All for the Winner (1990)



	All for the Winner		Return to Review Archive - A
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	Year:	1990	Stephen Chow
	Director:	Jeff Lau Chun-Wai
	Action:	Corey Yuen Kwai
	Cast:	Stephen Chow Sing-Chi, Ng Man-Tat, Cheung Man, Sandra Ng Kwun-Yu, Corey Yuen Kwai, Paul Chun Pui, Wan Yeung-Ming, Jeff Lau Chun-Wai, Sheila Chan Suk-Lan
	The Skinny:	Before this movie, Stephen Chow was just a star. After this movie, he became a megastar who routinely beat out people like Chow Yun-Fat and Jackie Chan at the box-office. The movie's funny, too.
	Review by Kozo:	This extremely popular comedy from Jeff Lau and Corey Yuen became the highest grossing film in HK history and launched the career of Hong Kong’s most loveable superstar. Thanks to his performance as a God of Gamblers wannabe, Stephen Chow became the biggest box office draw of the nineties. The plot of this wackfest concerns Sing (Chow), a dumb, lovable, and superpowered mainlander who comes to China to visit his uncle Tat (Ng Man-Tat). At first he only gets on Tat’s nerves, but when it’s revealed that he can see through objects, Tat gets some funky ideas. He employs Chow as “Do Sing,” or the “Saint of Gambling,” and proceeds to set him loose on the gambling world. Sing ends up making a ton of bucks at the gambling tables and attracts the attentions of two rival gamblers (Paul Chun and Jeff Lau). Sing falls in with Lau, but Chun does his best to make sure Sing won’t succeed in the “King of Gamblers” competition. Meanwhile, Sing falls for Yee-Mong (Cheung Man), gangster moll and tough-as-nails double-agent. This film is uneven, featuring more untranslatable jokes than Chow’s next twelve films combined. Thankfully, Chow showed his superstar talent at this early stage; you can get by thanks to his hilarious delivery and winning physical comedy. The chemistry between Chow and Ng Man-Tat is evident even at this early stage in their partnership. A fun film. (Kozo 1996)
	Notes:	• All for the Winner finally got a long-awaited DVD release in 2004. Sadly, the print used was cut, excising one scene midway through and truncating the ending slightly. The scenes were restored in a subsequent remaster, released at the end of 2004. • Instead of doing a proper sequel to All for the Winner, Stephen Chow took his "Gambling Saint" character into Wong Jing's God of Gamblers franchise for two subsequent features. The only true sequel/spinoff to All for the Winner is the film The Top Bet, which cast Anita Mui as Sing's sister. Stephen Chow had a minor cameo in that film.
	Awards:	10th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards • Nomination - Best Actor (Stephen Chow Sing-Chi) • Nomination - Best Supporting Actor (Ng Man-Tat)
	Availability:	DVD (Hong Kong) Region 0 NTSC Mei Ah Entertainment 16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen Cantonese and Mandarin Language Tracks Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1 Removable English and Chinese Subtitles
	Also see:	God of Gamblers 2 (1990) God of Gamblers 3: Back to Shanghai (1991) The Top Bet (1991)

		image courtesy of Mei Ah Entertainment
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