God Of Gamblers
1990
Violent action, intense drama and Hong Kong comedy set against the backdrop of Hong Kong's notorious gambling circuit. Read more
| Starring | Chow Yun Fat, Andy Lau |
|---|---|
| Director | Wong Jing |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Thriller, World Cinema |
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God Of Gamblers
Violent action, intense drama and Hong Kong comedy set against the backdrop of Hong Kong's notorious gambling circuit.
| Starring | Chow Yun Fat, Andy Lau |
|---|---|
| Director | Wong Jing |
| Studio | MIA VIDEO ENTERTAINMENT LTD |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Thriller, World Cinema |
| Language | DVD: Cantonese |
| Released | DVD: 24 Feb 2003 Production year: 1990 |
| Format | DVD |
God Of Gamblers (1990)
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Most helpful member's review
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9 out of 10 people found this review helpful
Definately one of the top 100 films of all time!
Wong Jing is the crowned prince, perhaps king, of genre-mixing - this film has comedy, drama, romance, gun play, martial arts and gambling. But it's the quality of which it's done at (then the quantity) which is truly praiseworthy.
He knows how to put elements in without feeling contrived, incessant, gratuitous or extraneous to the plot, something which is not an easy task I assure you.
For instance the idea of making a film starring Hong Kong's biggest movie star and Hong Kong's biggest pop star would have seemed like bad casting and blatant commercialism, yet Wong Jing carves out these characters that suits the looks and personalities of these two stars without ever making them look like they've been put in there for the sake of being put in there.
In any other director's hands, this film would have been a mess, the pacing would have plodded, it would have been too lengthy for its own good but if it was any shorter the film would not retain its depth which the script so rightly deserves so the film would have felt rushed in a sense.
Nobody can direct gambling scenes in a way which is genuinely exciting as Wong Jing can (without using CGI effects and flashy MTV-style camera trickery), he really takes it to new levels with almost each film he does. He's not only made gambling films a full-fledged offical genre but he's spawned a sub-genre from it: the gambling adventure movie.
So Wong Jing gives the treatment of the overall production assured handling.
He began his directorial career in 1981 with the gambling film Challenge Of The Gamesters where he'd already had storytelling experience and know-how of a veteran so it didn't come off as being rudimentary or lacking in foundation like so many directorial debuts. By this stage in his career (i.e. 1989) he had all the seasoned marks of a veteran, fully in control of his craft.
Thanks to Wong Jing's script & direction, Chow delivers a palette of emotions across Jing's cinematic canvas. In fact, if it wasn't for Wong Jing, Chow Yun Fat wouldn't have been able to have scored a hat trick of acting nominations at the Hong Kong film awards. However, it was his performance in All About Ah Long which won him Best Actor, though a lot of people feel that his role as Ko Chun is his best performance.
Speaking of awards, just like another genius of cinema (that genius being Martin Scorsese) I don't think Wong Jing has ever won a Best Director award (I could be wrong due to the as-per-usual lack of information which crosses over from East to West). However, the 3rd sequel to this film (The Return Of The God Of Gamblers) was Wong Jing's highest grossing film and was said to have been critically acclaimed (according to the Essential Jackie Chan Sourcebook) so who knows!
This is one of the most popular Hong Kong films of all time! It broke the box office record set by John Woo's A Better Tomorrow. It even made more money than John Woo's The Killer when they were released in 1989. The film had spinned so many rip-offs, spin-offs and sequels (a third of which were made by Wong Jing) and even a rip-off disguised as a 'parody' entitled All For The Winner which even though made more money the following year, the film is pretty much what producer Ng See Yuen envisioned it to be: a low-budget rip-off of God Of Gamblers that could make some extra cash.
So naturally Wong Jing decided to put Stephen in the next sequel of the God Of Gamblers franchise which made even more money and another sequel (entitled Back To Shanghai) which made slightly less money but was still considered a big hit so that's why Wong Jing dropped Stephen for the 3rd sequel where Ko Chun is in France.
This film is so good that Samuel L. Jackson has been working for years to get this remade but some films just can't, shouldn't and wouldn't be remade!
Oh...and the film is called God Of Gamblers...not God Of Gambler's.
The film was supposedly loosely based on a real-life story:
http://nbi.com/hk/cyf/about/szeto.html
To find out more on Wong Jing and his inspirations for God Of Gamblers, go here:
www.imdb.com/name/nm0939147/bio
If you go to the trivia sections for both this film and The Return Of The God Of Gamblers over at the IMDB then you can find some interesting facts to digest in your mind. -
Most recent members' review
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4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
Chow Yun Fat...Brilliant!!!
First heard about this movie by way of a trailer on my copy of THE KILLER. an absolutely hilarious movie, Chow Yun Fat is brilliant as always, as the god of gamblers who loses his memory by way of an accident. Hysterical film with the usual mix of humour and graphic violence that oriental movies seem to do miles better than Hollywood! If you're a Chow Yun Fat fan, you should've seen this by now, if you haven't, you're missing out - BIG TIME!
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