Winners & Sinners (1983)

The original one's the best after all!

Winners & Sinners is a series of movies directed by Sammo Hung, with a bunch of actors you'll recognize from plenty of both comedy and HK action flicks if you've been watching them throughout the eighties and nineties (the pinnacle years of these films IMHO, when all stunts were real and people, as Sammo points out in an interview, actually got injured). Jackie Chan plays a pretty major side role, and we even get a guest appearance by Yuen Biao and a quick fight. I was wondering if he'd be included somehow! I did watch this movie a few years ago, but I didn't pay that much attention to the people in it back then. Overall this is a light-hearted comedy with plenty of action for a change, and the stunts are great (many thanks to Jackie)!

As I said I have watched this movie before, but in the past I watched it only because Jackie Chan was in it, now I recognize plenty of the other actors, though most of them only by appearance. Of course I knew Sammo before, but I didn't notice Yuen, and Richard Ng is becoming a bit of a favorite. He's got to be one of the funniest people in Asian cinema, not only because of his acting skills and comedic timing but because he's do damn short, he has the perfect appearance.

This time I also watched an exclusive interview that came with the DVD, with Sammo Hung, explaining how he mapped out the characters, etc. Though it gets a bit annoying when he mixes in English with the Chinese (he's not that good at English) it was an interesting session. Apparently the movie's based on TV shows he used to watch, about a group of cops going undercover with different occupations, so he took that idea and made something new out of it. The plot turned out more clever than you'd think the first time you watch it, detailing plenty of comical sketches with a rather unique gathering of personalities, It's meant to be fun, to make people happy... and that it does!

And if you are just interested in this because of Jackie's role in it, he does some intense skating (before the roller-blade era) stunts, amongst other things. There's a nasty car pile-up too, and Sammo's parts aren't to be left unmentioned, everyone contributes to make this one of the best HK action/comedy flicks of its time. Great watch.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle