Winners and Sinners
Director: Sammo Hung
Year: 1983
Rating: 8.0
This is the first
in the series of films that came to be called The Lucky Stars and right
from the opening shots the tone of the series is set. The films focus on
a group of five slightly bumbling, slightly crooked friends who band together
to fend off the rest of the world. Often they fight among themselves, but
when the chips are down they are always there for one another.
Sammo Hung directs this with an infectious mix of comedy and action. The
comedy can seem fairly adolescent at times, but sometimes its pure silliness
can be very winning. Though the comedy may not be to everyone’s taste, the
action is absolutely top notch. The stunts and fights are as good as anything
you will see. The main thrust of these Lucky Star films though is the comedy
and the chemistry of the characters with action scenes a secondary concern.
The first few scenes introduce us to the five main characters in very amusing
vignettes. Sammo is a cat burglar who spies a darkened apartment that seems
like a good candidate for a quick heist. After he breaks in, the lights go
on and he realizes that it is a surprise party for someone other than himself
- though he still takes the time to kiss a girl! Oops – time to go and he
makes his escape by sliding down a wire – right into a waiting police van.
Richard Ng who has some beautifully comic moments in this film is a car
thief, but makes the mistake of trying to steal the car of a police inspector
(Philip Chan) with him underneath it.
Charlie Chin – the suave handsome one in the group – has a great scam going
to steal jewelry – but gets caught in the middle of a real robbery and gets
nabbed by the cops.
John Sham (Curley) is a union organizer for prostitutes and the less than
happy massage owners set him up to be arrested.
The final member of the fivesome is Stanley
Fung.
All of them end up in jail where they become
fast friends and when they are released – amazingly on the same day – they
decide to stay together and open a cleaning service. They all crash at Sham’s
house where his sister also lives. They tentatively ask Sham “from
the same mother and father?” When he affirms this their hopes are dashed
but they soon rise quickly when Cherie Chung comes out of the kitchen.
Cherie has a large role in this film and looks terrific. Later she gets
right in the middle of the action and receives (and gives) a few hard looking
whacks. She is the first of the Lucky Star girls in which the tradition
is quickly set where all the men (not her brother in this case!) chase after
them and make every attempt to romance them or at the very least grab a feel.
This is all done in a very schoolboy manner and is never successful.
The first hour of the film is nearly all comedy – with one priceless routine
in which Richard Ng thinks he is invisible – but after some counterfeit plates
accidentally end up with them – it turns into some great action.
Jackie Chan plays a cop who is after the counterfeiters. Though Jackie’s
role is more an extended cameo than a primary one, he does have time for one
good fight and then an incredible sequence in which he chases a car on roller
skates for miles. This has a few amazing stunts and then leads to possibly
the biggest car pileup ever seen this side of a Burt Reynolds film – it goes
on and on until some fifty cars are wrecked.
The boys and Cherie end up taking on the bad guys in two different fights
– one hilarious and the other one absolutely brilliant. The fight in the warehouse
with Sammo taking on Dick Wei and a multitude of other henchman is a classic.
Look also for the quick cameo from Yuen Biao and Moon Lee as his girlfriend.
Yuen gets to throw a few punches, but not poor Moon.
This film is a lot of fun – with enjoyable performances from everyone –
and can’t be taken at all seriously. Just sit back and let the silliness
and the excellent action entertain you.