Qi mou miao ji: Wu fu xing

I recently watched 'Winners and Sinners' with some friends when we thought we should celebrate Jackie Chan's birthday. After viewing it, maybe we could have a chosen a movie that featured more Jackie Chan in it. Oh well, maybe I'll celebrate Sammo Hung's next birthday (whenever it may be) by watching 'Around the World in 80 Days'.

'Winners and Sinners' is the first 'Lucky Stars' movie. Now 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Stars' makes a whole lot more sense, even though its been a few years since I've seen it. Five inmates befriend each other in prison, and when they are released, they form the 'Five Star Cleaning Service', only to find themselves in the middle of a Triad war.

'Winners and Sinners' is much more of a Sammo Hung film than a Jackie Chan film. Sammo directed and starred in this, while Jackie had a minor role as CID officer. Yuen Biao and Moon Lee even had a short cameo in a scene where Biao and Chan have a short fight. However, most of action is performed by Hung, and he pulls it off very well.

Apart from some entertaining action, 'Winners and Sinners' is one of those rather silly Hong Kong comedies that fans of Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan - especially their 80s work - should be somewhat familiar with. Some people will find it funny - I did, but others might not be amused.

'Winners and Sinners' is a nicely-done action / comedy, maybe not for everyone though - 7/10

Winners and Sinners is the first of three films in which Jackie Chan 'co-starred' alongside Samo Hung and five Hong Kong comedians called the Lucky Stars. Actually,'co-starred' is not really the word,because Chan's role in these films was little more than a glorified cameo,especially in this one. Chan puts in small appearances in quite a few films,and distributors often give the impression that his role is larger in a film than it actually is.

Still,Winners and Sinners is quite a fun film,actually one of the first Hong Kong films set in the present day that would combine comedy and action. Chan would in time perfect the formula in later films,and Winners and Sinners has rather more comedy than action,which may disappoint action fans. As is often the case,much of the humour,mainly revolving around the antics of the five 'Lucky Stars', does not really work for western audiences,the silly slapstick usually works {well,slapstick always travels well,something Chan had already learnt} but some of it is humour that will only be understood and found funny by a Hong Kong audience. Still,there are some laughs,such as a scene when Richard Ng {easily the funniest of the Lucky Stars} thinks he has become invisable and the rest of the group decide to play along with him,and two very funny comedy fight sequences in which the Lucky Stars try and conceal the fact they can't fight by using silly moves and techniques.

Even if there isn't a great deal of action,what there is is still good. Chan's two scraps are two brief,but his chase scene,which has him rollerskate down a busy road and UNDER a moving lorry,climaxing with a car pile-up involving about thirty cars,is terrific,while Samo Hung has some great fight action in the climax. It's a fun,breezy romp which entertains as long as you don't expect too much. And even if you don't find it funny,you can laugh at gaffs such as the fake grass which has creases in it!

'Winners & Sinners' is not only the best Sammo Hung movie I've seen, but it's also the best altogether Hong Kong Comedy I've seen. The film combines elements of crime-comedies and Kung Fu films and has a surprisingly high amount of variety.

What also makes the film brilliant are the characters. Every single one of them is very memorable, particularly goofy 'Exhaust Pipe'. Teapot is a typical protagonist of Hung's movies, but very uplifting none the less. Jackie Chan's supporting role is also great and though I probably would have preferred him in the lead he is still incredibly funny as the clumsy cop of the film.

Overall, the film is simply hilarious. The amount of gags is almost unhealthy and this movie ensures that you will be laughing your head off.

This is probably Sammo Hung's best work before embarking on his venture to start D&B films. All star cast graces this movie including Jackie Chan, and Yuen Biao. Other stars reads like who's who of Hong Kong movie industry of the '80s.

Five ex cons and a girl starts a cleaning service. They just try to make their living, but soon they get involved with local gangsters, by taking their brief case filled with counterfeit money. What results is a mayhem of trouble and actions relating to the six of them. They find themselves in all sorts of strange situations, and compromising positions, but they use their ingenuity to get the best of the gangsters.

It's hard to tell if this is a comedy or an action movie. Most of the actors are not action stars, but regular movie actors, so it's not like endless action scenes in Jackie Chan's movies. It's more like old school Hong Kong comedy with some good actions inserted in between the story. Some action scenes involving Jackie Chan is a classic, like the one he hangs on to a car wearing his roller skates during a chase.

This is one of the classics from the '80s, and is recommended for viewing.

Winners and Sinners (aka Five Lucky Stars) is a film that I liked better the second time I watched it. After shaken off all expectations of a "Jackie and Sammo" film and accepted the uneven and scattered nature of this ensemble movie I enjoyed it more. This movie was more important though when it came out then it is considered today. Jackie had a recent flop in Dragon Lord, though I did enjoy the movie, and Golden Harvest had been in a bit of a slump. Producer Leonard Ho got the idea from Cannonball Run (which Jackie Chan and Michael Hui had parts in) to create an assemblage of popular Hong Kong stars to star in this film. Winners and Sinners was a success spawning several sequels and reunited Jackie with Seven Little Fortune alums Sammo and Yuen Biao (who helped with martial art choreography; though his cameo as a fellow CID officer is less than a minute as a quick fight versus Jackie.)

The Five Lucky Stars are cons who after spending their time in jail take a straight job with a cleaning company led by Curly aka Jack So (played by real life democracy advocate John Shum) who was framed for instigating a crowd to do harm in a parody of his real-life exhorts. The other four are Ranks aka Larry (Stanley Fung), Teapot (Sammo Hung who also directed this) as a cat burglar, Vaseline (Charlie Chin) a slick thief, and Exhaust Pipe (Richard Ng who performance was nominated as Best Actor for the Hong Kong Film Awards) who is bad at thieving automobile parts. They all live with Jack's sister known as Sis (Cherie Chung.) Unfortunately they spend way too much time trying to get her attention, leaving a lull in the early parts of the film. However there are some great gags such as Richard Ng thinking he is invisible with Wu Ma's great response to shatter his misconception – "...pretty good vision even when it comes to small objects" and a blind couple playing a Rod Stewart song at a carnival.

There are some great stunt and fight scenes led by 7086 (Jackie Chan) a bumbling CID officer who beats up wrong suspects, kills his superior's turtle and accidentally throws a kid's ice cream away. When he is not destroying everything in his path he is part of an awesome stunt scene involving skates (at least he learned something good from The Big Brawl though he is doubled on some of the trickier roller tricks) and part of a good fight scene in a cafeteria with a little person with horrific teeth. The "ouch factor" is quite high in one scene where a villain gets kicked out of a window and lands on a concrete ledge than falls to the ground. I have the highest respect for these stuntmen who kill themselves for our enjoyment. This film definitely deserved the Hong Kong award for best Action Choreography.

The story is mostly non-existent until the boilerplate briefcase full of counterfeit bills makes it's appearance. It belongs to Chan Chiu (James Tien always good as a cigar chomping villain) who is head of a triad gang. He was going to trade it to another triad gang led by Ho Man but it got intercepted and eventually and unknowingly in the possession of the Five Lucky Stars Cleaning Company. Of course, Agent 7086 wants this briefcase too.

But this film was not made for the plot. It was made to be a crowd pleasing mixture of comedy and action, both of which it does very well. It parodies the more serious films with scenes such as Charlie Chin and Fung Hark On doing a martial art pose-down fight and the final action scene that blends comedy and stunts takes place in a warehouse which gets me thinking on how many films I have seen that have the last fight scene in a warehouse (rhetorical thought of course). There are some problems with the film besides the inert beginning including he abysmal electronic soundtrack that is eerily reminiscent of Heart of Dragon's soundtrack and the misuse of Lam Ching Ying as Chan's butler Chan. Overall this is an enjoyable film that is fun to watch that showcases several outstanding Hong Kong comedians and several outstanding action performers.