All for the Winner

Sing comes from the mainland to Hong Kong to stay with his uncle. He is naive, hopeless and has one strange gift: with his eyes closed he can see the backs of cards. His uncle Blackie Tat notices at once and gets him onto the gambling tables. The more he wins the more he is called the Saint of Gamblers, and before long the real casino owners are after him. The film is an open parody of God of Gamblers from the year before: the same gestures, the same slow-motion walks, the same chocolate, all of it broken. Stephen Chow's comic manner settled here, and the pairing with his uncle carries the whole picture. Jeffrey Lau and Corey Yuen directed. Stephen Chow plays Sing and Ng Man-tat plays Blackie Tat. The result was a threshold for Hong Kong cinema. It passed forty-one million Hong Kong dollars, the first local production to cross forty million, and made Chow one of the city's biggest stars. Its success produced a sequel. Who it is for: anyone who likes Hong Kong comedy, gambling films and early Stephen Chow. Who it is not for: anyone who does not know what it is parodying. Many jokes point straight at God of Gamblers, the plot is loose, and the script has almost nothing for its women.