Millionaires Express (1986)
This movie brings together an all-star cast, it's the ultimate Chinese New Year film with the cast of every major comic star and action star who was under contract with Golden Harvest at the time, with the exception of Jackie Chan.
Here we are in Jasper, Canada, the Frozen Waists. At the time a number of films shot by HK companies worked on location in Canada...
Sammo shot
a whole film, Paper Marriage in Canada, exterior stuff for his film Eastern Condors.This was shot when Sammo was - he is still Big Brother - but he was Big Brother Big, Dai Go Dai of Golden Harvest and he could snap his fingers and every actor in town would turn up to be in his films and he could really spend extraordinary amounts of money, because his films had guaranteed box office blockbuster, so he could shot on location... In this movie he’s shooting on location in Canada, Thailand, in Hong Kong and really fulfill his vision. It’s a shame now his career... he doesn’t have that same kind of power, and I hope in the next couple of years as a director and as an actor he’ll be able to come back on form and still tell us some of the stories he has yet untold.
Yuen Biao born 26 July, 1957 in Hong Kong and started off working as a stuntman and kung fu actor in Show Brothers and Golden Harvest films... He really owes, his best films of his career are owed to Sammo, who used him in Knockabout, Prodigal Son, Jackie and Sammo in Project A, Wheels on Meals, a great role in Eastern Condors and it has to be said I think, when he moved away from working with Sammo, his films didn’t really have that same consistening quality they had before. This is again an amazing inventiveness of Sammo and his stunt team, a combination of wirework and actual physical stunts (fire brigade).
This sequence (Sammo in his old home), I always think, there are the
things that make Sammo’s filmmaking different from other HK film
makers, as he always tries to bring in some kind of sentiment, which
sometimes goes into sentimentality, so it’s not just a comedy and
slamm-bang action.This chemistry between Sammo and Yuen Biao (in hotel), very different to Project A where Yuen Biao is this really by the book though as nails cop, and here he’s also a police officer but the chemistry between them is quite different, quite funny, because of course in real life Sammo is Big Brother and Yuen Biao would always have to be totally respectful him, 'cause they grew up together in the opera school and Sammo was the guy who kept all the other kids in line. Their relationship kind of persists to this day.
Lam Ching-ying, an amazing actor, he was a guy of the opera, he was a
student of Madame Fan Fok-fa, who was the other great opera instructor
teaching opera in Hong Kong. And he moved in the industry as a stuntman
and a part player in the Show Brothers movies, he then really came into
his own as an actor under Sammo’s guidance. But you can see him in a
really good supporting role in the movie School on Fire which was
directed by Ringo Lam and he was great. He had a strong dramatic skill
as well, but he never really got many chances. Then in Painted Faces
opposit Sammo he really gets to show his range as a dramatic performer
but here he’s kind of playing against type, it’s a rather comedic role.
This was just so much fun (magnet scene). People talk about comedy not
crossing barriers, but this works for all audiences, it’s just great
physical comedy and I remember when I watched it in theater on the
first day in a midnight show in London, the audience was howling,
probably Chinese audience with a couple of Westerners, but people were
laughing their asses off.This scene actually coming up is one of the rare times we really see Sammo and Yuen Biao go toe to toe and the reason for that is the size difference
between them, it was kind of odd to have them fighting... But
here we actually get to see them go at it… we’re gonna see Yuen Biao
come running in and Sammo hits him with a back kick and we cut to this
cool closeup of Sammo. But actually Sammo kicked Yuen Biao so hard for
this particular technique knowing I guess that Yuen Biao could take it,
but Chin Ka Lok told me – he was actually doubling for Yuen Biao on
some stuff which is kind of unusual because Yuen Biao is normally the
guy who’s doubling everybody else – that kick and he couldn’t get his
breath, he was kind of choking and Ka Lok had to run up and squeze his
chest to get him breathing again, they were quite worried for that
moment… As I mentioned before Yuen Biao normally the guy who doubles for
everybody else but actually a gag coming up that Chin Ka Lok did for
him and almost got killed doing (he landed on his neck).The movie was a huge hit in HK, it came out in 1986, groced over HK$ 27 million, making the second highest grocing film in that year right behind A Better Tomorrow which was the film that put Chow Yun Fat on the map.
The many things I like about Sammo’s movies, as well as all the slapstick you actually do get some rather quieter comedy moment, just kind of quirky and more thoughtful.
This is kind of funny, the little insert shot here when he’s got the
thing upside down (Kenny Bee holding the card). You never get Sammo,
when he can ring another moment of comedy from a film, he always does,
he never does something very straight, he always finds a way to add a
little twist to it.This shot coming up when they announce how many years Sammo’s gonna be in prison, and he has this great shot of him, he just moves his
eyes.
Normally closeups is like eye-acting, and for a wider shot like this
you have to move your body in some way indicate the motion, but Sammo
is such an innovative filmmaker that he actually has this moment here:
his eyes just move... that’s it, that’s all you need.Here we have the invasion of the town and by the end of it the town is pretty depopulated, this is kind of a rather black humour of Sammo, he has these guys come in and they kind of basically hammer the hell out all the people who’re living here, so we are getting people raped, murdered, killed an robbed by the bad guys.
Mentioning the funky haircut of Sammo, he always comes up with interesting new looks. He had that perm in Wheels on Meals, I mean he probably figures that his shape is about the same, he’s always got this kind of burly physique, but he had like that Bruce Lee pudding ball for Skinny Tiger Fatty Dragon and here he has this kind of... he looks like he stepped out a new age band. He’s got the hair slightly shaved on the sides. He’s very-very canny in terms of his own image.
Sammo getting these 2 sticks here, which are gonna be used to a
greater effect in a sequence coming up. Sammo with any weapons is
fantastic. Partly because Sammo done real kung fu training but also
because of the way he’s worked with the opera weapons in the past.
Opera is all about spinning weapon and other instruments around your
body in this kind of really energetic and graceful manner and this is
what you see when he’s put a weapon in his hand, you get traditional
kung fu but also kind of an opera fluidity and energy which is always a
joy to watch