My Lucky Stars (1985) [Film Review]

My Lucky Stars; or, Winners and Sinners 2.0

    Please do not dry your hands with the fax paper.

Two years after the success of Winners and Sinners (1983), Sammo Hung made a semi-sequel called My Lucky Stars. Written by Eric Tsang, the story follows the adventures of the characters from the previous movie, but their names and relations have been changed a bit. Nevertheless, this sequel is just as enjoyable as the original film. 
Release Info

Directed by: Sammo Hung Starring: Sammo Hung, Sibelle Hu, Jackie Chan, Stanley Fung, Eric Tsang, Richard Ng, Charlie Chin, Yuen Biao
Language: Cantonese Original Title: 福星高照 Runtime: 96 min

 

Synopsis

An undercover cop in Japan called Muscles (Jackie Chan) is infiltrating the Yakuza group. However, while trying to catch a corrupt Hong Kong cop (Lam Ching Ying), his partner, Ricky Fung (Yuen Biao), is kidnapped in the process. Muscles calls headquarters for help and they in turn reach out to Muscles’ childhood friend, Kidstuff (Sammo Hung). Not aware of the full details of the mission, Kidstuff assembles his team of small time crooks Rawhide (Stanley Fung), Herb (Charlie Chin), Sandy (Richard Ng), and Roundhead (Eirc Tsang). They are joined by Inspector Woo (Sibelle Hu) with whom they go to Japan…

 

The Team Returns

Apart from obvious continuity errors that are conveniently left unexplained, My Lucky Stars is a well made continuation in the spirit of Winners and Sinners. The gang is doing the funny shenanigans known from the first film and these are sprinkled with decent action sequences. Interestingly, Sammo Hung’s character takes the role of the leader in this picture. While John Shum is evidently replaced by Eric Tsang, Jackie Chan has a surprisingly major role in the story. His character comes off as a bit of a jerk, but he saves the day in the third act.

 

The action scenes which deserve to be mentioned are Jackie’s wild Mitsubishi chase at the very beginning and the final fight involving all the characters at the end of the film. In addition, all the scenes in which the guys try to seduce Inspector Woo are extremely hilarious.

 

I particularly appreciated that fact that actress/stuntwoman Michiko Nishiwaki has a small supporting part in the film and that she faces off against Sibelle Hu (Girls with Guns for life!). Yuen Biao also shows up (he did the action choreography as in the case of Winners and Sinners), but his character is, unfortunately, absent for the whole second act. Additionally, Bolo Yeung has a funny cameo as an enraged millionaire.

 

Recommendations

If you liked Sammo Hung’s Winners and Sinners, then you will like My Lucky Stars as well. Worth seeing for the cast, humour, and the action. Now, I’m off to check out another entry in the series called Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars…

Overall score 7/10