Do sing

From Seasonal Films and Ng See Yuen, comes one of my favourite Chow Sing Chi (and Jeff Lau) films, All For The Winner - a ridiculously hilarious comedy that spoofs Wong Jing's mega-hit, God Of Gamblers, parodying many memorable scenes, music and even artwork to excite any fan of Hong Kong film!

Of course, it has a lot of its own originality also, including some great action scenes courtesy of co-director Corey Yuen Kwai - who also co-stars. He is joined by the always fantastic Sandra Ng and Chow's regular right-hand-man, Ng Man Tat who plays his uncle Tat, with the majority of the films comedy based around the incredible on-screen chemistry these guys have together due to their long working career alongside each other.

Co-director Jeff Lau gets his obligatory role, this time as a big boss gambler, and the rest of the cast is pretty strong with the great (Sharla) Cheung Man and Wan Yeung Ming - both of which play the aids of King Of Gamblers, Paul Chun, a very recognisable face from almost 200 Hong Kong movies. Even the great Chow Yun Fat gets a brief appearance albeit through a video when Chow and Ng are watching God of Gamblers in order to learn how to behave at gambling matches...

And of course, when you have a country bumpkin as daft as Chow Sing Chi trying to play the suave, cool city slicker (now known as the Saint of Gamblers), you know its just going to get even more ridiculous! Cue the slow motion walking, insane card tricks, and hilarious reactions which shows Chow at his best with lots of laugh-out-loud moments!

Ironically, Chow Sing Chi would also star in God of Gamblers 2 the same year playing a role pretty much exactly the same in director Wong Jing's satirical sequel that also stars Andy Lau as his character from the original.

The great Corey Yuen provides some fantastic action scenes, even giving us a great shot of Cheung Man in a slo-mo, John Woo/Chow Yun Fat inspired, double-gun moment before letting loose on the bad guys in a rescue mission. The chubby faced Sheila Chan gets in on the action in a restaurant fight, along with Ng Man Tat in a dress... As per usual, when Chow Sing Chi gets a bit of action time, the Bruce Lee moves start coming out - including one such moment that may have inspired him to do Fist Of Fury 1991 and leaves the cross-dressing uncle Tat foaming at the mouth...

A lot of people I know (and other critics) can't handle Chow Sing Chi's kind of humour, but I love it and do think he is one of the funniest actors ever. Personally, I believe he has inspired many a Jim Carrey and Will Farrell moment with his insane style of comedy, and probably don't laugh out as loud at other comedies like I do when watching his! And in All For The Winner, there are far too many to mention!

Overall: I can't love this movie enough. Definitely one of the best action comedies from Hong Kong's golden years!

Stephen Chow comes from Gwangzhou to Taiwan to stay with his uncle Man-Tat Ng, Uncle is a degenerate gambler, and it turns out that Chow has two, count 'em, two superpowers: he can see through objects, which allows him to see cards through their backs, and he can change one thing to another, like the ime he changes a ticket of horse #4 to the winning 9. Stephen winds up representing Taiwan in an international gambling competition,where people are willing to kidnap and kill opponents to win. He also falls wildly in love with Man Cheung, an absolutely deadly spy except when the plot calls for her to be kidnapped, which makes Chow's powers fail.

It's as filled with ridiculous and funny gags as any Stephen Chow movie, with Man-Tat Ng getting in a fair share as the second banana. What it lacks is a sense of progress, that this leads someplace, as the gags seem added just to fill out screen time. I laughed a lot, but even the funniest sequence must connect to the rest of the movie.

Ridiculously funny and filled to the brim with style, chow in particular has a great screen presence and does dumb incredibly well, slapstick isn't really my thing but the way it is handled in this film is incredibly well-done with absolute precision, this is all helped by the impeccable blocking, there are three type of scenes in this movie: comedic slapstick scenes, action scenes (hand to hand combat), and gambling scenes, and each one is edited and filmed in completely distinct and wonderful ways, it takes three different genres and manages to create something beautiful in all those three ways, lau's direction is something that is over the top but also manages to be incredibly subtle in how brilliant everything is done, it is a very simple story but it manages to be entirely complex with the filmmaking, writing, and performances, one of those gems that might be one in a long line hong kong slapstick/action pictures but even if that is the case this still manages to be incredibly well-made and consistently hysterical

would make a great double feature with Roger Donaldson/Tom Cruise's Cocktail.

A 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.

All 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.

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