Winners and Sinners (1983)

"It's an epic!" howls one of the fighters in the free-for-all finale, overwhelmed by the sheer number of characters that get crowded into a single room, all pounding away at each other. Indeed, every comic actor and most of the leading action stars in Hong Kong in 1983 seem to have been squeezed into this amiable kung fu comedy--there are even tiny cameo appearances by several famous movie directors (Ann Hui, Tsui Hark, Wu Ma). This picture marks the debut of a loose-knit group of farce-action stalwarts, the Five Lucky Stars, stumble-bum reformed crooks who attempt to go straight by setting up a cleaning service, but can't seem to help getting into tons of trouble. The Stars went on to appear in several sequels, including My Lucky Stars. Jackie Chan, as a cop pursuing the hapless crooks, is essentially the straight man here, and he seems to be using a stunt double in some of his big scenes. This is a close as Chan ever got to phoning in a performance. --David Chute Amazon.com

Five Lucky Stars

Winners and Sinners (aka Five Lucky Stars) is a film that I liked better the second time I watched it. After shaken off all expectations of a "Jackie and Sammo" film and accepted the uneven and scattered nature of this ensemble movie I enjoyed it more. This movie was more important though when it came out then it is considered today. Jackie had a recent flop in Dragon Lord, though I did enjoy the movie, and Golden Harvest had been in a bit of a slump. Producer Leonard Ho got the idea from Cannonball Run (which Jackie Chan and Michael Hui had parts in) to create an assemblage of popular Hong Kong stars to star in this film. Winners and Sinners was a success spawning several sequels and reunited Jackie with Seven Little Fortune alums Sammo and Yuen Biao (who helped with martial art choreography; though his cameo as a fellow CID officer is less than a minute as a quick fight versus Jackie.)

The Five Lucky Stars are cons who after spending their time in jail take a straight job with a cleaning company led by Curly aka Jack So (played by real life democracy advocate John Shum) who was framed for instigating a crowd to do harm in a parody of his real-life exhorts. The other four are Ranks aka Larry (Stanley Fung), Teapot (Sammo Hung who also directed this) as a cat burglar, Vaseline (Charlie Chin) a slick thief, and Exhaust Pipe (Richard Ng who performance was nominated as Best Actor for the Hong Kong Film Awards) who is bad at thieving automobile parts. They all live with Jack's sister known as Sis (Cherie Chung.) Unfortunately they spend way too much time trying to get her attention, leaving a lull in the early parts of the film. However there are some great gags such as Richard Ng thinking he is invisible with Wu Ma's great response to shatter his misconception - "...pretty good vision even when it comes to small objects" and a blind couple playing a Rod Stewart song at a carnival.

There are some great stunt and fight scenes led by 7086 (Jackie Chan) a bumbling CID officer who beats up wrong suspects, kills his superior's turtle and accidentally throws a kid's ice cream away. When he is not destroying everything in his path he is part of an awesome stunt scene involving skates (at least he learned something good from The Big Brawl though he is doubled on some of the trickier roller tricks) and part of a good fight scene in a cafeteria with a little person with horrific teeth. The "ouch factor" is quite high in one scene where a villain gets kicked out of a window and lands on a concrete ledge than falls to the ground. I have the highest respect for these stuntmen who kill themselves for our enjoyment. This film definitely deserved the Hong Kong award for best Action Choreography.

The story is mostly non-existent until the boilerplate briefcase full of counterfeit bills makes it's appearance. It belongs to Chan Chiu (James Tien always good as a cigar chomping villain) who is head of a triad gang. He was going to trade it to another triad gang led by Ho Man but it got intercepted and eventually and unknowingly in the possession of the Five Lucky Stars Cleaning Company. Of course, Agent 7086 wants this briefcase too.

But this film was not made for the plot. It was made to be a crowd pleasing mixture of comedy and action, both of which it does very well. It parodies the more serious films with scenes such as Charlie Chin and Fung Hark On doing a martial art pose-down fight and the final action scene that blends comedy and stunts takes place in a warehouse which gets me thinking on how many films I have seen that have the last fight scene in a warehouse (rhetorical thought of course). There are some problems with the film besides the inert beginning including he abysmal electronic soundtrack that is eerily reminiscent of Heart of Dragon's soundtrack and the misuse of Lam Ching Ying as Chan's butler Chan. Overall this is an enjoyable film that is fun to watch that showcases several outstanding Hong Kong comedians and several outstanding action performers. December 18, 2007

stuck between a 2 and a 3, but it was enjoyable

The movie starts off with these 5 convicts going to jail. They become friends and go live at one of the convicts uncle's house and try to make it on the outside world.

There is not really much action and that is why I watched it. but the comedy was pretty good. It does have one hilarious sequence where one of the guys is reading a book on invisibility. When the other 4 find out they trick him into thinking he really is invisible. Sammo was at his best in scenes like these, but this movie didn't have enough of them.

Now Jackie Chan is in this but he only appears in a few scenes and you will not see him for 30-40 minutes at a time Then when he does show up he will just be walikgn down the street and run into Yuen Biao and get into a fight. This fight was only 30 seconds long but was awesome! Jackie is a cop in this and he really should have been in the film a little bit more.

So the group of convicts pisses off James Tien and his gang and they have one spectacular fight. Sammo has a flyign backwards jump kick that has to be seen to be believed.

So this movie has like 7 action sequences but 1 or maybe 2 that really deliver.

Also check this out to see Jackie Chan as the Tony Hawk of roller skating. And with a comment like that I feel the need to tell you that this movie is much better than Jackie's 'The BIg Brawl'. September 7, 2006

you may like it

I don't have alot to say but this movie is funny, and you will have smile face when you watch it. March 1, 2006

Jackie Chan, Jackie Chan, Jackie Chan...

Jackie Chan, Jackie Chan, Jackie Chan... You Bak Guis didn't get it, did you? This was a Sammo Hung movie and if you were brought up in the 60's, 70's and 80's with the genre you would know that not all Chinese movies are about Jackie Chan, Jackie Chan, Jackie Chan... I am a Jackie Chan fan but I can open my mind to other types of these movies and enjoy the heck out of them.
This movie paid tribute to many of the kung fu fighting movies by making a farce of the fighting. Did you guys hear the tribute to Wong Fei Hung. Oh, sorry... Who's Wong Fei Hung?
Pick it up, sit down, shut up and enjoy the ride. You'll love this movie. August 17, 2005

If you like Kung fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer..

this is a good look at the precursor to that kind of humor. You can see how it influences such movies and has some smart writing (even if its sometimes predictable... you must remember it was a new style at the time). Overall its a fun movie with one great scene (clue: have you ever wanted to be invisible) July 27, 2005

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