God of Gamblers

Ko Chun is the legend of the gambling world and nobody beats him. After a fall he suffers a head injury and drops mentally to the level of a child. In that state he falls into the hands of Knife, a small time con artist. Knife tries to use him and then works out who he is. His rivals treat his disappearance as an opportunity. Wong Jing writes and directs. Chow Yun-fat plays Ko Chun and Andy Lau plays Knife. The film started a genre in Hong Kong. After its success gambling films became a wave, producing a decade of sequels, imitations and spin offs; Stephen Chow's All for the Winner belongs to it. Chow Yun-fat is the centre. He plays two entirely different characters inside one film: the cold, infallible gambler and the man with a child's mind. The second produces the comedy and the first produced an iconography that is still being repeated. The visual signature comes from here: the entrance in slow motion, a dedicated theme, the fixation on chocolate, and the moment the cards are turned. It did extraordinary business and was among the highest grossing Hong Kong films of its time. Who it is for: viewers who like Hong Kong popular cinema and gambling films. Who it is not for: the tone jumps constantly between comedy and violence, and the action in the last section feels bolted on.