Directed by Eric Tsang (who would go on to play the rotund Inspector Chan in Gen-X Cops). Aces Go Places was released in the United States under the title Mad Mission on a no-frills DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment. Although I own a Hong Kong DVD of this film’s sequel, I was fortunate to discover the Anchor Bay DVD edition of the first film at my local library.

Aces Go Places opens with a spectacularly elaborate jewelry heist. As two criminal gangs meet to fence some stolen diamonds, the notorious and daring thief King Kong (Sam Hui) observes the proceedings from a nearby rooftop. He then fires a cable-trailing harpoon from a massive speargun, chucks a smoke grenade through the window, and then zooms through midair on a zipline into the room. He snatches the briefcase containing the jewels – dropping one of his white gloves in the process – and then bungee-jumps out the window, crashing through the glass of a lower floor.

After his hasty exit, Kong meets up with an accomplice, who has prepared Kong’s getaway – a motorbike, which he proceeds to ride down the escalator and through the shopping mall on the building’s lower floors. As Kong makes his escape, the Caucasian gangster from the exchange thoughtfully fingers the white glove the thief left behind.

The viewer soon learns, though, that the glove is a decoy – the trademark of a rival thief known, appropriately enough, as White Gloves. The real White Gloves is soon summoned to Naples, where the Mafia don tasks him – in a bad imitation of Marlon Brando – to prove his innocence by recovering the stolen jewels.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong police launch their own investigation into the crime, and decide to summon expert help. Since the French detective Inspector Clouseau is apparently dead in this universe, the Hong Kong authorities decide to call in the bald Chinese-American detective Albert “Kodyjack” Au (Karl Mak). (The insane 1982 action comedy Fantasy Mission Force uses the same gag; in that film, the Allied generals recruit Jimmy Wang Yu’s character because their first choice, the “Bald Detective,” is dead.) The cops assign the pretty but fierce Superintendent Nancy Ho (Sylvia Chang) to work with the visitor.

In one of the most imaginative “meet cute” sequences ever, Superintendent Ho misses Kodyjack at the airport; they hook up later only through an elaborately improbably series of events after Ho fails to stop a robbery at a jewelry store. The thieves just happen to commandeer Kodyjack’s wheels, and Ho “requisitions” a passing car at gunpoint to pursue. The resulting sequence is an amusing auto chase in dinky little compacts through Hong Kong’s narrow, crowded streets. Ho and Kodyjack eventually clear matters up back at the police station, but their relationship clearly gets off on the wrong foot. Mak and Chang will mine the “enamored-but-bickering-couple” gag for comedy gold throughout this film and into its sequel.

Meanwhile, King Kong has problems of his own. His accomplice has stashed the diamonds, but is killed by a rival before he can inform his partner. Kong’s only clues are tattooed on the backsides of two women somewhere in Hong Kong. Eventually, Kong and Kodyjack team up to recover the diamonds – a task that involves convincing two pretty women to let them look at their derrieres. The duo must then elude the vengeful White Glove in a spectacular showdown involving a fleet of sports cars – including White Glove’s TransAm – versus King Kong’s tricked-up silver roadster. There’s even a little Grand Theft Auto action as King Kong and Kodyjack attack the pursuing sports cars with explosive-laden RC cars.

Aces Go Places’ relatively short (83 minute) length is packed with action and laughs, boosted by the lead actors’ considerable chemistry and camaraderie. Hui is appealing as the handsome daredevil thief Kong, while Mak is hilarious as the cocky, chauvinistic braggart Kodyjack. (His bald, goateed visage is one of the film’s signature images.) The viewer learns of Superintendent Ho’s tough, no-nonsense demeanor when she puts the smackdown on a couple of toughs who try to get fresh. Of course, her personality seems custom-made to clash with both her erstwhile partners.

Its blend of appealing characters, wacky comedy and amazing stunts propelled Aces Go Places to become a phenomenal hit and netted Karl Maka the Best Actor prize at the second annual Hong Kong Film Awards. If the stunts appear a bit crude or dated to contemporary audiences, it’s more of a testament to how well Hong Kong films have incorporated wirework and computer-generated effects over the past two decades. But, just as in Jackie Chan’s films, the stunts in Aces Go Places are 100% authentic, with a real person putting himself on the line for every thrilling feat.

The film also provides a pleasing combination of stuntwork, from the film’s amazing opening set piece to gunplay to brawling to insane car chases. You even get King Kong walking a tightrope! Cantopop star Sam Mui also contributes some of the film’s soundtrack, including the catchy “Best Partners” theme song.

Sam Hui plays a high tech (for the time) jewel thief who, in the pre-credit introduction, stages a daring diamond robbery. Unfortunately the diamonds belong to the mafia who send another jewel thief, 'White Glove', to retrieve them. Even more unfortunately Sam's partner (Dean Shek), the only person who knew the secret hiding place for the diamonds, is killed by the local triad but not before managing to give Sam a clue to the location; the co-ordinates have been tattooed onto the bottoms of two former girlfriends. Sam then has to track the two women down but not only does he have the mafia to contend with but also a police investigation led by Kodojack (Karl Maka) and Ha Tung (Sylvia Chang).

The film's success lies as much in the chemistry between the principal characters as it does with the mad stunts that are peppered throughout. Sam Hui and Karl Maka play off each other brilliantly and although the humour is not too subtle at times it is genuinely funny. However the fact that as a newcomer I didn't really get it the first time round might point to a lack of cross-over appeal (or it might just be me). Nowadays though, just seeing Karl Maka on screen is enough to bring a smile to my face.

There's barely a dull moment throughout the film as Sam and Kodojack bumble their way from one dangerous situation to another. Comedy is the key ingredient at all times as the pair get out of scrapes by the skin of their teeth. Although there is no kung fu in this movie there are plenty of mad stunts and the finale features one of my all time favourites where Sam Hui jumps over a moving car just in time to avoid being hit.

'Aces Go Places' may not be to everyone's tastes or be a good choice to watch for someone new to Hong Kong movies hoping for a kung fu action fest. However I'm glad that I revisited it again and have also enjoyed the later episodes in the series.

Karl Maka, along with Dean Shek (who has a minor role in this movie as King Kong's sidekick) and Raymond Wong formed the Cinema City Company in 1980, and even though it only lasted about a decade, Cinema City had a hand in some of Hong Kong's most influential movies, such as A Better Tomorrow (John Woo -- under various pseudonyms -- worked for Cinema City for a time in the early '80's when he was in a creative slump). However, they are best known for their family-oriented comedies, spearheaded by this movie.

Aces Go Places was intentionally done with an international audience in mind, using a (relatively) large budget, western actors and crew, references to Hollywood movies and television shows, and a smattering of English dialogue (some of the Cantonese jokes were also tweaked somewhat to translate better). The movie also has, in many ways, the feel of a old-time Hollywood serial, with cliffhangers or other twists occurring at the end of every reel (15 minutes). However, Aces Go Places also sports the multigenre schematic, pop music integrated into the movie (Sam Hui -- a popular singer offscreen -- sings the movie's theme song), and probably most importantly, manic pacing, heavy Hong Kong pop culture references and dependence and celebration of Cantonese that would come to give Hong Kong cinema its' unique identity during the 1980's.

Coming off the heels of the dark period kung fu movies directed by people like Chang Cheh, the fast and breezy Aces Go Places yielded a huge hit in Asia (it made back three times its' budget in Hong Kong alone), though it never hit it big overseas, as the popularity of martial arts films was on a temporary downturn, and most western distributors wrongly equated any Asian film with kung fu. It's quite a shame, really, since this is one of the better films to come out of Hong Kong during this period. It offers a nice mix of action and comedy, cemented by the chemistry of the three leads. If you've never seen a Hong Kong comedy before, Aces Go Places is an excellent place to start. It strikes a nice balance between Jackie Chan and Steven Chow's style, at once being able to translate universally but also being something quite unique to Hong Kong.