The Gambling Ghost
What a nice little treat this is from Sammo Hung.
This is a little action/comedy film with the emphasis definitely on the
comedy and a supernatural element thrown in as well. Though there is not
a lot of action, this is Sammo and we do get two fairly decent fight scenes.
The film opens with a great God of Gambler
parody, but it turns out that Sammo is only daydreaming and that in fact
he is only a small time scam artist. He and his buddy, Mang Hoi, try all
the angles, but usually with comic results. One day he spots Nina Li and
his heart freezes. Mine too. Nina generates more sexual heat with her eyebrows
than most women can do with their entire body. And even better, Nina is
a scam artist as well.
Sammo lives at home with his dad – who amazingly
looks just like Sammo – and soon the ghost of his grandfather comes back
to help him gamble – and he too looks just like Sammo. Sammo of course
is playing all three characters and the scene with them all fighting each
other is pretty good.
The grandfather assists Sammo in winning a million
dollars, but there is a catch. Sammo has to kill the man who murdered his
grandfather many years ago. This is where the action comes in. Nina has
a little bit here as well when she stomps the hell out of one guy.
This is an easy going enjoyable film with some
low key humor; often aimed at the Mainland officials who are coming to
HK to rake in the big bucks.
There are some good cameos from some familiar
faces – Stanley Fung, Lam Ching-Ying, Wu Ma, Richard Ng and Billy Chow
(nice little one on one with Sammo).
My rating for this film: 7.0
