The Private Eyes

Michael Hui plays a mean and irritable man running a small detective agency under his own name. Two people work for him: an assistant who can do nothing right and an employee who can fight but never gets paid. The agency takes any job going, from following unfaithful spouses to investigating thefts. When it finally runs into a real gang, all three men's competence is put to the test. It is one of the turning points in Hong Kong comedy. Before it, local comedies were largely made in Mandarin; the Hui brothers put Cantonese-speaking, urban, wage-earning characters at the centre and the audience answered. The humour is entirely about money: negotiating pay, a bonus withheld, a stingy boss. Sam Hui's song, which gives the film its Chinese title, became one of the best-known pieces in Cantopop. Michael Hui both directed and took the lead.