Ko Chun (Chow Yun Fat) is the mysterious and infamous God of Gamblers. Incredibly cool and self-assured, Ko Chun possesses an unexplainable and miraculous ability to always win at gambling whether it be cards, betting on horses, Mah-jong, dice, he can never lose. With his impressive abilities, and the fact that few know his identity and appearance, he has amassed a considerable fortune, and lives a privileged but reclusive lifestyle with his best friend and assistant Yee and his girlfriend Janet, and is also a sucker for expensive chocolates. We are given a display of his skills when he is challenged in Japan by a Mr. Wang, whose best efforts (which included using the dice rolling skills of Michiko Nishiwaki who did something similar in My Lucky Stars) are no match for the God of Gamblers. The truth is Mr. Wang knew he would lose and merely wished an audience with Ko Chun so that he might offer him a million US dollars to challenge the “Singapore King” Chan Kam Sing. Chan Kam Sing is notorious and is wanted by the law enforcers of numerous countries, and so must stay in international waters in order to escape arrest. Mr. Wang wants revenge against Chan, who cheated against his father three years previously, and in his shame Wang's father had killed himself. Due to the friendship between his and Chan's underground gambling clubs he cannot shoot him, and so instead requests that Ko Chun gamble on his behalf in two months time and beat him. Ko Chun agrees, and Chan assigns him a bodyguard in the form of the imposing Dragon (Charles Heung) who gives him a card and tells him to call any time he is needed.

The near complete polar opposite to the mighty God of Gamblers is Knife (Andy Lau), a small-time hustler who can never get a break, but keeps on trying along with his diminutive sidekick Crawl and his long-suffering girlfriend Jane (Joey Wong, City Hunter). After an encounter with a South-Asian man and his dogs on an alleged ‘private road', Knife sets a trap for the man on the road which would cause him to fall down an embankment. Meanwhile, Ko Chun gambles with another wealthy man, winning nine million dollars from him and causing him so small amount of embarrassment. After he leaves, a group of thugs are sent to get the money back and he is accosted on a train by the men who had not counted on Dragon being there, who beats the crap out of the lot of them and allows Ko Chun to escape from the train. By pure coincidence, the railway line runs above the road on which Knife set his trap, and in the darkness of night the God of Gamblers falls victim to it, tumbling down the embankment and hitting his head on a rock. Hearing that the trap worked, Knife and co. run to gloat at their victim, only to find it's the wrong man. Not recognising Ko Chun because of his reclusive nature, they take the unconscious man to Knife's granny so that she can attend to him. Ko Chun wakes in the middle of the night and frightens the whole household, but something isn't right, his fall and blows to the head have given him amnesia and his intelligence has been reduced to that of a child. Knife and the others begrudgingly agree to look after him, nicknaming him ‘Chocolate' because of his continuing love of the expensive chocolate he would frequently eat as the God of Gamblers. Purely by accident, when trying to rip-off a local gambling den owner they discover Chocolate's inexplicable gambling skills (seemingly left untouched by his accident) and Knife starts taking him around various gambling dens to start making them money. However, Ko Chun's real life has not gone away - the gambling challenge with Chan Kam Sing draws closer and both Dragon and Yee are looking for him. Somebody, though, has another agenda altogether that puts Ko Chun's very life in danger unless he can somehow recover from his injury.

As I have suggested in my reviews of Naked Killer and Naked Weapon, both of which were penned by Wong Jing, I don't have very much faith in his ability as a writer. Indeed, he made City Hunter with Jackie Chan and they fell out numerous times over the content of the film, Chan was never very pleased with the result, that there was far too much silly, goofy humour in it. Yes, a film that was too silly for Jackie Chan! Anyway, once you get past the introductory part of this film and into the real meat the of the film – Ko Chun's transformation into the child-like ‘Chocolate' and the things he gets up to with Knife and his friends which at times resembles a series of comedy set-pieces, its gets very, very silly. The idea that the ultra-cool God of Gamblers could become an unpredictable idiot man-child with a near-obsessive taste for chocolate, and played almost entirely for laughs, can be hard to swallow for some. Adding to the silliness is some of the young cast, particularly Andy Lau and his crew. Lets say that perhaps Andy was still ‘perfecting his craft' at this point, as he's rather over the top and somewhat forced in his delivery, made more obvious by the very silly nature of the script. Joey Wong is a very pretty actress, but doesn't get to do much more than the usual – yelling at Lau and looking peeved when his stupid schemes go awry. Perhaps they actually benefit from the silly script however, because in the more serious moments they do struggle somewhat, though that's partly due to the script as it deals with the comedy much, much better than it does the serious stuff which often comes off a little unconvincing.

In ordinary circumstances, this film could be doomed to mediocrity like numerous other Wong Jing productions except here we witness the Herculean effort of one man – Chow Yun Fat. There are few actors who can come close to this man's level of professionalism, depth of talent, and ability to convince. As the suave, almost Sean Connery Bond-like God of Gamblers, Yun Fat looks like he was born to play the role, impossibly cool with his hair slicked back, and the only thing gleaming brighter than his eyes being his smile. He just looked the part so perfectly, had such a great handle on the character, he has you believing everything he did. Then, he hits his head and the damage causes all that cool, self-assurance, and intelligence to fall away, leaving an erratic child-like shell of his former self. He sits bemused like he doesn't truly understand what's going on, his hair is now a dull side-part, he sulks when he can't have his favourite chocolate, and can't contain his excitement when he gets a winning hand of cards, yelling excitedly. Once again its totally convincing. Chow Yun Fat works wonders and is an absolute joy as ‘Chocolate', his timing is perfect, his mannerisms even when he's not directly involved in a scene are superb, and he can even tug the heartstrings in ways that the script could not possibly have achieved on its own. His commanding screen presence is undeniable and the depth of acting he displays is far better than Wong Jing ever deserved, just watch the scene where he is playing ‘Chocolate' but is attempting to emulate the God of Gamblers, just brilliant. Other members of the cast play their parts too, Andy Lau plays off against Yun Fat surprisingly well, Baau Hon Lam is effectively evil as Chan Kam Sing, and Ng Man Tat makes a great turn as Loanshark Shing. Charles Hung is also very impressive as Dragon, showing some sharp kicks and looking great in some gunplay sequences in the few action scenes the film allows, which themselves are exciting and extremely violent. The gambling scenes are great too, surprisingly tense and well-shot, and showing a great amount of originality when they are used in the climax of the film, rather than just having another violent shoot-out. Not that I have anything against violent shoot outs, mind you.

A rarity then, a genuinely good movie from Wong Jing boasting some good action scenes and good-natured anarchic comedy which benefits immensely from having the incomparable talents of Chow Yun Fat. God of Gamblers launched an entire sub-genre of gambling movies and its easy to see why when viewing this greatly entertaining and engaging piece from the golden age of Hong Kong cinema, and yet another highlight in Chow Yun Fat's impressive career.

Despite enjoying the flamboyantly wealthy lifestyle of a triad kingpin, Chun is shortly down on his luck when an accidental fall leaves him with a severe case of amnesia. Reduced to the infantile state of a chocolate-obsessed teenage retard (played for laughs, but carefully avoiding the unappealing tone that such a role would doubtless attract if they'd cast a lesser actor), the once legendary Chun disappears into obscurity, thanks to his traitorous partner, and is unwittingly involved in the overambitious hustling schemes of petty crook Knife (Andy Lau). Although most of the heroics are performed by Lau, and later by Chun's quietly indomitable bodyguard Dragon, there is one almighty gun battle in a garage that sees Chow briefly more assertive in his usual two-gun screen persona and, in the shopping arcade, film buffs will certainly get a kick out of the neat parody (as a pram tumbles down an escalator), of the arresting railway station sequence in De Palma's The Untouchables (1987), which was itself a homage to the Odessa Steps montage in The Battleship Potemkin (1925).

Later, when he's knocked down by a car, Chun's memory returns just in time for his showdown with enemies old and new, in a high-stakes game using cards marked in the villains' favour. Although other Hong Kong filmmakers helped spawn a 1990s' subgenre of gambling themed comedy action with sequels and a prequel to Wong Jing's immensely successful God Of Gamblers, it wasn't until 1994 that Chow Yun-fat reclaimed his role in Return Of The God Of Gamblers. This first film, by far the best of its kind, deals out as much amusing low-brow humour as hard-edged violence (earning its 18 certificate with a knife fight and an attempted rape), and its various macho elements are leavened by the presence of Joey Wong as Knife's cute girlfriend Jane...

Chow Yun-Fat turns in an even better performance than usual as Ko Chun, an incredibly smooth, chocolate-loving gambling genius who, after suffering a head injury thanks to a trap set for a homosexual Indian man (don't ask), becomes a slow-witted simpleton with partial memory loss, essentially playing two characters in the same film. Less impressive is Andy Lau as Knife, a hot-headed man of dubious morality who tries to use Ko Chun (now known as Chocolate) and his latent gambling skills to clear his debts and amass a fortune for himself, his long-legged girlfriend Jane (Joey Wang), and his chum Crawl (Ronald Wong), who bears an uncanny resemblance to Steve Buscemi. Chocolate's witlessness leads to a few difficult situations for Knife; some comical (Chocolate imitating the gasps heard in a whorehouse), some dramatic (Knife abandoning his puppet until guilt and compassion get the better of him), and some a mixture of both (oh, THERE'S Chocolate; he just went to buy some Mickey Mouse balloons. No wonder Disney bought the rights to this one).

Meanwhile, back on the homefront, Janet (Man Cheung) anxiously awaits the return of her beloved Ko Chun while his former friend Yee (Fong Lung) sets his sights on her. Also, a fateful game with an aging crime lord named Chan draws ever closer, and Ko Chun's assigned bodyguard, Mr. Dragon, wonders where the hell his protectee has vanished to. One of the film's storytelling flaws is that these elements get placed on the back burner for too long while the spotlight falls on Knife and his moneymaking schemes. There's also an out-of-place shootout where Chow Yun-Fat suddenly becomes one of his John Woo characters and, despite all the hubbub, no cops show up. However, when our hero staggers out of the building and falls to the pavement a minute later, lo and behold, there's a fine, upstanding officer of the law right there quick as a wink to disperse the crowd that gathers around him.

Minor stuff, this. It's a good movie. Just not anything I'd sell a kidney for.

The version I watched was a horrendous full-frame DVD from Mei Ah where the imbedded subtitles frequently got chopped off at the bottom of the screen. It brought back not-so-fond memories of those pre-DVD days when Tai Seng turned countless people off of Hong Kong cinema by doing this shit with their video tapes and charging outrageous prices for them. Even worse, Mei Ah apparently cut out about 20 minutes or so for no apparent reason; a few of my comments, therefore, are admittedly suspect. (Now, let's see how much more fucked up the Buena Vista version is, assuming they ever release it.)

One of the most popular HK films of all time, God of Gamblers is a raucous blend of action, comedy and drama. The gambling scenes in the movie are fabulous. If you think that sounds funny, well, it does... but after you see Ko Chun literally battling for tiles in a game, you'll never look at gambling scenes the same way again. The action segments (as could be expected from Wong Jing) are over the top and quite good, especially the one in a parking garage, where Chow picks up two pistols John Woo-style and blasts the hell out of his attackers.

But what really cements the film is Chow Yun-Fat. Many people call this his best performance, and in fact, he was nominated for a Hong Kong Film Award for his acting in this movie (he did end up winning the award, but for a different film, All About Ah-Long). I wouldn't go quite that far (The Killer still holds a special place in my heart, but this movie actually beat it at the local box office), but Chow is quite endearing in this movie, as he meticulously eats chocolate or screams with glee as he wins -- it doesn't hurt that we also get to see him as a major badass as well.

God of Gamblers comes highly recommended. There's a little something for everyone in it, if you can get past the horrible subtitles present in most video versions.

Why Would I Like This Movie? The amazing gambling/fight scenes at the beginning. Great performances by Andy Lau Tak-Wah (Knife) and Charles Heung Wah-Keung (Brother Dragon -- that scene with the baby carriage and the escalators!). The surreal and unexpected interlude: Chow Yun Fat's stunning acting skills demonstrated in the straight-up comedy (almost no action) of the movie's middle 45 minutes. And finally, the triumphant, explosive finale.

Why Wouldn't I Like This Movie? It's an action/comedy, which alienates some fans of each category. Lotsa violence, which alienates some fans who enjoy the drama and the comedy. But an intermission from action in the middle of the movie, which drives away the "action-only" fanatics. Also, there is a mood-breaking racist line from Chow Yun Fat's character ("Go Back to India") at one point in the film.