Return of the Lucky
Stars
Director:
Stanley Fung
Year: 1988
Rating: 5.0
The Lucky Stars was a classic Hong Kong series
of films beginning in 1983 and going till 1996. The seven films included
are Winners and Sinners (1983), My Lucky Stars (1985), Twinkle Twinkle Lucky
Stars (1985), Lucky Stars Go Places (1986), Return of the Lucky Stars (1989),
Ghost Punting (1992) and How to Meet the Lucky Stars (1996). This was the
only one I had not seen. Not sure how it had skipped by me. Luck perhaps.
The films were the brainchild of Sammo Hung who collected around him some
of the best comic actors in Hong Kong, but also some of the best action actors
as well. These were action comedies with the emphasis on the comedy - but
the occasional action set-pieces were brilliant. Especially in the early
ones when there were actors like Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, Sammo, Lam Ching-ying,
Michiko Nishiwaki, Andy Lau, Dick Wei, Richard Norton, Yasuaki Kurata, Chung
Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Elaine Lui among others.
There were also the beauties - Sibelle Hu,
Rosamund Kwan, Cherie Chung, Carina Lau, Francoise Yip and others. The first
three in the series are pretty good but the quality and action scenes go
downhill quickly from there on. Jackie and Biao had moved on but the comedy
actors - Richard Ng, Stanley Fung, Eric Tsang, Michael Kiu Wai-miu stuck
around and the comedy began to take up more and more of the films. By this
film, there is practically no action and what there is, won't get any second
looks. And the comedy is very Hong Kong and in today's world really crass,
juvenile and politically incorrect. In all the films as best as I can recall
- there is the object of desire. The boys manage to finagle a situation where
a young innocent woman is living with them and then do their best to peep
on her or seduce her. Always without success mind you because they are all
nitwits. The scene in this film when they all pretend to be ghosts to scare
Carina Lau and get into bed with her - one after the other - edges very closely
to way too creepy for a family comedy.
The four of them (Sammo is out of the series)
have opened a wedding, dating shop and promised that this time they were
going to make money - even a 38-22-36 won't distract us from money. Then
Elsie Chan walks in with her fiancé and all bets are off as the boys
do everything to cop a feel and see her naked - even dressing up as women
to take her measurements. That didn't go well. Next, they hire Carina Lau
as a secretary, cook, house cleaner and anything they want. They want only
one thing. Police Captain Walter Tso (a legend going back to the 1950s) needs
their help in going after a top bad guy (Wong Ching) - they have been dragged
in to help in previous films - Tso is in most of these - but this time they
refuse. Get Jackie Chan, they tell him. Until he frames them and tosses them
in jail. He will get them out if they help him. And it gets even dumber.
There are laughs from time to time but a lot of dead time in between. In
the film there is also Joan Tong and Kenneth Tsang. One decent parody of
A Better Tomorrow.
