A Little TLC(w): All of the Winners (1994)

Far from Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s best.  While this broad comedy has its amusing moments and admittedly gets some points just for being so out there, I wouldn’t call it a keeper.

We open on a titanic grudge match between the sons of two legendary gamblers.  But one of them, Master Sha, is far from everything his father was.  Licking his wounds from a major loss and facing the prospect of a daunting rematch, Sha becomes obsessed with learning the secret art of using his mental powers to transform any card into an ace (as you do.)  An “expert” from an infomercial is hired to gain this secret, but really, the lynchpins here are Sha’s wife and his maid, both of whom come armed with practicality and determination that seem to have skipped the rest of the household.

As I said, some amusing stuff.  The humor is really cartoonish, and there are certain gags that work for me, like all the silly technicalities that the first match between Sha and his rival hinge on.  I enjoy the character of Sha’s wife, who’s definitely too good for her husband, and there’s some nonsense about a secret assassin that, while nonsensical, is kind of fun.

Overall, though, there’s not much to write home about here.  It’s too goofy, too dumb, and while I wouldn’t call it as actively bad as something like Come Fly the Dragon, it has little to recommend it. 

Sha is a very different sort of character for Leung to play.  He’s both a grade-A tool and something of a buffoon, constantly throwing tantrums at the people who are trying to help him, getting harebrained ideas that don’t go anywhere, and generally refusing to contribute anything tangible to the situation.  Needless to say, this isn’t a particularly likable character, and it’s made worse by how Sha treats his wife.  When he’s not flying off the handle on her, making demands of her, or calling her stupid, he’s pretty dismissive of her.  God help her, she keeps loving him anyway, and there’s a subplot in the second half about him needing to be a better husband to her, but I kept wishing she’d just throw him over and be done with it.

As for Leung’s acting, I’d say it’s fairly in line with other over-the-top comedies from the ‘80s and early ‘90s that I’ve seen him in:  definitely overly broad and not particularly good, but not quite bad, either.  What (very) little interest there is to be had in this character, it comes from Leung’s performance and his utter commitment to the ridiculous material.  A minor advantage this movie has over some of Leung’s other dubious early comedies is that it’s in Cantonese so he isn’t dubbed, which is an admitted small improvement.

Recommend?

In General – Naw.  Some movies of questionable quality are still fun if you’re in the right mood for it, but I wouldn’t say this one makes the grade.

Tony Leung Chiu-wai – Not necessary.  If you want to see Leung doing comedy, there are much better examples than this.

Warnings

Slapstick-ish violence, sexual references, crude humor, drinking/smoking, and some tasteless jokes.