Carl Mak Movies
- 1983
A follow-up to the wildly popular All the Wrong Clues, this slapstick comedy directed by Teddy Robin Kwan, who had a supporting role in the original, concerns a number of shady characters looking to get their hands on atomic bomb secrets in Japan-occupied Hong Kong during World War II. Private detective-cum-resistance fighter Yoyo (George Lam) receives orders to get the formula from a Jewish scientist who is defecting from the Nazis. When corrupt police commissioner Fat Chick (Paul Chun) swipes the plans from the scientist, Yoyo and his childhood chum Police Inspector Robin (Kwan) set out to steal it for themselves. Unfortunately, a beautiful cat burglar, who is also Yoyo's ex-girlfriend Bridget (Brigitte Lin), beats them to it. Yoyo and Robin then set their sights on Japanese diplomat Tora Hiroshima (played by Tsui Hark, who directed the first installment), who is supposed to receive the plans from Fat Chick. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Teddy Robin
Prolific Hong Kong director Lau Kar-wing helmed this first of four official sequels to the 1982 hit Aces Go Places (there was an abortive 1997 follow-up feature as well). An assassin called Filthy Harry is hired by a shady figure (clearly meant to represent Henry Kissinger) and charged with killing the series' unlikely pair of heroes, bald detective Albert Au (Karl Maka) and reformed criminal King Kong (Sam Hui). The film is quite lively, as Albert's relationship with the fiery Superintendent Ho (Sylvia Chang) has hit the skids. The men are framed twice for different robberies by King Kong's new girlfriend, nearly committed to a mental hospital by their devious boss, and forced to battle Filthy Harry's weaponry-laden robot while covered with time bombs. As in the previous film, action scenes are tempered with a great deal of broad slapstick, mostly centering on the heroes' combative interpersonal relationships. Viewers should be cautioned that one English-dubbed version in video circulation is missing nearly 15 minutes of footage from the 102-minute original. Eric Tsang, who directed the first film, co-stars with Raymond Wong, Billy Lau, and Tsui Hark, who appears in a cameo as an insane man who believes himself to be an FBI agent. Hark would direct the next sequel, Aces Go Places III: Our Man From Bond Street, in 1984. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1982
Lau Kar-wing spins this restrained horror-comedy flick about a beautiful lass cursed with terrible luck. Irene Leen (Olivia Cheng Man-ar) has the misfortune of having three husbands die on her wedding day. After consulting a slew of fortunetellers, she understandably vows never to marry again. The ghosts of her dead husbands, however, band together to end her loneliness and find her a mate. The prospective spouse they choose is Bruce (Alan Tam Wing-lun), and they spend much of the film trying to get the two together. Complications arise when another ghost tricks Bruce into venturing to the notorious Haunted Island to swipe a pearl from the Ghost King. To make matters worse, he decides to go on the day of the Ghost Festival, the day of the year when ghosts rise from the underworld and party on earth. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Tam, Olivia Cheng, (more)
- 1982
(Eddie Chan) plays a murderous salesman in this Hong Kong suspense-thriller about a mind gone haywire. When he discovers his wife has been seeing a lover in their own house, he kills both of them and then goes to jail for the crime. After he serves his prison term, the salesman looks like an ordinary person but he goes berserk when he sees any woman wearing the nylons that his wife used to prefer -- and rage takes over, leading to a killing spree. Although he cannot get away with his crimes forever, in the meantime, his activities provide enough fear to keep a viewer's attention from drifting to the bag of popcorn. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvia Chang, Eddie Chan, (more)
- 1982
It is the 1960s in Hong Kong, and a pair of friends who are nightclub performers are managing quite well until one of them falls in love with a female singer who happens to be the objective of a gangster's roving eye. The two recklessly get on the bad side of the mobster who has them so badly beaten up that the love-struck performer suffers brain damage, cured only by a trip to medical specialists in Malaysia. Once the two friends return to Hong Kong and a normal life, they meet and fall in love with two different women -- and everything seems to finally be going well until the old mobster and his cronies catch up with them again, intent on more mayhem. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Ng
A hugely successful crime-comedy from Cinema City and director Eric Tsang, Aces Go Places set records at the box office and made a star of Sam Hui. Hui plays King Kong, a clever thief who steals a cache of diamonds from some gangsters, framing another thief called White Glove for the crime. That's when the bald detective Albert Au (Karl Maka), who has been chasing King Kong for quite some time, pairs with the volatile female Superintendent Ho (Sylvia Chang) to bring him to justice. King Kong ends up joining the good guys, with the requisite hostile patter firmly in evidence, to defeat White Glove and another bad guy dubbed Mad Max (Chen Sing), and recover the diamonds from the hiding place where they were left by King Kong's dead accomplice. The English version is missing ten minutes of the comedy which makes this movie special, and the fight scenes are nothing to write home about, but the original's mix of broad action and even broader slapstick made it a hit, spawning four sequels over the next seven years and a failed 1997 attempt at revival with a new cast. Dean Shek co-stars with Cho Tat-wah, Raymond Wong, and cult filmmaker Tsui Hark in a small role. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1981
When a man who specializes in putting on multi-media events is hired to enhance a fashion show, he decides to go to a puppeteer and use Chinese puppets as accents to the models and the clothes. His interest in the show becomes a personal one when he meets one of the models and romance blossoms. An old woman loans him her antique puppets on the condition that he not keep them in the house with him, or grave misfortunes will result. As one might expect, he ignores the warning and then starts to experience a few accidents and unusual occurrences -- including being knocked out by what he thought was a puppet, and seeing flashes of a murder while he was unconscious. Intrigued and compelled to find out if his rising suspicions are correct, he discovers from old newspaper articles that a puppet master and his wife had been murdered many years earlier. Could this have put a curse on the puppets themselves? As the story slowly wanders to its final denouement, director Peter Yung takes the viewers through an ever-widening circle of reincarnation, predestined patterns of events, and Chinese folk religion and astrology. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1981
After thrice failing at the box office, future Hong Kong cinema behemoth Tsui Hark has his first bona fide success with this wildly popular slapstick spoof on Hollywood gangster and detective flicks. Yoho (George Lam) is a private dick on the skids who thinks that his luck is about change with his latest case. Soon, however, he finds himself ensnared in a brouhaha between notorious gangster Ah Capone (Karl Maka) who is plotting to bilk an aged millionaire out of his highly valued stocks. As Yoho bumbles from one situation to the next, he crosses paths with a variety of shady characters including a beautiful femme fatal (Kelly Yiu) and a hired gun known only as Popeye (Eric Tsang). Along the way, he gets help from his diminutive childhood chum Chief Inspector Robin (Teddy Robin Kwan). Throughout the film, Tsui Hark pays frequent tribute to American silent film slapstick and Warner Brothers cartoons. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Teddy Robin
