L'Arnaqueur de Hong Kong

A high budget sequel to the original, bringing glossy action and locations as well as gambling, chocolate, a gorgeous heroine and occasional slapstick comedy.

The scene when Dagger attempts to seduce a woman who believes him to be the God of Gamblers is alone hilarious.

With a romantic subplot, great action set-pieces and more stylishly filmed gambling, this film ups the ante on the first in the series, bringing in more magic, treachery and gunfights, with a welcome return from the ever-cool Dragon and a more sinister villain than last time.

Do you play the gamble?

(1994) God of Gamblers' Return (In Chinese with English subtitles) ACTION/ COMEDY

Written and directed by Wong Jing wanted to make some money and he knows how to do it, by making this nonsensical 2nd or 4th whatever you call it! Whatever what was shown on this film had already been shown before on other films whether it's action or comedy and was better! This was a total waste of time that despite doing really well at the box office making it the highest grossing movie of that year in Hong Kong, star Chow Yun Fat disapproved of Wong Jing's direction this time one reason that is apparent was that in the first film suave Chow Yun Fat always wore a suit and tie and in this one I don't remember him wearing one at all! The gags are not funny because of a lack of credibility where the jokes are forced as well as the action sequences meaning that director Wong Jing didn't put too much thought into this film and just wanted to make a fast buck! You can watch this for curiosity sake, if you like what you saw from the first three movies.

RETURN OF THE GOD OF GAMBLERS is another knockabout comedy from Wong Jing and a sequel to his earlier hit starring Chow Yun-fat. I did find that film a bit of a chore to sit through at times, with the whole amnesia sub-plot eating up too much of the running time and the gambling limited to the final moments; the spin offs, particularly those starring Stephen Chow, were much more interesting. This belated sequel, one of Yun-fat's last movies before he upped sticks to America, is slightly worse than the first one, mainly because, as before, most of its not about gambling. Instead we get long stretches of typical Hong Kong comedy and, truth be told, it's not very funny. Tony Leung is wasted as a kind of idiot sidekick, Chingmy Lau looks great but has little to do, and a couple of knock-off John Woo-style shoot-outs add very little to the experience. Forgettable!

Chow was witty, funny and cool as cucumber. His whole charisma shows in this film. Under the jovial mask hides the God of Gambler. Force is just the means to an end, wits is the ultimate deciding factor.

After many sequels and spin-offs, this is the one true sequel to the original God of Gamblers, returning Chow-Yun Fat as the gambling master Ko Chun. This time, after living a seemingly quiet life, a new nemesis has murdered his family and he has vowed to seek revenge on those who did him and his family harm, while concealing his God of Gamblers identity for one year.

As a sequel, I think this film does not compare to the intrigue, charm, humor and drama as found in the original movie, as the action scenes were, in my opinion, overkill, and the characters weren't as memorable - even though some respected actors such as Tony Leung-Ka Fai and Chingmy Yau have starring roles.

The kid in the movie was a little annoying and the gambling scenes in the movie were over-hyped. There are some intense and suspenseful moments, especially when Ko Chun finally takes on his nemesis. There are also some funny moments from Leung-Ka Fai, but overall, it's not one of the more intriguing gambling movies.

Grade C-