All for the Winner (1990) [Film Review]

All for the Winner; or, Stephen Chow's Lucky Streak

     Be serious! Everyone by the gambling table has his own style. This is the armour for the Gambling Saint. That’s right! From now on, your nickname will be the Saint of Gamblers.

The year 1990 was huge for then relatively unknown Stephen Chow. Approximately 11 movies with him, starring in either the leading or supporting roles, were released (talk about market oversaturation!). These were mostly comedies, romance dramas, and action flicks. However, one particular movie really stood out from the bunch, and it is cited by many fans as Stephen Chow’s official breakthrough. I’m talking about All for the Winner, a comedy film directed by Corey Yuen and Jeff Lau.
Release Info

Directed by: Corey Yuen, Jeff Lau Starring: Stephen Chow, Ng Man-tat, Sharla Cheung, Sandra Ng

Language: Cantonese Original Title: 賭聖 Runtime: 100 min

 

Synopsis

Sing (Stephen Chow) is a young, happy-go-lucky mainlander from Guangzhou. He arrives in Hong Kong in order to visit his uncle, Blackie Tat (Ng Man-tat). Tat is a compulsive gambler, playing long rounds of mahjong together with his neighbours. All of a sudden, uncle Tat discovers that Sing has an unusual set of powers. He can see through objects and change the appearance of cards or receipts. Tat decides to use Sing’s skills at gambling. Not long after, the two men are recruited by a powerful businessman, Mr Chan (Jeff Lau), who desires to beat his opponent, cruel Mr Hung (Paul Chun) at the World’s Gambling Contest. Unfortunately, Sing falls in love with Mr Chan's bodyguard, Yee Mong (Sharla Cheung) and his powers go haywire.

 

Poker, Cards, and Ladies

The first thing that should be mentioned about All for the Winner is that this movie is actually a parody of Wong Jing’s God of Gamblers (1989) movie with Chow Yun-fat and Andy Lau in the leading roles. The directors Corey Yuen and Jeff Lau wanted to bring back those gambling vibes and play with the convention. However, All for the Winner became so successful in the box office that it was immediately incorporated into the franchise. Stephen Chow himself went on to reprise his role in three subsequent films: God of Gamblers II (1990), The Top Bet (1991), and God of Gamblers III: Back to Shanghai (1991).

 

“What is the secret of All of the Winner?” you may ask. Well, Stephen Chow himself, of course. He is just hilarious as the lovable idiot with ESP powers. There are lots of great situations where Chow showcases his talent for comedy (for example, confrontation with Mr. Hung or courting Yee Mong). Apart from God of Gamblers references, Chow seems to really like parodying Bruce Lee because he does two such sequences in the film.

 

However, some of the humour seems a bit off, like it was meant to fill up the hole in the storyline. This is especially evident when halfway through the picture, the uncle character tries to evoke Sing’s powers by making his neighbour, Ping (Sandra Ng), to pretend to be Yee Mong.

 

Still, even if some comedic pieces do not work, the movie makes it up with action. Surprisingly, there are a lot of fighting sequences, most of them involving actress Sharla Cheung taking down the bad guys. Evidently, she was replaced by a stunt doubled in some demanding shots, but it is still awesome to see her doing physical stuff. On top of that, her warm smile can melt ice caps.

 

Speaking about performances, Stephen Chow is at the top of his game in this picture. Ng Man-tat gives a very good interpretation of Chow’s comedic sidekick, a sloppy uncle. Sharla Cheung turns out well in the action stuff. In addition, I appreciated the small parts done by Paul Shun (hire him to play a villain in a Bond movie!), Angelina Lo, Sheila Chan, Sandra Ng, and the directors themselves, Corey Yuen and Jeff Lau.

 

Recommendations

I know nothing about gambling, but this movie got me pumped up for some poker showdowns. I recommend All for the Winner if you want to see for yourself Stephen Chow’s acting beginnings. You will certainly have a laugh and get entertained. Other Chow’s films from the God of Gamblers series are fun as well, but they never matched the level of All for the Winner.

Overall score: 8/10

Crime Story (1993) [Film Review]

Crime Story: or, The Strike of Serious Jackie Chan

     A policeman who fires a gun has to face the following dangers: One, hurting an innocent citizen. Two, being shot when exchanging fire. Finally, killing the thug, but unable to stand the shock. You belong to the last type then, Inspector Chan. You can’t stand the shock of shooting and killing.

There was a period in Jackie Chan’s career when he was working under different directors in order to prove that he was a “manageable” actor/stuntman. As a result, in the early 1990s, he played in such movies as Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam’s Twin Dragons (1992), Wong Jing’s City Hunter (1993), and Kirk Wong’s Crime Story (1993). I have a soft spot for the last picture out of Jackie Chan’s unusual string of collaborations, mostly because it provides a completely different take on the cop movie genre than Jackie’s Police Story series.

Release Info

Directed by: Kirk Wong Starring: Jackie Chan, Kent Cheng, Puishan Au-yeung, Law Kar-ying

Language: Cantonese Original Title: 重案組 Runtime: 107 min

 

Synopsis

Inspector Eddie Chan of the Serious Crime Bureau is an efficient police officer who suffers from mild PTSD. He is assigned to protect Wong Yat-fei (Law Kar-ying), a wealthy businessman who had been kidnapped in the past. Yat-fei feels that somebody is following him and that is why he requests the assistance of the police. Unfortunately, things go terribly wrong and Yat-fei is kidnapped yet again. The assaulters demand from Yat-fei’s wife (Puishan Au-yeung) the transfer of 60 million dollars to Taiwanese bank accounts. Together with the police officer who cracked Yat-fei’s first kidnapping case, Detective Hung (Kent Cheng), Chan searches for the kidnappers. However, he does not realise that one of them is a member of the police force.

 

Police Dragon

As someone rightfully wrote in the Internet abyss: “There are Jackie Chan films and films starring Jackie Chan”. Crime Story falls under the second category and, unlike a standard action flick made by Jackie, it takes the dead serious approach in order to faithfully depict the workings of the police force. The screenwriters even credited the kidnapping case of Teddy Wang as their inspiration behind the story.

 

“What is so unique about this film, apart from the dark tone?” you may ask. Well, Jackie is not a happy-go-lucky hero who engages into fights inspired by Buster Keaton. Contrary to his portrayal of a cop in the Police Story series, Jackie plays quite a vulnerable officer who does not fool around and wants to get the job done. Have you seen the cops being brutally killed in Police Story 1-4? No? Well, Crime Story shows full morbidity. Serving justice to those who died in the line of duty and saving a victim are Chan’s primary goals.

 

In addition, Inspector Chan does not get involved in any romantic relationship. The movie baits the viewers with that motif by introducing the Psychiatrist character (played by the beautiful Pan Lingling) at the beginning of the film, but the relationship goes absolutely nowhere. If that was not enough, there is also the character of a prostitute, Ka Ka (great Christine Ng), who is in a relationship with Detective Hung. You could assume that she would help out Chan on the case, but she does the exact opposite.

 

In terms of action and cinematography, Crime Story also differs greatly from Jackie’s usual works. Of course, Jackie does what he does best with regard to kung fu showdowns, but the camera work in Crime Story is extremely dynamic and builds additional tension. Kirk Wong really did an awesome job on that. That being said, the cinematography handled by Arny Lam and Arthur Wong is just beautiful. Many Hong Kong locations look wonderful on the screen. The million dollar shot is that of Wong Yat-fei overseeing a massive building site.

 

With regard to performances, Jackie Chan does exceptionally well as a serious cop. It’s a real shame that he disliked the film because it was adult oriented (ex. Christine Ng’s steamy elevator scene), but Kirk Wong really brought out the acting out of Jackie. Second best actor is Kent Chang as Detective Hung. I have seen him mostly in comedies, but he really stole the show with his performance of a sleazy and underpaid cop. Honourable mention goes to Puishan Au-yeung as distressed Wong Yat-fei’s wife.

 

Recommendations

Check out Crime Story if you can, this movie was really ahead of its time. In fact, it was New Police Story before New Police Story was hailed as Jackie’s first grim motion picture. It is a really engaging crime drama with decent action and explosive finale. I wish we could have gotten more of such Jackie’s films in the 1990s.

Overall score 9/10

Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-1996) [Anime Review]

Neon Genesis Evangelion; or, The Cop-Out Gospel of Hideaki Anno’s Depression

     Humans cannot create anything out of nothingness. Humans cannot accomplish anything without holding onto something. After all, humans are not gods.

Continuing my journey through the 90s anime shows, it was inevitable for me to encounter the so-much-appraised Neon Genesis Evangelion (literally: The Gospel of the New Century), the 26-episode anime series created by Hideaki Anno in 1995. Feeling encouraged by exhilarating opinions from MAL, such as “hugely experimental and wonderfully unique, Evangelion is a roaring success” or “one of the most influential anime created in the 1990's, if not of all time,” I decided to give this a chance. The result was a one disappointing viewing experience for me.

Release Info

Created by: Hideaki Anno Voice actors: Megumi Ogata, Megumi Hayashibara, Yuko Miyamura, Kotono Mitsushi

Language: Japanese Original Title: 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン No. of eps: 26

Synopsis

Meet Shinji Ikari, a teenager who is unexpectedly summoned to the city of Tokyo-3. This is the year 2015, approximately 15 years after the so-called “Second Impact” which caused a global cataclysm. Shinji is ordered by his estranged father, Gendo Ikari, the head of the NERV organisation, to drive a giant bio-machine known as Evangelion. Shinji has, and is destined, to pilot EVA in order to protect the planet from mysterious Angels, a race of monstrous beings who want to destroy mankind. Shinji is aided in his quest by other NERV associates, Misato Katsuragi and Ritsuko Akagi, as well as the pilots of two other EVAs, Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Souryuu.

 

Crank Up That Fatalism!

Neon Genesis Evangelion was supposedly made during the time in which Hideaki Anno was suffering from depression. Two of his previous anime productions did not become big hits and, while being drunk, he agreed on a deal to work on a television series. After two years of development, the project materialised to be NGE, the ultimate reflection of Anno’s struggle with depression, as he himself admitted.

 

Where should I begin with this show? Well, it starts off in medias res, which is a good thing because you keep thinking about what is going on in the world of NGE: What are the Angels? What are the EVAs? What is the mystery of NERV? Why are only specific children allowed to pilot EVAs? What happened to Shinji’s mother? What is the Human Instrumentality Project? The main problem of the show is that the questions start to amass and barely a few answers are given. From a show with some engaging plot and good-looking mecha fights, it eventually turns into downright incomprehensible towards the end.

 

Do not get me started on Shinji, the main protagonist. Joseph Campbell is turning in his grave because Shinji is the angelically cruel antithesis of the story’s hero. Shinji (Cop-Out) Ikari is a boy fine with “living alone” because “he’s alone anyway”. Enjoy watching him experience the existential crises (processed by listening to music and subway excursions) just as humanity is under attack and people suffer in agony. You would think that he is just a shy, but extremely gifted, pilot who eventually saves the day, but (surprise, surprise!), the EVA machine does most of the job for him in the entire series (which is, in a way, explained in the end).

 

Well, not only Shinji, but every character in this show is a textbook sociopath. Marvel at the sight of some hot waifus descending into the abyss of madness by reminiscing about their daddy/mommy issues or evaluating the meaning of life. Even Freud or Jung could not have helped them out. The most prominent female heroines of this anime are Asuka (Annoying and Overconfident) Langley Souruu and Rei (Submissive Girl/Otaku’s Dream Come True) Ayanami. None of them won my sympathy. Oh, and did I mention that all of the waifus “offer” themselves to Shinji in his psychedelic dreams? This might give you an idea about the original target audience this show aimed at in 1995.

 

What is more, NGE is filled with lots of religious references which made it gain some recognition in the academia. I personally did not mind the symbolical aspects, but the creative team’s statement that they were throwing this stuff at random without giving much thought to it may put off some of the viewers: “There is no actual Christian meaning to the show, we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool” (Kazuya Tsurumaki, Assistant Director of Neon Genesis Evangelion).

 

What is going on with the end of this show, anyway? I do not want to get into any spoilers but, apart from overblown existentialist issues that would make Jean Paul Sartre proud, I did not get the whole thing with ascending into another level of existence. After watching episodes 24 to 26, I felt as if Anno showed me the middle finger. Still again, when I thought that The End of Evangelion (1997) might give me more answers, after checking that one out, I felt as if Anno dropped his pants and mooned me…

 

I get the fact that the production team fell into financial trouble, which is visible in the animation quality since episode 22, but this is not the reason behind the faults of NGE. The primary fault is the writing. Turning a creative process into a healing experience is great, but sometimes the writer does not necessarily have to share it with the world. Eventually, I had to read through a super long article from IGN in order to understand what the heck was going on. I was effectively discouraged from watching Rebuild of Evangelion.

 

That being said, I cannot say that NGE is entirely bad. It starts off great in terms of world-building and fails miserably on that matter later on. However, what the show gets absolutely right are the mecha fights, which were the only factor that kept me engaged. In fact, the only episode I truly enjoyed from the beginning to the end was no. 13 Angel Infiltration/ Lilliputian Hitcher, because it featured none of the EVAs’ pilots. In addition, the anime’s intro combined with the epic theme song, sung by Yoko Takahashi, are the only entirely positive things about this show to me. (Well, also memes, creepy stuff, and more memes).

 

Recommendations

I am not the only one out there with an unpopular opinion about Neon Genesis Evangelion, yet I understand that beauty is the eye of the beholder. If you liked the show, then great, you have full right to do so. I found it to be completely not my cup of tea. To sum up, is it the worst anime I have ever seen? Not a chance. With its many faults, Neon Genesis Evangelion just is painfully average to me.

Overall score: 5/10 (PS I did not watch the controversial Netflix version)