The God of Cookery 食神

 Released Year: 1996

Directed by 周星馳 Stephen Chow & 李力持 Lee Lik Chi

Casted by:

周星馳 Stephen Chow as 史提芬周 Stephen

莫文蔚 Karen Mok as 火雞 Turkey

谷德昭 Vincent Kuk as 唐牛 Bull Tong

吳孟達 Ng Man Tat as 財團老闆 Uncle Rich

李兆基 Lee Siu Kei as 鵝頭 Ngo Tau

劉以達 Lau Yi Tat as 夢遺大師 Mung Wau

薛家燕 Nancy Sit as 薛家燕 Nancy

羅家英 Law Kar Ying as 食神大賽司儀 Host

Story: 

Stephen Chow, is a corrupt celebrity chef who secretly knows very little about cooking, runs a successful business empire, and is willing to hawk any product for a price. Arrogant and cocky, Chow is dubbed the "God of Cookery" and appears as a judge for culinary competitions rigged to make him look good.

Bull Tong, posing as an understudy and conspiring with Chow's business partner to overthrow him, exposes Chow as a fraud during the opening ceremony of Chow's 50th restaurant. Bull is declared the new "God of Cookery" and takes over Chow's corrupt empire. Ruined, Chow lives on the streets in an area known as Temple Street. There, he orders a bowl of "Assorted Noodles" from disfigured and uncouth food cart owner Turkey, and criticizes it for its lack of taste, terrible preparation, and unsanitary ingredients. During a heated exchange, Chow demands respect and reveals himself to be the fallen "God of Cookery", but then begs her for some money. Thugs beat him for his panhandling, but Turkey orders them away, taking pity on Chow and giving him a bowl of barbecue pork on rice. Chow is moved and declares it delicious.

Turkey and her rival street vendor, Goosehead, conduct gang warfare to see which vendor can sell the two best-selling dishes: beef balls and "pissing" shrimp. Chow manages to unite the two rival vendors by combining the two dishes into a new dish, "Pissing Beef Balls", which the three of them could sell together. It becomes a huge success, and the vendors convince Chow to enroll in a culinary school in order to reclaim the title he lost, but not before he discovers that Turkey idolized Chow as the "God of Cookery", and received her scarred appearance after fighting a local gang leader who ruined her poster of Chow.

The success of the "Pissing Beef Balls" alarms Bull, the new "God of Cookery", who arranges for Chow to be assassinated on the way to culinary school. While searching for the school, Chow finds that Turkey has followed him, asking him to complete a drawing of a romantic heart for her as a souvenir for her to remember him by. Knowing she is in love with him, Chow callously rebuffs her. Turkey reminds him of all she did for him, including her injuries, but Chow retorts that he never asked for her to do those things for him. As he tells her he can never love her, Turkey sees the approaching assassin and is shot in the face, taking the bullet for him. Chow, also presumed dead, disappears.

One month later, Bull enters the "God of Cookery" competition as the heavy favorite to retain the title. Chow arrives at the competition at the last minute, and reveals to Tong what had happened: Chow escaped the assassin's second bullet, and found his way to a Shaolin monastery, where head monk Wet Dream (a spoof on the Chinese word for nocturnal spermatorrhea) nursed him back to health. However, Wet Dream would not allow Chow to leave the temple until he was well-versed in the ways of the Shaolin arts, a point made moot when it is revealed the culinary school he was going to attend was, in fact, the temple's kitchen—the same kitchen Bull had trained at for 10 years, but subsequently dropped out of. While training, Chow continually mourned for Turkey, and was overcome with grief and remorse over his careless treatment of her. The depth of his feeling, which caused his hair to grow white, convinced Wet Dream to allow him his departure from the monastery.

The competition between Chow and Tong begins in earnest, with the two attempting to make identical "Buddha Jumping Wall" dishes. Each chef tries to sabotage the other's dish in a comedic wuxia fashion by attacking the other using their ingredients and kitchen implements, but Tong prevails when Chow's ex-business partner makes Chow's container explode with a bomb. With few materials and little time remaining, Chow prepares "Sorrowful Rice", a simple dish of barbecue pork rice, the same dish Turkey first gave to him while he was living on the streets. Although "Sorrowful Rice" is the better dish, Tong had already blackmailed the judge into rigging the contest. As Bull is fraudulently crowned the winner, Chow remarks that there is no one "God of Cookery" and that any person who cooks with heart can be the "God of Cookery". In an act of divine intervention, the Imperial Court of Heaven descends upon the competition and reveal that in another life, Chow was a heavenly assistant to the Kitchen God, before being sent to Earth to live as a human as punishment for revealing culinary secrets to mankind. Moved by his sorrow and his humbleness, they forgive him. They then transform Chow's former business partner into a form befitting his treachery: a bulldog, and leave a gaping hole on Bull Tong's chest, possibly symbolizing his heartlessness (whether he is killed by this is never revealed).

After the competition, Chow celebrates Christmas with his vendor friends in Temple Street, where Goosehead reveals that Turkey survived the assassination. She caught the bullet meant for Chow with her gold-plated teeth and a dentist reconstructed her dental work and even threw in a free plastic surgery on her face, making her pretty again. As she appears before him and asks how she looks, Chow responds by throwing her the completed drawing of two arrow-pierced hearts.

 L² Scored: 10/10

L² Comment:

This legendary comedy movie of Stephen Chow is at Number 2 place of HK blockbuster in 1996. With a lot of Mou Lei Tau scenes but yet very laughable; some of them even make me wanna punch their faces lol~ This should be the first try of Karen Mok of getting herself so ugly; but it has also successfully raise her fame to another level as well~ The rest of the characters were not bad as well, Vincent Kuk is very good in doing this kind of character, hope to see more of him in front of the camera as well lol~ 

The Top Bet 賭霸

 Released Year: 1991

Directed by 劉鎮偉 Jeffrey Lau & 元奎 Corey Yuen

Casted by:

鄭裕玲 Dodo Cheng as 有喜 Yau Hei

梅艷芳 Anita Mui as 妹頭 Mui

吳孟達 Ng Man Tat as 黑仔達 Blackie Tat

秦沛 Paul Chun as 洪光 Hung Guang

劉鎮偉 Jeffrey Lau as 陳松 Chan Chung

盧冠廷 Lowell Lu as 堯哥 Rao

盧苑茵 Angelina Lo as 六姑 Luk

元華 Yuen Wah as 妹頭師父 Mui's master

鍾鎮濤 Kenny B as 大B

元奎 Corey Yuen as 賣魚盛 Fishy Shing

吳君如 Sandra Ng as 阿萍 Ping

周星馳 Stephen Chow as 左頌星 Sing

 Story: 

After Sing has won the competition last year, he went to travel and left Blackie Tat alone to face Chan Chung who has been challenged again by Huang Guang again. After searching up and down, Blackie Tat found Yau Hei who is believe to be the next gambler wonder. However, after introduced Yau Hei to Chung, Blackie Tat realized that Yau Hei is not as great as she said, they bet Sing's sister Mui for help. 

Mui is reluctant to help Hei at first, but after being help by Hei to know B more & knowing that Hei needs the money to save her sick brother, Mui decided to help Hei in beating down Guang in the next gambling competition...  

 L² Scored: 8/10

L² Comment:

This is the sequence of 赌圣 but Stephen Chow only came out in the beginning and end of the movie as a guest appearance... Dodo Cheng & Anita Mui tried to create the girl power but not really success like the first movie. Even so, both of them still managed to win some applause from their own fans for this movie. Too bad, there's no further sequence on this 赌霸 after this...

All for the Winner 賭聖

 Released Year: 1990

Directed by 劉鎮偉 Jeffrey Lau & 元奎 Corey Yuen

Casted by:

周星馳 Stephen Chow as 左頌星 Sing

吳孟達 Ng Man Tat as 黑仔達 Blackie Tat

張敏 Sharla Cheung as 綺夢 Yee Mung

劉鎮偉 Jeffrey Lau as 陳松 Chan Chung

秦沛 Paul Chun as 洪光 Hung Guang

尹揚明 Vincent Wan as Billy

元奎 Corey Yuen as 賣魚盛 Fishy Shing

吳君如 Sandra Ng as 阿萍 Ping

盧苑茵 Angelina Lo as 六姑 Luk

 Story:

Sing is a mainland China country boy who arrives in Hong Kong to visit his Uncle "Blackie Tat". When Sing stays with his uncle and his friends in their apartment, Blackie soon learns of Sing's supernatural ability to see through objects and, later on, his ability to change playing cards by rubbing them. He takes advantage of this and turns Sing into the Dou Seng or the "Saint of Gamblers". After getting into a fight with several alleyway gamblers he meets the lovely Yee-mung, a henchman for the "King of Gamblers", and becomes infatuated with her. Sing quickly becomes a rival to the King and must win his way through a world competition to prove his skill.

 L² Scored: 10/10

L² Comment:

In the year of 1990, Stephen Chow has shot total of 10 movies in that particular year and this movie has make the No 1 in HK blockbuster :) *applause... His extraordinaire way of acting not only make us laugh non stop, it will never bored us out in anyway... The funniest will have to be Sandra Ng who has to non stop hold her armpit up and let Stephen stared at the mole... lol

Sixty Million Dollar Man 百變星君

 Released Year: 1995

Directed by 葉偉民 Raymond Yip

Casted by:

周星馳 Stephen Chow as 李澤星 Lee Chak Sing

吳孟達 Ng Man Tat as 達叔 Tat

梁詠琪 Gigi Leung as 蟲蟲 Chung Chung

徐錦江 Elvis Tsui as 姜司教授 Professor Chang Sze

孫佳君 Pauline Sun as Bonnie

 Story: 

Lee Chak-Sing is a rich kid living in Hawaii. He's arrogant and fond of playing mean tricks on everyone around him. His life changes when he meets Chung-Chung, a young woman whom he declares is very ugly.

Tat (Ng Man Tat), Sing's loyal assistant, is revealed by Sing's mother to be his true father. He is then faced with a decision: Accept Tat as his father and lose his inheritance or continue to call the other man his father and live in the lap of luxury. He chooses his father.

Sing offends local crime lord Fumito by dancing with Fumito's girl in a Pulp Fiction-inspired dance contest. In a fit of rage, Fumito orders his henchman Mark to kill Sing.

When Tat comes to rescue his son, both are caught by Mark and tied together in a bathroom stall, where Mark planted a bomb. Sing chops off his arm and manages to let his father escape on an ejector toilet seat, leaving Sing to apparently die in the explosion.

Sing's brain and lips are recovered. There is technology to construct a new body for him at the cost of $60,000,000. However, since Sing renounced his rich father, he doesn't have the money. Tat can only provide $6,000.

Chang, offers to create a body for $6,000. After some trial and error, such as creating legs out of arms, Sing is transformed into a cyborg.

To fool Fumito, however, a funeral is staged for Sing, where he hides to watch. The only person to attend is Chung-Chung, who is unaware of Sing's true fate, and mourns his death. When Sing sees this, he feels remorse for mistreating her (and everyone else).

Two years later, he gets a job as a teacher at one of the worst schools in the area. He is harassed and assaulted by the students, culminating in Sing being "crucified" on the front gate of the school with his (low-cost) garden hose genitalia hanging out. Chung-Chung also works at the school, but has matured and is no longer the awkward, unattractive girl that Sing knew. She also has a rich fiance with a fancy sports car.

That evening, in a fit of despair, Sing attempts suicide but is stopped when Chang delivers a new microchip he's been working on. The microchip enables Sing to transform into many different household appliances and makes him nearly indestructible.

Sing returns to the school and corrects the anarchy, serving as a superhuman disciplinarian. Under his care, all the students become diligent and hardworking.

Sing's fame catches Fumito's attention. He sends Mark to finish Sing off, but Mark fails. The henchman tries to escape, but Sing kills him by twisting his body into a human basketball. Using his wealth, Fumito has Mark rebuilt into a powerful cyborg with shape-shifting abilities.

Mark infiltrates Sing's wedding party as Sing's old friend Siu-Fu, but Sing sees through the disguise. In the ensuing chaos, Sing is apparently killed in an explosion. To everyone's surprise, Sing returns as a powerful old lady, resembling a Park'n Shop mascot, in a bulletproof robe. Ultimately, Sing transforms into a microwave oven and traps Mark inside, burning him to death. Fumito is disposed of soon after.

 L² Scored: 8.5/10

L² Comment:

Among the movie of Stephen Chow, this is the craziest in my opinion. Placing itself in the top 3 at HK blockbuster in year 1995, Stephen Chow once again prove that his comedian act is nothing lesser comparing to others actors... He makes us laugh and makes us relax... what else do u want? Don't ever miss out this classic comedy movie, which apparently also one of the earliest movie which Gigi Leung appeared...

God of Gamblers 賭神1

 Released Year: 1989

Directed by 王晶 Wang Jing

Casted by:

周潤發 Chow Yun Fat as 高進 / 朱古力 Ko Chun / Chocolate

劉德華 Andy Lau as 陳刀仔 Michael Chan

向華強 Charles Heung as 龍五 Lung Wu

王祖賢 Joey Wong as 珍 Jane

龍方 Jimmy Lung as 高義 Ko Yee

張敏 Sharla Cheung as Janet

吳孟達 Ng Man Tatt as 花柳成 Shing

黃斌 Ronald Wong as 烏鴉 Crow

 Story:

Ko Chun is a world-famous gambler, so renowned and talented at winning various games of chance that he is referred to as the "God of Gamblers". He keeps his identity secret from the public (and avoids taking photos so his face is not recognised), but is known for three characteristics: his slick-backed hairstyle, his love of Feodora brand chocolate and his jade pinky ring.

Ko Chun arrives in Tokyo, accompanied by his girlfriend Janet and his assistant and cousin Ko Yee, for a match with Tanaka, the country's top ranked gambler. After convincingly defeating Tanaka in games of Mahjong and dice, Tanaka concedes defeat and asserts that Ko Chun "really God".

Tanaka asks Chun to help him take revenge on Chan Kam-Sing, a famous Singaporean gambler who cheated Tanaka's father (driving him to suicide), by besting Chan in a high-stakes poker match. Ko Chun agrees, merely asking for a box of chocolate as payment. In gratitude, Tanaka sends his bodyguard, former ARVN (South Vietnam) Special Forces Operative Dragon to accompany Ko Chun for protection.

Meanwhile, Little Knife, an avid but mediocre gambler who idolises the God of Gamblers, sets a trap for an Indian neighbour as a practical joke. After a confrontation on a train between Ko Chun, Dragon, and henchmen sent by one of Ko Chun's rivals, Ko happens to accidentally stumble into Knife's trap. Ko falls down a hill, hitting his head, and subsequently suffers from amnesia and regresses to a childlike state.

Knife, not knowing who the unnamed stranger is, takes him in and names him "Chocolate" due to the man's seemingly obsessive love for the candy. Initially Knife is impatient with "Chocolate"'s simple-minded innocence and yells at him often, but soon recognises that "Chocolate" has innate gambling talent and begins to exploit his abilities in local poker games and gambling dens. As time passes, Knife comes to care for "Chocolate" and seeks to find a way to restore his memory.

Back at Ko Chun's mansion, it is revealed that Janet has been searching for Chun for ten days to no avail. Ko Yee, who is jealous of Chun's success and wealth, makes advances on her, which she rejects; finally, while attempting to rape her, Yee accidentally knocks Janet off the balcony, killing her. He discovers that she has been recording what has been transpiring and proceeds to burn the tape. Later, Yee allies himself with Chan Kam-Sing and Ko Chun's other rival and they send assassins to find and kill Chun.

Eventually, the assassins find Chun, Knife, and their friends and attempt to kill them, but Dragon arrives to protect them after tracking Chun down. A fierce shootout ensues in a shopping center, in which Knife saves Chun from an attempt on his life by Ko Yee. During the fight, Dragon is wounded, causing Chun to snap out of his child persona briefly to kill the rest of the assailants. However, after regressing back to his childlike state, Chun becomes horrified at the carnage and runs out into the street where he is struck by a vehicle.

Chun awakens in the hospital with his regular persona, but no memory of the events or people he met after the fight. He is informed by Ko Yee, who is feigning loyalty, that Janet has disappeared. Knife arrives and attempts to warn Chun of Ko Yee's treachery but Yee has Knife thrown out. Later, Ko Yee gives Chan Kam-Sing special eyeglasses that will allow him to cheat during his upcoming poker match with Chun by reading invisible markings on the cards.

Chun, Yee, Tanaka and Dragon arrive on Chan Kam-Sing's yacht for the climactic game of five card stud. Knife, having sneaked onto the boat, again attempts to warn Chun of the danger he is in. Chun agrees to hear Knife out later but admonishes him not to interfere with the poker game.

With his ability to see the markings on the cards, Chan Kam-Sing dominates the first two rounds. After losing all of Tanaka's money, Ko Chun puts up his entire personal portfolio of wealth and holdings against Chan's wealth. Chan, using his glasses to see that Ko Chun has an inferior hand, agrees, showing his cards and gloating over his victory. Ko Chun, in turn, reveals that he actually has the superior hand and has won the game, having secretly altered the markings of the deck and using special contact lenses to read them.

Subsequently, Ko Chun tricks Chan Kam-Sing into shooting Ko Yee. As Yee lays dying, Chun drops Janet's tape (which actually never finished burning) onto his body. Ko Chun then departs (as police arrive to take Chan into custody for murder) without speaking to Knife, much to the latter's dismay.

Ko Chun later surprises Knife at his home and reveals that he remembered Knife in the hospital and knew about Ko Yee's betrayal all along, but had to feign ignorance to execute his plan properly. He promises to make it up to Knife by taking him to Las Vegas as his gambling partner.

 L² Scored: 10/10

L² Comment: 

The ever classic gambling movie in HK that everyone likes no matter back in 1989 or now. Chow Yun Fat is forever my idol and I like him so much, no matter when he is Ko Chun or Chocolate, his acting skill has already been good during that time (thanks to TVB for training him)... Andy Lau is still a bit not steady like Joey Wong during that time, but acceptable... Overall this is a classic movie which nobody should miss in their lifetime~

Overheard 3 竊聽風雲 3

 Released Year: 2014

Directed by 麦兆辉 Alan Mak & 莊文強 Felix Choong

Casted by:

劉青雲 Sean Lau as 陸金強 Keong

古天樂 Louis Koo as 羅永就 Jau

吳彥祖 Daniel Wu as 阿祖 Joe

周迅 Zhou Xun as 阮月華 Hua

葉璇 Michelle Ye as 陸永瑜 Yu

方中信 Alex Foong as 陸永富 Fu

林家棟 Gordon Lam as 陸建波 Bo

林嘉華 Dominic Lam as 陸永泉 Chuen

曾江 Kenneth Tsang as 陸瀚濤 Tao

吳孟達 Ng Man Tat as 司徒光 SzeTo

黃磊 Huang Lei as 萬山Shan

 Story: 

Few years ago, Jau bang Yun and cause him to die so that the Luk's 4 brother - Keong, Fu, Bo & Chuen able to work with Tao's development company in extending the village properties. When Jau is out from prison, Tao's daughter Yu and bf Shan hired Jau and IT expert Joe to investigate of the Luk's 4 brother. Jau still has feeling for Yu while Joe met Hua (Yun's wife) and the Luk's brothers later discover that Jau is the one who betrayed them... 

 L² Scored: 9/10

L² Comment:

The very last movie of the "Overheard" franchise film, this is the best among the 3 movies. Even though there's no link among these 3 movies but the actors are basically the same which is Sean, Louis & Daniel. Overall the storyline for this is the best, love the twist and turn of it. Happy to see that most of them are originated from TVB, and now they are strong enough to stand in front of the HK blockbuster and shine for the Hong Kong films :)

Handsome Siblings 絕代雙驕

 Released Year: 1992

Directed by 曾志偉 Eric Tsang

Casted by:

劉德華 Andy Lau as 小魚兒 Fishy

林青霞 Bridget Lin as 花無缺 More

張敏 Sharla Cheung as 邀月宮主 Eva Palace Ruler

吳孟達 Ng Man Tat as 李大嘴 Big Mouth Lee

葉德嫻 Deanie Ip as 屠嬌嬌 Sissy To

吳鎮宇 Francis Ng as 江玉郎 Kong Yuk Long

苗僑偉 Michael Miu as 燕南天 Yin Nam Tin

袁詠儀 Anita Yuen as 鐵心蘭 Madam Ti

吳耀漢 Richard Ng as 武林雙尊之一 Twin Villain

王青 Wang Qing as 武林雙尊之一 Twin Villain

 Story: 

Every 18 years, the martial artists' community hold a martial arts contest to elect a new leader. Eva Palace's ruler wins the title and is tasked with eliminating the Ten Villains, who live in the Villains' Valley, a sanctuary for criminals. Yin Nam-tin (Eva Palace ruler's husband) believes that the villains are innocent and attempts to stop his wife from killing them. The couple turn against each other and Yin eventually manages to defeat his wife, but becomes paralyzed and mute. Eva accepts a girl called More as her disciple and intends to groom her as her successor. Meanwhile, the Ten Villains accept Yin's son (Fishy) as their student and plan to "nurture" him to become the greatest villain ever. 18 years later, the grown-up Fishy coincidentally meets More and falls in love with her. When he participates in the contest later, he is shocked to discover that Eva is actually his mother, and More is in fact Eva's student.

 L² Scored: 6/10

L² Comment:

Missed this classic movie during the 90s... even though Bridget Lin is actually 7 years elder than Andy Lau, but it did not feel weird when both of them acted as a couple~ Bridget is the hottest actress during that time, nobody can look better than her when she wear a man clothes~ Of course the original fiction is not correctly shown in this movie as the gender of More should be a guy instead of a woman~ And lots lots lots stories were also amended as well...