All for the Winner
Year of release: 1990
Genre: comedy
Director: Jeff Lau
Action director: Corey Yuen
Producer: Ng See-Yuen
Stars: Stephen Chow, Ng Man-Tat, Sandra Ng, Cheung Man, Paul Chun, Sheila Chan, Jeff Lau, Corey Yuen
Rated II for violence and language
Version reviewed: Mei Ah VCD
All for the Winner was Stephen Chow's first true "nonsense" comedy, and it proved to be a huge hit in Hong Kong. It took in over HK$40 million (a huge sum for the time) and unseated A Better Tomorrow as the box office champ. Though it's not as accomplished as Chow's later work, All for the Winner is still a very funny movie that has some good action sequences to boot.
The plot roughly follows the same arc as most of Chow's other films. He plays a country bumpkin named Sing-Chi who comes to Hong Kong to live with his uncle (Ng Man-Tat). Uncle Tat and Sing-Chi don't get along at first because Tat thinks Sing-Chi is bad luck, which isn't good for a gambler. However, after Tat realizes Sing-Chi has supernatural powers, he soon puts them to use in the local casinos. Sing-Chi's winning streak attracts the attention of two competing gamblers (Jeff Lau and Paul Chun), and he begins to fall for one of their bodyguards (Cheung Man). After siding with one of the gamblers, Sing-Chi agrees to represent them in the world gambling tournament, but after seemingly losing his new love, he wants to go back to his hometown.
So if you've seen other Stephen Chow or gambling movies, you've seen this type of plot before. There's really no twists or turns, but then there doesn't really have to be any. Even with an average plot, Chow's manic mannerisms, deft parodies and clever wordplay set his movies apart and make them that much more enjoyable. Even if you don't understand a lick of Cantonese, the subtitles do a pretty good job of translating a lot of jokes, and Chow's physical comedy is nearly un-matched by anyone anywhere in the world. One memorable sequence has Chow imitating Bruce Lee but using a wash-rag instead of Lee's trademark nunchakus (Chow also shows in this part that he really could have been an action star if he wanted to, as he looks quite good delivering the blows).
As is the case with other Chow movies, the supporting cast does an excellent job and manages to out-do Stephen in parts, especially Ng Man-Tat, who as always provides a great straight man to Chow's antics, while getting in a few good jokes of his own. The non-comedic actors like Corey Yuen (who plays one of Tat's room-mates) put in solid work as well, and help make the story more believeable. All for the Winner's only big problem is that there's a lack of polish. All of the elements are there, but they never seem to fully gel together. The film feels a bit long -- it could have used a little better editing, and the exposition scenes are a bit dry. But overall, All for the Winner is a solid HK comedy that should please both long-time fans and those new to the genre.
RATING: 7.5