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Richard James Havis

During Hong Kong’s filmmaking heyday in the late 20th century, so many movies were made that directors carried over ideas from film to film, actors kept their personas in different roles, and cross-referencing was common.
That was especially true of the gambling movies of the late 1980s and early 1990s, a highly prolific genre made famous by producer and director Wong Jing with 1989’s God of Gamblers.
Wong’s film was parodied by rising star Stephen Chow Sing-chi and director Jeff Lau Chun-wai the following year in All for the Winner, and Chow’s version was such a big hit that Wong hired him to star in the sequel to God of Gamblers.
Here we look at the three interconnected films that set Hong Kong’s gambling genre in motion.
1. Casino Raiders (1989)


The first production to raise the profile of the gambling film genre is very different to those that followed. It is an epic triad drama about a pair of gamblers, played by Andy Lau Tak-wah and Alan Tam Wing-lun, who are trying to survive in the criminal underworld.
Co-directed by Wong Jing and the film’s producer Jimmy Heung Wah-sing, who had the idea for the story, Casino Raiders is often called Wong’s “serious” work, as it features none of his hallmarks. There is no porny sex, no lowbrow humour, and the violence is grim and gritty.
Wong had previously made the gambling film Challenge of the Gamesters in 1981, which was the prequel to a gambling TV series which he wrote and his father, Wong Tin-lam, directed. But the epic nature of Casino Raiders set it apart.
Talking to the Post’s Edmund Lee in an interview, Wong said that he was a natural fit to make gambling films as he knew about a lot about it. “My mother gambled a lot when I was a kid […] I’m not a gambler […] but when I watch others gamble, it’s fascinating,” he said.

Casino Raiders did well at the box office and Wong, Heung and Lau quickly got together again, with the addition of Chow Yun-fat, to make God of Gamblers.
2. God of Gamblers (1989)
God of Gamblers was the first smash hit of the gambling genre, and is still revered today. The film really does have everything: star power, glamour, action, lowbrow comedy, a moment of romance and some clever trickery in the many gambling scenes.
The 1989 film lampooned Hong Kong’s reputation as a money-obsessed society, and also channelled concerns that it might be difficult to make it big after the city returned to Chinese rule.


The story features Chow Yun-fat as “God of Gamblers” Ko Chun, an elite gambler who has a subtle, supernatural ability to manipulate the cards in his favour. After a prank by a hustler, Knife (Andy Lau), goes wrong, Ko reverts to a childlike state and loses his ability.
A long central section shows Knife’s attempts to restore Ko’s skills so he can use them to his advantage. Another bump on the head brings the “God of Gamblers” back, and a well-choreographed finale has him taking revenge on his enemies at the card table.
The spark for the film came from a cheap novel – a ghost story – but Wong said that only the book’s title was used. The idea of a rich man losing his memory and living a completely different life came from a Cantonese opera story, Wong has said.
Chow Yun-fat had already become a big star on the back of John Woo Yu-sum’s A Better Tomorrow and his presence – as well as his debonair portrayal of a glamorous gambler – helped draw audiences.

Wong’s everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach featured Chow Yun-fat referencing scenes from Woo’s work in a bloody shoot-out in which Ko has lost track of his true identity.
“Considering that Chow Yun-fat doesn’t gamble, he played his role very convincingly,” Wong said in an interview. “He didn’t play cards, just a bit in his leisure time.”
God of Gamblers broke all box-office records in Hong Kong at the time, but was quickly surpassed by All for the Winner the following year.
3. All for the Winner (1990)


Titled Saint of Gamblers in Chinese, writer-director Jeff Lau’s All for the Winner was intended as a cheeky parody of God of Gamblers. But Stephen Chow’s unique style of comedy, and his overwhelming talent, meant the film ended up being much more original than a cheap cash-in.
Chow had already achieved star status in Hong Kong, but his performance in All for the Winner drove his popularity through the roof.
“This raucous comedy is so unpretentious in its single-minded pursuit of laughs that even the most highbrow critic will find it hard to resist chuckling,” said the Post review in 1990.
Stephen Chow was given free rein to explore his abstract mo lei tau style of humour – which featured clever wordplay and unexpected physical responses – and it instantly became his trademark.

The film’s success meant everyone who was not already making gambling movies suddenly wanted to make them.
The story takes the central conceit of God of Gamblers and owns it. Chow plays Sing, a bumpkin from Guangzhou, in mainland China, who has a supernatural ability to manipulate – and change – cards and betting slips.
When he visits Hong Kong, his extended family make good use of his skills and try to turn him into the debonair saint of gamblers.
But when Sing falls for a gangster’s moll played by Sharla Cheung (also in God of Gamblers), he becomes lovelorn and his gambling powers desert him. Is her love the key to restoring them?

Stephen Chow is simply hilarious in the film.
One stand-out sequence features him learning how to be a gambling god by studying a video of Chow Yun-fat’s entrances in God of Gamblers.
These are shown in slow motion, but Stephen Chow’s character does not know what that is. So when he makes his own entrance to the gambling table, he walks at half the speed of everyone else.
“All for the Winner proposed a new set of screen values: action plus comedy plus gambling,” wrote critic Sek Kei.
“It goes further by incorporating virtually all the successful ingredients of screen genres seen in Hong Kong cinema in the 1980s. It sums up the 1980s and sets the scene for the upcoming 1990s.”
In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.
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Wong Jing set Hong Kong’s gambling movie genre in motion in 1989. We recall three of the best, including a parody that saw the most success


Wong Jing set Hong Kong’s gambling movie genre in motion in 1989. We recall three of the best, including a parody that saw the most success.
