How To Be a Millionaire
Director: Clifton Ko and Raymond Wong
Rating: 5.0
Year: 1989
If you haven't been here before, welcome to the
world of Raymond Wong comedies. Escape while you can. I exaggerate. But during
the 1980s into the 1990s he was a major force as a producer and actor in
Hong Kong comedies. Think Stephen Chow and subtract 50 points from their
I.Q. Think Wong Jing and subtract 20 points from their I.Q. His comedies
which he often wrote are extremely silly, juvenile, filled with pratfalls
and gay jokes and urine jokes and sex jokes, often pervy in an innocent creepy
middle aged man kind of way and chockful of attractive girls. And they were
considered family films. He was behind the Happy Ghost films, lots of teenage
films (the Happy Troupe Girls), many of the All's Well Chinese New Year films
and a flurry of just goofy films. He was one of the founders of Cinema City
along with Dean Shek and Karl Maka that produced some classic Hong Kong comedies.
But if you look beyond the comedies, he is one of the most prolific producers
in Hong Kong - right up to the present day. A look at his filmography will
blow you away. The Bride with White Hair, The Chinese Feast, Ip Man 2, 3
& 4, Master Z, the P Storm, G Storm, L Storm and G Storm and on and on
and on.
But when I think of him I still think of his old comedies - primarily because
he was the lead man in many of them. His crumpled pillowcase Howdy Doody
face is not what leading men are suppose to look like. Not even in comedies.
But he was the producer. In so many of them he is trying to get laid - has
little fantasies - and is never successful. And I admit to having seen a
number of them because as bad as they are on one level, they can be quite
funny on another level. They also have some of my favorite actresses. There
are some funny bits in this film. Dumb stuff but so dumb that I could not
help but laugh. This one is likely based or inspired or stolen from How To
Succeed in Business Without Really Trying - the 1967 hit out of Hollywood.
Raymond plays Wong Sheung, a poor teacher living on Cheung Chau who decides
to go to Hong Kong and make money. He has to share an apartment with another
tenant - Elizabeth Lee - jump to fantasy of taking a shower with her - I
may have had that one as well. Poor guy. She plays a dimwitted giggly sex
machine in this and her boyfriend Lowell Lo is called 14 knives because he
carries that many around with him. He also becomes friends with Ping (Pauline
Yeung - Dragons Forever, The Holy Virgin vs the Evil Dead) a sweet neighbor
who has a bad leg. He gets a job at a corporation and seems to be going nowhere
and also getting nowhere with the boss's daughter in law (Olivia Cheng).
Then he finds a diary of a millionaire who just killed himself and within
is a guide as how to get ahead. Most of it consists of backstabbing, sucking
up and being an all around bounder. He takes the lessons to heart and becomes
an absolute creep - even blackmailing the daughter in law to sleep with him.
Did Robert Morse do that? He uses the very nutty Elizabeth Lee to ruin the
careers of two men ahead of him - one being Ricky Hui in a small part. She
is adorable doing it. But you begin to wonder just how much of a shit he
will become. But it works as he rises up the corporate ladder as he leaves
his soul behind. But it's a comedy. I have to give Wong and Lee credit for
one scene - they go to Thailand and have an elephant massage them and then
walk over them. You could see they both found it hilarious.
Small parts for Anthony Wong very early in his career, veterans Tien Feng,
Tin Ching, Wong San and Teddy Yip. It is directed by Clifton Ko and Raymond
Wong. They were to work together on a number of films over the next decade.
