Carry on Pickpocket
Director: Sammo Hung
Year: 1982
Rating: 7.0
Sammo Hung gives
us this modest offering as both actor and director. It is for the most part
a fairly sweet comedy with some action thrown in. Until the last twenty minutes
that is. Then in true HK fashion it becomes a pretty violent action fest
with blood splattered all over. Sammo is part of a gang of four pickpockets.
There is the elderly mastermind (Lau Hak-suen), his daughter (Pang Sau-ha
- married to Yuen Biao since 1984) who often uses her ample cleavage to distract
the victim, and Sammo and his friend (Frankie Chan) who do the pickpocketing.
It is quite fun to watch the science of pickpocketing take place and we see
the many ways that are used to distract the target. After seeing this I am
never going out with my wallet again!
Sammo goes to a disco one evening and falls
in love at first sight with a woman (Deannie Yip) who is by herself. To impress
her, he enacts a Charley Chaplin routine with his hot buns. Later he does
John Travolta proud as he twirls her around the floor. Sammo has all the
moves! It turns out that she is a cop, but doesn’t seem to mind his choice
of employment. In fact, she recruits him to help her nab a jewel thief by
pickpocketing some valuable diamonds from him. Sammo accomplishes this, but
the guy knows that Sammo did it and where Sammo lives and comes after him
with his entire gang. This eventually leads to the bloody outcome on a ship.
This is a charming little film with Sammo
showing many facets of both his comedic and athletic skills. Richard Ng is
the hapless cop who is always trying to arrest Sammo.