Rich and Famous

This is a particularly dire early Chow Yun Fat Hong Kong gangster movie that occasionally flirts with competence without ever going all the way. It's the usual good brother/bad brother plot, but it's rarely been done as shoddily as this. Danny Lee has little to do, Andy Lau isn't on top form here and only an underused Chow Yun Fat gets by on charisma alone. The film looks like it's been shot in a hurry (the first fight in the betting shop looks as convincing as a schoolgirl pillow fight) by people who'd rather be somewhere else.

No surprises, badly staged and pretty amateurish all round except for a last reel wedding shootout, its hard to believe this was a big enough local hit for a sequel, Tragic Hero. Even more surprising is that Tragic Hero is actually GOOD, focusing on Chow Yun Fat's fall from power as he is abandoned and betrayed - that one has style, flair and a bit of weight to it, as well as much better action scenes. But Rich and Famous is just a waste of your time.

When I sat down in 2021 to watch the 1987 Hong Kong action crime drama "Gong woo ching" (aka "Rich and Famous"), I must admit that I was expecting somewhat more from writers Stephen Shiu and Manfred Wong, especially since the movie had the likes of Andy Lau and Chow Yun-Fat on the cast list.

The storyline told in the movie, as written by Stephen Shiu and Manfred Wong, just failed to capture my interest, and the movie felt very chaotic and disharmonic. I must admit that most of the time I wasn't really sure why the narrative was at that particular point or place in the story.

Now, you would expect that a movie with the likes of Chow Yun-Fat, Andy Lau and Carina Lau on the cast list, that you would be in for something grander. But the movie turned out to be rather boring and mundane for my liking. So "Rich and Famous" made for a pretty lousy movie experience for me.

I managed to endure halfway through the ordeal, then I just gave up on the storyline, given the fact that it never appealed to me, and I was bored throughout the prolonged first part of the movie. So I just simply quit on the movie, never to return to watch the rest.

I am rating "Rich and Famous" a three out of ten stars. This was by no means a glorious or outstanding moment in Hong Kong cinematic history.

"Rich and Famous" is a slow-moving but character driven Triad drama from director, Taylor Wong, very much created in the style of other Wong titles such as "Triads: The Inside Story".

Kwok (Andy Lau), his brother (Alex Man) and some of his friends begin working for local Triad kingpin Li-Ah Chai (Chow Yun-Fat) to eradicate their debt problems. They gradually become more deeply involved with Chai's activities and the goings on within the Triad organization. But problems begin to arise when Tang Kat-Yung, Kwok's brother, begins plotting his own schemes away from Chai and moving towards the company of Chai's enemy, "Big Eye" (Lam Chung).

Taylor Wong creates a very familiar plot here, using all the familiar Triad clichés. Yet he manages to construct a film which is still entertaining, tense, and maintains audience interest. His detached, almost documentary style direction, passively observing the characters, is used once again. The interesting aspect of this style is that it does not generally create an opinion for the viewer but instead presents the characters in their normal states and allows the viewer to decide who is good and who is bad. Nevertheless, the slightly formulaic structure is redeemed somewhat by an excellent ensemble cast. Chow Yun-Fat, Andy Lau and Alex Man all give strong performances, while Shing Fui-On, Pauline Wong and Danny Lee provide powerful support. Danny Lee is in fact on screen far less than one would expect and only really appears in two or three scenes. However, his minor role is actually expanded by his vibrant and colourful depiction of the determined cop.

Overall, although lacking in originality and inspiration, "Rich and Famous" can still be described as an entertaining and watchable addition to the genre and deserves to be seen by all HK film fans.

Despite the negative reviews I really liked this one, I thought it did the job very nicely. Made at a time when the heroic bloodshed genre was just taking off and with Andy Lau and Chow Yun-Fat as the stars it's impossible to dislike it. The story starts off a little confusing but soon boils down into a tale of rivalry between gangsters, and the cast, which includes Danny Lee and the great Alex Man, is excellent. Plus the vibrant action sequences have a sadistic edge which appeals; the ending in particular is spectacular. A sequel, TRAGIC HERO, followed.

"Rich and Famous" is a film that is most definitely trying to emulate the classic Godfather films. The film focuses on both family, crime, loyalty, and revenge; themes Godfather explored to a greater, and better, degree. Also like the Godfather, this was a two-part series (at the time it was made, rather). However, this film comes nowhere near the level of those classic films and actually doesn't even rise above the status of average.

One reason is the acting. With the exception of Chow Yun Fat, who exudes a high level of charisma, the acting is generally over the top and unbelievable. The audience tends to find the proceedings humorous simply because the actors' inability to maintain any degree of seriousness. As a result, we find the film not truly emotionally involving or intense since we don't particularly care what occurs with these characters.

Another reason is the film's lack of focus. The narrative tries to incorporate many different story elements into the film, but this results in portions of the movie becoming underdeveloped as well as lacking any real sense of coherency. The audience sometimes becomes lost at the proceedings we are viewing, not knowing what are character's motivations are. We also get confused in which characters are whom since the narrative readily shifts focus between characters at a rapid rate.

The film's climax does contain a decent gun fight and is probably the highlight of the film. The movie tries to create an dramatic set piece with it taking place on grand steps of a church, but again since we don't care about the characters, we don't care about what happens; The scene loses it's intensity and suspense because of this. The other action set pieces are rather mundane in nature, with a feeling of it being too controlled rather than free flowing.

In general, this is a strictly average film and isn't recommended to the general film viewer... Only hard core genre enthusiasts and fans of Chow Yun Fat should consider this film for viewing.