This is probably Stephen Chow's signature movie, where he plays Chow Sing Cho, a Mainland nephew who visits his Uncle Tat (Man Tat Ng) in Hong Kong and is being encouraged by him to enter the gambling world. Cho possesses supernatural powers that enable him to see through objects, thus, Tat thinks this would be a good strategy for Cho to score some big gambling wins to him get out of being poor.Co-directed by nonsensical comedy buff Jeffrey Lau, this film actually has a well mixture of action and drama, from Cho running into the Hong Kong Triads to him attempting to learn the real reason beyond his powers. There is also a good dose of slapstick comedy courtesy of Man Tat Ng and Sandra Ng, who plays the funny Ping, the love interest of Coren Yuen's character. It's a good thing the slapstick stuff doesn't get annoying that will leave a bad aftertaste. In addition, thrown in the beautiful Sharla Cheung and a host of other familiar faces in Hong Kong cinema (Paul Chun, Yuen-yan Lo and Sheila Chan), you'll get a good rush of entertainment. The plot goes at a fairly fast pace from start finish and all the card playing, triad stuff (wished the villain was utilized more, though), Kung-Fu action and comic humor make this an entertaining film.Grade B+
... View MoreAll for the Winner, a parody of the Chow Yun Fat movie God of Gamblers, was a huge hit in Asia, further cementing Stephen Chow's reputation as a sure-fire box-office success. Personally, I found the film rather tedious; Chow may have had them rolling in the aisles in Hong Kong, but I watched rather stony-faced, only really enjoying the occasional fight scene or high-octane shoot-out (courtesy of action director, Corey Yuen).Chow plays Sing, a young man from the mainland, who travels to Hong Kong to stay with his uncle Tat (Man Tat Ng). When Tat discovers that Sing possesses supernatural powers, he tries to exploit them by taking him gambling. But Sing's success at the tables attracts the attention of two rival gamblers/gangsters, both of whom wish to take advantage of his mysterious talents I'm guessing that a lot of the movie's comedy was lost in translation (some particularly dodgy subtitles didn't help), since I didn't find it very funny; add to that my general indifference to the gambler genre and I suppose I wasn't destined to love this film as much as I had some of Chow's other offerings (King of Comedy is my favourite so far).Corey Yuen's deft handling of the action sequences make the film a not entirely worthless viewing experience, but there just aren't enough of them. A few more high-kicking bullet-spraying scenes and I'd have been a much happier bunny.After the worldwide success of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, Chow is at last receiving global recognition and I hope that future projects will be as accessible to an international audience as these were. It would be a shame to see Chow losing fans around the world due to his sometimes more baffling and distinctly Chinese 'humour'.
... View MoreAll For The Winner (1990) was a Tawainese produced parody of the God of Gamblers. Stephen Chow stars 'The Saint of Gamblers", a mainland country bumpkin who comes to Hong Kong to visit his uncle Blackie Tat (Ng Man Tat). When Blackie learns about Stephen's special gift, he tries to turn him into a money making machine. Chow's favorite comic foil Sandra Ng co-stars as Blackie's roommate, co-director Corey Yuen also has a role as Sandra's husband. Paul Chiang plays the Gambling King and the other co-director Jeff Lau co-stars as his rival.All For The Winner was a huge success and it cemented Stephen Chow's place as one of the biggest stars in Hong Kong. Wong Jing was so impressed with this parody, he produced an off shoot sequel starring Stephen Chow. This chance meeting made the two a huge amount of money and several funny productions as well. "Sharla" Cheung Man (co-star of God of Gamblers) plays Yee Mong (Beautiful Dream) a woman that Chow pines for but doesn't believe he's good enough for (he follows her through a few more sequels).A sleeper hit throughout Asia. The film has several excellent action set pieces (courtesy of Corey Yuen) and the comic timing of Stephen Chow and Ng Man Tat is unbelievable.Highly recommended!Followed by God of Gamblers 2. All for the Winner 2 was produced by the Jeff Lau/ Corey Yuen team co-starring most of the principle actors from the first film with Anita Mui co-starring as Chow's sister.xxx
... View MoreA parody of movies like "God of Gamblers", Chow plays a young mainland Chinese who comes to visit his uncle in Hong Kong. His uncle discovers that Chow has certain talents and takes advantage of them by using them to win at gambling. Eventually, Chow's character ends up involved with shady characters, falling in love, and competing in a world championship card game. Over-all, not as good as "God of Cookery", but a good solid Stephen Chow film.
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