played wonderfully by Chan, brings a youthful effervescence (and a crush on Solo), and Octo is the calm head of the team.

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Rather than opting for expensive and potentially bad-looking CGI to recreate the gaming sequences, Leung instead cast actors to play the digital avatars of the team, which allowed for choreographed action sequences in both first-person and third-person perspectives. Though the locations were kept minimal, the effect was nonetheless pleasing as the scenes were augmented by digital effects to better deliver the gaming presentation and experience.

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At the end of the day, it’s a feel-good story, and, well, I smiled a lot, and, damn, I welled up a few times as well. It’s not a perfect film by any means, but Good Game delivered plenty of heart with an equal dash of kookiness and nailed the basics of the underdog story. I bloody loved it.