Karl Maka Movies
- 1999
In this action-packed comedy from Hong Kong, Mr. Wong is a notorious con man who has bilked hundred of people out of their savings over the course of a long career, but no one has been able to put him behind bars. Pauline Wu (Joey Yung) is a woman with a personal grudge against Wong, since he took her father for a large sum of money many years ago; determined to get revenge, she teams up with another con artist, Ferrari (Nicholas Tse), who has reasons of his own for wanting to get even with Wong. However, while Ferrari would like to pull one over on the master, he's also trying to stay one step ahead of an inept police detective (Karl Maka) who is hot on his trail. Ferrari and Pauline enlist the services of strong-arm man Sze (So Yau-Pang), and together they plot a major scam that will nail both Wong and his daughter. But is it possible Wong could be turning the tables on them?
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Hui, Nicholas Tse, (more)
King-sized martial arts hero Sammo Hung stars in this wild and wacky blend of action and comedy. Skinny (Karl Maka) and Fatty (Sammo Hung) are a pair of police detectives who soon find themselves on the outs with their boss when they accidentally make a mess of his wedding while chasing Tak, a big league drug trafficker. Skinny and Fatty are forced to leave their jobs, but while on holiday in Singapore, they forget their troubles when they both find love with beautiful women. However, Tak is convinced the former cops are still a threat, and when he abducts their girlfriends, Skinny and Fatty swing into action to rescue them. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sammo Hung, Karl Maka, (more)
Hong Kong filmmaker Johnny To directed this all-star holiday comedy, another in a string of popular Lunar New Year entertainments for actor/producer Raymond Wong, who engineered the similar All's Well, Ends Well series. As usual, the plot line is just an excuse for a series of amusing cameos and comic routines, but provides a number of laughs as it tells the story of three brothers, the mincingly effeminate Fang Chien-lang (Chow Yun-fat), cartoonist Chien-sang (Jacky Cheung), and their middle-aged older sibling, Chien-hui (Wong). Chien-lang romances both a stewardess (Carol Cheng) and a hedonistic department store saleswoman (Cherie Chung) who has a boyfriend (Lawrence Cheng); Chien-sang falls for a jogger named Ying-ying (Fennie Yuen); and Chien-hui romances a Chinese opera singer (Petrina Fung) whom he isn't aware is the same person who has been crank-calling him. As a result of some telephone problems, all three brothers experience some wild ups and downs in their respective relationships before finally attaining romantic bliss following a climactic opera performance involving all the main characters. As with Wong's other holiday films, genre aficionados will have a field day spotting familiar faces, including Karl Maka and Teddy Robin Kwan in the audience, and City on Fire director Ringo Lam as Fung's husband. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
This tense Hong Kong crime thriller is known best as the film upon which Quentin Tarantino borrowed heavily for his 1992 debut, Reservoir Dogs. Those who criticized the American director for lack of originality have perhaps missed the point. In the highly commercialized, formulaic crime genre of Hong Kong, very few thrillers are truly original, and innovation comes in the form of style, action choreography, and dramatic tension. City on Fire, directed by Ringo Lam, is no exception. The story, told in a more traditional narrative form than Reservoir Dogs, follows Chow Yun-Fat as Ko Chow, an undercover cop who infiltrates a ring of jewel thieves. When a heist goes wrong, Chow is wounded, and tension among the robbers escalates as they begin to suspect a traitor among their ranks. ~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chow Yun-Fat, Sun Yueh, (more)
- 1987
During a Hong Kong currency revaluation, old banknotes are routinely replaced by banks. The old notes are generally burned each day. However, by Friday evening at one bank, there is a cache of over thirty million old Hong Kong dollars which will go unburned until the next Monday. A bank employee gets the notion that stealing this cash would be an easy and relatively harmless way of getting rich quick, and he enlists some friends to help him get it. However, he has told one too any people, and he is opposed in his scheme by a nun who will gladly bash heads in order to save souls. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karl Maka
- 1986
Popular Hong Kong action filmmaker Ringo Lam (City on Fire and Replicant) reputedly directed this third of four official sequels to 1982's Aces Go Places only as a favor to star Karl Maka, and it shows. King Kong (Sam Hui) once again joins bald detective Albert Au (Maka) and his son Baldy Jr. as they fly to New Zealand to save Albert's wife (Sylvia Chang) from a gang of crooks who have kidnapped her. The crooks, led by Ronald Lacey in a send-up of his role in Raiders of the Lost Ark, are trying to get control of an experimental prism which they need for a machine which turns men into indestructible super-beings. The film is dark, violent, and not quite as funny as previous installments, and the goofy subtitles call Sylvia Chang's character "Sylvia" instead of "Nancy." Still, there is a good supporting cast of genre veterans like Sally Yeh, Kwan Tak-hing, and Cho Tat-wah to please Asian film buffs and Lam keeps the film moving at a speedy clip. The official series ended with the next installment, 1989's Aces Go Places V: The Terracotta Hit, but was revived eight years later with a new cast in the subpar 97 Aces Go Places. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1985
In a stock teen drama with a twist, the adult hero is Hoi Sunkuai (Raymond Wong) a teacher at an all-girls school -- and an incarnation of the "Happy Ghost" Zhu Ganzhun who has supernatural powers. Hoi's problems start when a trio of student tricksters are out to do him wrong, just for the fun of it. After a miscalculated use of his special powers, he is called on the carpet in the headmistress's office -- and is immediately smitten with her. But his future is set when other mishaps get him fired. Now his only hope of reinstatement lies in the trio of culprits that got him into trouble in the first place.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raymond Wong, May Law, (more)
- 1985
A sordid life in an ignoble city is the theme of this drama by Taiwanese director Wen Jen. After a young man's sister has been missing in Taipei for over a year, he decides to do something about it and heads to the capital with the intent of finding her. Since he has no clue about where to begin, his naive investigation leads him to a series of nightclubs, massage parlors, and similar fringe locales. He makes friends with a street-smart hustler who feels protective toward this hayseed from the countryside. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chen Bor Jeng, Wang Yeu, (more)
- 1984
Melodramatic and maudlin by Western standards, this movie is about a poor bottle collector who finds an abandoned baby one morning and decides to raise her as his own child. While she is growing up, it becomes clear that she has an excellent singing voice and by the time she is an adult, her talent is discovered and she is on her way to stardom. Her new lifestyle precludes visits to her adopted father and her friends, and as a series of tragedies occur, everyone suffers. Meanwhile, the father is getting older and rightly feels abandoned by his successful daughter - with no apparent remedy to his unhappy situation. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1984
In this typical Hong Kong melodrama, a sensitive photographer and his interior-designer wife decide to live apart, but their family has other ideas. The young son goes to stay with his father and grandfather, while the daughter stays with her mother, thereby gaining a youthful foothold in each camp. But one thing after another seems to sabotage the children's efforts to bring their estranged parents together again. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Hui
- 1984
- Add Mad Mission 3: Our Man from Bond Street to QueueAdd Mad Mission 3: Our Man from Bond Street to top of Queue
After appearing in cameos in the first two Aces Go Places movies, it was only a matter of time before cult filmmaker Tsui Hark took a turn in the director's chair himself, and the result is a spectacularly silly send-up of the spy genre and one of the series' best installments. King Kong (Sam Hui) is kidnapped in Paris by a British agent called James (Jean Marchent) who wants to recover one of the stolen crown jewels, the Star of Fortune. For some reason, the jewel is hidden at the headquarters of the Hong Kong police, meaning that King Kong will have to steal the jewel without the knowledge of his best friend, bald detective Albert Au (Karl Maka). Albert and his wife, the fiery Superintendent Ho (Sylvia Chang), have a new baby in their house, but their tempestuous relationship produces as many fireworks as ever, with Albert ready to walk out and King Kong using the situation to his advantage by setting Albert up on a date so he can pull off the heist. Eventually, of course, King Kong realizes what the duplicitous James is up to and joins his friend in bringing the bad guys to justice. Peter Graves and Richard Kiel show up to add to the fun, and there are numerous jabs at various genre clichés to go alongside the series' usual blend of action, slapstick, and interpersonal conflict. Purists should note that the dubbed English version on Thorn-EMI is missing approximately 12 minutes and loses a great deal in the translation. The next installment, 1986's Aces Go Places IV, would be helmed by Ringo Lam. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1984
In this off-beat love story from a typical Hong Kong perspective, Alan Tam plays a young insurance investigator who almost runs over a beautiful woman while he is on his way to his engagement party. Rattled and at the same time fascinated by her beauty, she stays on his mind. The next day, he is sent to a house to find out about an accident in which a woman died in a fall from the roof -- and it turns out to be the same woman he had almost killed. This coincidence sets the stage for what follows next: the dead woman's ghost appears to the insurance investigator and they fall in love, lending a new meaning to ephemeral emotions. When his friends and family find out what is going on, a real battle with the supernatural and natural begins -- and the big question is whether love, even if as unsubstantial as this, will win out in the end. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Tam, Ni Shu-chun, (more)
- 1983
Neither a rank imitation of Benny Hill's comedic style nor the evocation of a playboy bachelor life can save this imperfect film about a "perfect" mate. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dean Shek, Eric Tsang, (more)
- 1983
In this Hong Kong melodrama, two sisters are part of a cabaret act that is rapidly declining in attendance, and although the older sister (Chang Shio-yen) is constantly trying to push her younger sister to the forefront in a solo act, the younger sibling is less than enthusiastic. She sees little future in show business, whether in the chorus line or up front -- and so when her older sister finally pulls off a deal for the two to go to Taipei and possibly make some "real money," the younger sister must say yes or no, and either way, one of the two will not be happy. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvia Chang
- 1983
In a typical Hong Kong comedy-thriller about mistaken identity, a billionaire is out to murder a judge but his plans for the assassination are tape-recorded by a detective. Before the detective is found and killed, he is able to slip the incriminating tape into the purse of a young female journalist. At that point, a mainland Chinese searching for his father in Hong Kong is mistaken for the son of the billionaire, and so when the reporter meets him, some misunderstanding ensues. After extensive games of hide-and-seek, the forces of evil are sapped and the bad guys, as always, get what they deserve. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Sammo Hung Kam-po spins this old school kung-fu flick. Chan-wing (Hung) is an unruly fighter determined to get martial arts master Leung Chun-yau (Leung Kar-yan) as his teacher. Leung, however, is up to his ears in his own problems and the last thing he needs is an undisciplined lad to make trouble. Leung's older brother, Jo-wing (Chang Yi), is such a thug that he tried to rape Leung's wife, Yuet-yi (Fanny Wang), on their wedding night. Though Jo-wing fled immediately after the incident, Leung and his wife have been fretting over the inevitable reunion between the two siblings. They finally meet again when Leung's father is on his deathbed. While Leung and Jo-wing uneasily stare at each other during their father's final gasps of life, Jo-wing's henchmen are plotting a trap. Leung is almost killed until Yuet-yi steps in and disavows her husband in exchange that Jo-wing promise to spare his life. Burning with cold fury, Leung agrees to train Chan-wing while plotting his revenge. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sammo Hung
