Tricky Business
Director: Lee Lik-chi
Year: 1995
Rating: 6.5
This is another film
that is about that HK peculiarity - the professional trickster. Though this
film has its funny moments, it relies more on the charms of its two stars
- Lau Ching-Wan and Anita Yuen. These two have starred in seven films together
and they have developed a great easy going chemistry.
The first ten minutes had me in stitches.
The goon of a rich tycoon is sent to the office of the Tricky King (Lau Ching-Wan)
to test his abilities. By the time this goon rolls out of the skyscraper
onto the sidewalk, he is ready for a month’s stay at an asylum due to the
various pranks played on him by the trickster. The rest of the film though
never reaches this level of hilarity as it turns into a romantic comedy.
After LCW refuses to do business with the tycoon, the tycoon hires the Tricky
Emperor to get the Tricky King. It turns out that their families have feuded
since the Ming Dynasty.
After one trickster attack on LCW, he rushes
after the Trickster Emperor and accidentally knocks down Anita Yuen. Anita
is blind and was on her way to have a cornea transplant. Now she loses her
opportunity and LCW out of guilt invites her and her sister to stay at his
apartment. Romance blooms, but is she for real or is she a ploy of the Tricky
Emperor?
Not a bad film as it goes back and forth
between the romance of LCW and Anita, the frantic and often annoying activities
of Eric Kot and Jerry Lamb and of course the tricky business.
