TheTricky Master

Director: Wong Jing
Year: 1999
Rating: 5.0

What a dull affair Wong Jing and Stephen Chow have invited us to. I suspect most of the blame can be laid on the doorstep of Jing who both produces and directs this film. Chow who is only in half of the film has the look of a hired hand – and appears as bored as I felt. The film just has no impetus or rhythm as it jumps haphazardly from gag to gag with a bare bones hackneyed plot as it’s justification.

 
If the gags were consistently funny, this could easily be excused but it is hit and usually miss for the most part. Many of the gags involve parodies of other films from The Matrix (dodging bullets) to The Truman Show (plugging products) to Baywatch. Some of these are amusing, but after a while they just feel tiresome. A film has to be more than parodies, cleavage and dog shit jokes – doesn’t it?  Nick Cheung is the main character in this film and he plays an undercover cop who after posing as a student to save a rich girl from kidnappers (Fight Back to School III) gets the assignment to infiltrate the gang of Ferrari played by Wong Jing. Jing knows immediately that Nick is an undercover cop and humiliates him by showing the world a live feed of him frantically stripping (American Pie) while First Love (Jing's latest discovery - Kelly Lam) waits for him in the bedroom.
 
 

Finally Cheung has to turn to his girlfriend’s (Suzi Kwan) brother-in-law – Chow who is a famous swindler and conman. Chow is married to Kwan’s sister, Sandra Ng. Chow sets a plan in motion to revenge Cheung and bring Jing to his knees. We have only seen this plot a few hundred times before. The lack of inspiration is palpable and the film looks like it was thrown together over a long weekend. After Chow’s last film, the wonderful The King of Comedy, this was a major disappointment. There were small parts for the very odd Bobby Yip as a transvestite body guard who gives a monologue about his wife leaving him (which reflects real life I belive) and Ken Lo as one of the gang - and he has a short fight with Chow.

 
Rating: 5.0