Ricky Hui Movies

A Hui (Michael Hui) is a petty, stingy man who owns a restaurant specializing in a certain kind of duck dish. Although the restaurant is filthy, thanks in part to the unspeakable habits of its chef, and the service is awful, the food is good, and he has a loyal clientele. That is, until an international chain opens up a fried chicken restaurant across the street, and hires his admittedly incompetent headwaiter to parade back and forth across the street in a chicken costume to advertise the place. Now his customers are departing in droves. In this comedy, this classic tightwad is forced to take notice and meet the challenge of his competition. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Inspector Chu (Michael Hui) has long been known by the name of Chocolate Inspector because of his addiction to a popular chocolate confection. He is also a bumbling idiot of the most incredible kind, who can't see a thief stealing something right in front of him. In fact, he failed to notice a whole car park full of such thieves, which is why he has been demoted to the police's missing-persons bureau. Unfortunately for everyone who crosses his path, he is hot on the trail of the kidnapped son of a television cooking-show star. Together with his similarly retarded partner, he practically single-handedly demolishes a beauty pageant while chasing the bad guys. This comedy did record business in its native Hong Kong and won "Best Actor" and "Best Screenplay" awards at the 1986 Hong Kong Film Awards. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Ricky Lau directs this fantastically successful horror yarn that successfully fused high-flying slapstick with creepy genre atmospherics. The film opens with Taoist priest Kau (Lam Ching-ying) along with his two hapless assistants, Chou (Chin Siu-ho) and Man Choi (Ricky Hui Koon-ying), set out to fix the Yam family's recent streak of bad fortune. The priest soon concludes that a vengeful feng shui master had tricked the family into burying its elder in a manner that was bound to reap bad luck. Yet before the problem could be corrected, grandpa comes bursting out of the ground and kills his son. When the son returns from the great beyond to reek havoc on the living, Kau eventually manages to put him to rest for good, though gramps continues to terrorize. Meanwhile, Chou has been seduced and bitten by a beautiful spirit and will turn into a vampire unless Kau comes to the rescue. This film not only launched four sequels, but the whole horror-comedy subgenre that exemplified Hong Kong cinema during the late '80s and early '90s. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Ronny Yu Yan-tai, who would be later known for his 1993 classic Bride With White Hair, spins this atmospheric horror flick set in 1922 Xiang Xi. When an iterate musician runs afoul of the local warlord, the potentate has him killed and hires a band of opium runners to dispatch with the body. While travelling through a swamp, the corpse falls into a sulfuric spring. Not wanting to deal with the stink of the spring, the lackeys decide to leave the body there. The combination of bog juice and sulfur revives the dead man, sending him on a vengeful killing spree. After knocking off a bunch of pigs, he kills everyone related to his death. The culprits retaliate with Taoist charms, virgin urine, and a host of other tricks of the zombie-killing trade. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Bedazzled meets the Warner Bros. cartoons with this supernatural comedy directed by future action film auteur John Woo. The film centers around Bruce Lee (Ricky Hui Koon-ying), a failed composer and general loser who has hit rock bottom. One day, the devil (Chung Fat) appears before Lee, promising to make his worldly dreams come true in exchange for his soul. Lee immediately asks to become a rock star and have the undying love of a beautiful dancer named Peggy (Hsu Jie). Of course, his dreams of love and rock fame don't quite pan out the way he imagined, and soon Lee is trying to welsh out on the deal while the devil is hell-bent on collecting what he is owed. Fortunately for Lee, a dead priest (Paul Chun Pui) comes to the rescue and takes on the devil, as Lee tries desperately to dispose of the contract. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

The owners of a Hong Kong television station play a legalistic trick on new employees. They are forced to sign a piece of paper which legally binds them to work for the station for eight years, no matter what. In this comedy, Chi-Man (Michael Hui) gets together with an inventor and a magician to try to steal the contract back from the station even though it is in a heavily guarded safe. Chi-Man uses multiple disguises to distract the safe-keepers; in one he is a dancer-singer auditioning for a role, and another finds him dressed up as a very sexy lady. This film was a number one box-office hit in Hong Kong at the time of its release. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi