The Gambling Ghost (1991)
Director: Clifton Ko
Cast:
Cast:
Plot: Boa (Sammo Hung) and Leo (Meng Hoi) will gamble on absolutely anything to try and get rich quick. They are small time con men with very little success in their endeavours. Everything they do seems to backfire. When they try to out fool a car thief (Nina Li) they find themselves in trouble with a triad boss (James Wong). Leo is taken hostage by the gangsters and Boa must pay a million dollars to get his friend released. Boa’s father (Sammo Hung) is an honest postman who argues with his son about his wicked ways. One night he gets so angry it raises the spirit of Boa’s grandfather (Sammo Hung) who reveals that he cannot truly rest because he was murdered by his business partner who is now a high ranking triad boss. Grandfather offers to help Boa get rich and get his friend back, but first Boa must promise to avenge his grandfathers death.
Review: This charming action comedy with a gentle hint of the supernatural has an added extra. We get three for the price of one when it comes to its star. Playing three generations of the same family, each with distinctively different personalities and mannerisms, two living and one a ghost. This gives us the opportunity to see Sammo Hung’s comic and occasionally dramatic versatility in one film. We have Boa, the loveable rogue who means well, but thinks he can get rich quick by gambling or cheating. His father, who is honest and works hard as a postman and who appears to have brought his son up alone so his feelings are hurt by Boa’s dishonest ways. Finally there is Grandfather, a somewhat dishonest man in his life time who was murdered and has now come back to use his grandson to help get his revenge.
The film opens with a comic dream sequence that brilliantly parodies “The God Of Gamblers” and features cameos by Corey Yuen and Paul Chun. This pretty much sets the tone for the film that will follow. This is fundamentally a comedy and even though we know it will contain some action it stays fairly light with little more than cuts and bruises being dished out. What makes this a little different from most films that feature Sammo Hung is that the action choreography was done by co-star Meng Hoi. I guess playing three lead characters was more than enough to occupy the big man on this project. In several scenes he is actually just acting against himself. One of the funniest is when Grandfather first sets up the revenge plan. When they are at the casino with Boa gambling based on his supernatural tips there are several impressive visual gags, especially when the dice show three of the same number.
Nina Li adds plenty of glamour to her role as the professional car thief and con woman who initially outsmarts Boa and Leo, but later helps them against the triad boss. Personally I think she a little underused and her character does not get enough screen time to really develop, but she does get the opportunity to get involved in the action and beats up James Wong’s character when he threatens her with rape. Some of the communist references and jokes may not travel too well outside of the Hong Kong market, but it is a minor criticism of the humour in an otherwise often hilarious film.
This wouldn’t be a Hong Kong action comedy if it didn’t have a line up of famous faces in minor support roles. We have Lam Ching Ying in a purely comic role playing a modern day exorcist. His performance here is completely different from the Taoist Priest roles he is famous for playing. In actual fact we get James Tien who turns up playing a Taoist Priest advisor to the triad boss played by Teddy Yip. Comically trying to get rid of Grandfather the ghost while praising Buddha. Chung Faat appears in the flash back scenes that show Grandfather’s murder, while Wu Ma plays what appears to be a movie extra in full historical costume desperate to win the lottery. I just have to mention Stanley Fong who has a very quick cameo as a traffic cop, and also Richard Ng, who also plays a policeman in a later scene. OK. Name dropping done for now. Back to the film………
….And so to the action. The thing that makes this an above average film for me is the action and more precisely the detail in the action. Sammo’s individual character performance carries into these scenes to the point that he even fights in different styles and with different skill levels depending on which role he is playing. Boa is not a great fighter and this is made evident early on, but in the later scenes when Grandfather possesses his body to help there is a marked improvement in style and ability. This is first conveyed to great effect in the scenes set at the container yard when Boa is trying to get Leo back. With his new found supernatural powers, Boa is even able to fly to the top of the stack of containers and to deflect missiles by blowing on them.
The action if the finale is a little more violent, as you would expect, but still keeps the sense of fun. Sammo as Boa fights Bobby Samuels in a slightly disappointing bout where it always looks like Sammo is holding back and waiting for Samuels to make his next move. It may just be Samuels’ lack of experience working in Hong Kong movies where expectations are so much higher. It’s not really a bad fight, it just doesn’t live up to the high standard you usually get. While this is going on poor Meng Hoi is taking a serious beating off Billy Chow, who once again shines as the main fighting villain. It really is no wonder that Billy took over from Dick Wei as the villain of choice from the late eighties onwards. One of my favourite moments of the film follows when Boa’s father turns up, and to everyone’s surprise defeats Billy Chow without breaking into a sweat. It seems like the mild mannered postman has some secrets of his own.
In conclusion I must say that I find this to be another very enjoyable film with some great moments of comedy and three magnificent performances from Sammo Hung. I always enjoy seeing Sammo and Meng Hoi work together as they are friends in real life there is always a good chemistry between them. The action is not as plentiful as some of Sammo’s outings, but the film as a whole remains engaging throughout with a magnificent sense of fun. This may not be a classic in the vast catalogue of Sammo Hung’s movies, but it is still one that comes highly recommended for an enjoyable evening’s viewing.
Rating: 4/5
Review by D. M.
Photos by Klara
Photos by Klara
For bigger photos please click on thumbnails
