| In the past decade during Chinese New Year, usually we would expect four movies -- one by Jackie Chan, one by Stephen Chow, one by Chow Yun Fat, and one by Raymond Wong's productions. This year, although we don't have any Stephen Chow, Jackie Chan nor Chow Yun Fat film, we still have a Raymond Wong production, "Winner Takes All."
"Winner Takes All" is a movie about the process of revenge on Swindler WONG, who is considered to be the king of swindlers with hundreds of victims. Pauline WU (Joey YUNG)'s Dad is one of the victims and she flies to Singapore to seek revenge on Swindlers. She teams with a young swindler Ferrari (Nicholas TSE), who is trying to get money from a wealthy lady before he's arrested by Inspector Stupid (Karl MAKA). Stupid has been chasing Swindler for twenty years! Bastardly SZE (SO Yau-pang), who is following that same wealthy lady to take photos of her with another man for a divorce case, finally also joins Pauline's band. They try to cheat Swindler's daughter on a casino ship. However, that is a trap for another girl (WU Sen-kwan) to gather all the victims of Swindler WONG. Can they outswindle the king of swindlers?
The movie is the first production by the re-structured Cinema City, which was active in the 80s while its "Aces Go Places" series was successful at the box office. Since the 90s, Cinema City has not been that active in film production; their last movie is "Tri-Star" (1996).
One thing that is certain is that Raymond WONG is enthusiastic in film productions. Despite the failure in the local box office for his productions in previous years, he is still making movies. For those who are going to see "Winner Takes All," they are familiar with Raymond's previous Chinese New Year movies and are expecting only laughs.
In 80s and early 90s, Raymond WONG and Clifton KO Chi-sum's New Year movies were very enjoyable for the laughers. However, audiences will be disappointed by "Winner Takes All". There are two problems for "Winner Takes All" as a comedy. Some critics may criticize the plot of the movie. However, that is the usual case for Chinese New Year movies. |