Niu ji zu zong Chen Mengji

It starts when our hero arrives in town and encounters a rich jerk. He decides to do a long and complicated con on the guy. This time it is more about teaching the jerk a lesson rather than take the money and run.

I am a fan of martial arts movies of the golden age from 1967 to 1984. I came across this comedy because of Shaw Brothers - the biggest name in that genre - so I acquired the Celestial films DVD. The superb picture quality is a relief when watching these movies since so many are no better than VHS size and resolution. I was hoping there might be a fight or two thrown in, but no action at all.

Comedy is very subjective. The viewer also needs some experience with this style of humor. It's mostly physical humor including the usual toilet gags and double takes. Personally, I've watched a lot of these movies and this one falls below average.

There is a scene at the big tea house where the rich guy wants his tea made with "shrimp eyes" boiled water, according to the subtitles. The scene makes a big deal of it so I had to research if this is really a thing or a translation situation. I was educated that, per Chinese, there are five stages of boiling water. First is shrimp eyes, second is crab eyes, third is fish eyes, fourth is rope of pearls and fifth is raging torrent. Each stage is also a specific temperature range and suitable for particular types of tea. You never know what you might learn watching a 45 year old movie.