Casino Tycoon I & II
     
Casino Tycoon (1992) - 6.0

I think director/producer Wong Jing was going for his Godfather moment here with this lengthy two part crime drama about the rise of a gambling mogul in Macao. It is supposedly, to what degree I don't know, based on the life of Stanley Ho. Ho was still alive at the time this film was made and so they had to be careful in terms of what his character does but also in how he is portrayed (you don't want Stanley Ho angry with you). At least in part one, he is the hero of the film. The real Stanley Ho built a gambling empire on Macao - this was long before the Steve Wynn's and similar types came to the island - through not always legitimate means and became enormously wealthy and carried around influence and politicians in his pockets like we do loose change. He married four times and had 17 children (so far in the film he only has one wife and two children), one of them being Josie Ho, a fine Hong Kong actress and director. Stanley Ho lived till he was 98 so he was doing something right.



Wong Jing is by no means Francis Ford Coppola and this is no Godfather though it seems clear that the character of Michael (Al Pacino) is the model for the character in the film - handsome, dapper, smooth, calm, prefers using smarts to violence. For Wong Jing the film is surprisingly subdued and serious - very much against his norm of silliness, teasing exploitation and over the top everything. There was no low that was too low for Wong if he thought it would get a laugh. There are really no laughs going on here. But the problem is he takes the film too seriously - at 2 hours in length - a good 30 minutes longer than most HK films - it feels laborious at times, a dirge instead of a ditty - as the story slowly unfolds. Within all the talking, romancing and betraying is an interesting story but you have to wade through more melodrama than you might want to. This feels like it would have made a better TV series than a movie - it is too long but at the same time there are large gaps in the timeline.



Andy Lau who plays Hsin has been and still is one of the biggest stars of Hong Kong films since his debut in 1982 in Ann Hui's film, Boat People. At the time he was already a TV star and later on he was to join many HK actors in taking up a singing career. Back then HK actors were not paid anything close to what actors got in Hollywood and if they wanted to live the good life, they had to appear in any film they could. Lau was in great demand at the time and was often working on multiple films at the same time as he would zip from one shooting location to another. He may be the Michael Caine of the industry - he would show up in a lot of mediocre films along with some good ones. In 1992 he was in 12 films - Moon Warriors, Handsome Siblings were quite good, then some ok ones - Arrest the Restless, The Prince of Temple Street, Gun n' Rose and then ones I have never bothered to watch. Over the years though he has been in some of my very favorite films from action to Wong Kar-wai. Nearing 60 years old now he is still going strong and still looking amazing well. He either has a great plastic surgeon or he has made a deal with the devil.





Hsin grows up poor after his father is deceived out of his money and kills himself - but Hsin studies hard and gets a scholarship to university where he takes up with Vivian (Joey Wong) and has trouble with the class rich slime (Wilson Lam). The Japanese invade and Hsin and his buddy Nan (Alex Man) hurriedly leave for Macao and he leaves Vivian behind (leaving Joey Wong behind should be against the law). Circumstances bring him and Nan into the gambling family run by Fu (Kwan Hoi-san) and they slowly take on more responsibility. He also takes on the daughter of one of the top righthand men - Mei played by the always adorable Chingmy Yau - here as if she is a 12-year old girl with a learning disability. Chingmy had a long term relationship with Wong Jing and he must have been pissed at her because Chingmy's character gets treated very badly at times.





Hsin's success is resented by some of the "family" - especially by Wang Chang played by Paul Chun-pui who overacts his part like a psycho playing to the cheap seats. Vivian (Joey) shows up again now married to the class creep who coincidentally is the son of Fu. So there are a lot of characters and moving pieces but they just move too slowly at times. The acting is uneven with some characters over acting and others underacting. At the same time it is a very solid cast and a decent enough story. Part II is waiting for me.

Casino Tycoon (1992) - 5.5



Made in the same year as the first Casino Tycoon, this takes place about 20 years later with the children of Hsin (Andy Lau) and Mei (Chingmy Yau) around 20 years old but other than having their hair streaked with gray they don't look much older. By now Hsin is the number one Boss in Macau and his main casino is the Hotel Lisboa. This knocks any pretense of whether the film is modeled after Stanley Ho out the door, as this was Ho's flagship casino. It was a legendary place - perhaps it still is but likely it feels very old school since all the Las Vegas styled casinos have been built there by Western entrepreneurs.



I used to try to hop over to Macau for a day or two whenever I visited Hong Kong. It had a wonderful old quaint sleepy atmosphere with the town square, small shops, almond cookies and cobble streets that were of Portuguese style that I came across in Rio. The Lisboa was at that time - this being in the early 1990s - the major and only hot spot in Macau. I used it mainly as a landmark so I could keep track of where I was. One time I went over with some work friends just to look at the gambling - but unfortunately right before heading that way I had stopped off and bought these small tea cups made of wood. That is about the last thing anyone would expect me to buy but I thought they might class up my very unclassy apartment. They wrapped them up very carefully to protect them and so when we got to the entrance to the casino - it is a large hotel with rooms above - security checked my bags, saw these and in a minute I was being surrounded by security asking me to leave.



I tried telling them they were tea cups but I don't think they believed me. I think it was later that night when two of us stopped at an outside café and were we think served dog or cat. Hard to be sure but it sure wasn't beef. Another time a friend I was traveling with ducked in to cool off and made our way to the snack bar in the basement - they mainly had snacks of another sort it turned out - the famous - as I found out later March of the Ladies. All in elegant evening wear at 3 in the afternoon. We had our cokes, watched the parade for a while and thought it best we leave before we got in trouble! Just an aside there. I have not been back to Macau since the big hotels and casinos have moved in.



So back to the movie. It is rather unfortunately as lackluster as the first part - perhaps more so - though Wong Jing does add lots of crass humor primarily delivered by Hsin's business manager and his girlfriend (Hui Siu-Hung and Kingdom Yuen) for no reason that I could figure out. Perhaps Wong Jing just could not help himself. Hsin is still happily married to Mei but at the end of the last film she was paralyzed and is in a wheelchair. She (Chingmy acting like a grown up in this one) tells him that she cannot perform her wifely duties and if he wants to have a mistress that is ok by her and she selects a very nice one for him. Ti Yun portrayed by Michelle Reis, one of the more perfect faces of HK film - in so many good films Swordsman II, Fallen Angels, The Wicked City, Flowers of Shanghai. She retired after marrying a rich business man as did Chingmy once she rid herself of Wong Jing and as did many other HK actresses once they passed their expiration date in films. Turns out coincidentally that Michelle's husband was once married to one of Stanley Ho's daughters. Hong Kong is in some ways a very small place. Especially among the wealthy and famous. So Mei was very nice to pick out a women that looks like Michelle Reis!



Wong Jing increases the melodrama as well - a young man comes back from America with Hsin's daughter ("At least not a black man" as Hsin painfully says) - but there is deviousness going on there and everywhere and then more twists than a weekday soap opera. Of course, people keep trying to kill Hsin - just part of the business. This one runs almost 2 hours and feels it. More talk than a Book of the Month Club meeting. All the actors are muted like they are on Quaaludes which isn't necessarily bad but you really don't expect it in a Hong Kong film. Joey Wong pops in for a minute as does Sandra Ng. Lau Siu-Ming who had a small part in the first film has a larger one here as Hsin's partner and then enemy. Alex Man is back unfortunately. An irritating performance. I do think the shadow of Stanley Ho hovered over this - maybe literally - and Wong Jing just won't show Hsin as anything but noble and decent. It clearly brings down the fun factor.