Chow Yun Fat makes his return appearance as the Legendary ‘Ko Chun’ (God of Gamblers) in another one of Wong Jing directed pictures, humorously named ‘God of Gamblers: Returns’. Taking place a few years after the first part, Ko Chun is happily residing in ‘France’ with his Pregnant Wife (Cheung Man, staring earlier in movies like ‘Magic Crystal’ and ‘Swordsman’), but no-sooner, the bunch of usual evil bad guys, led by the notorious ‘Wu King Guo’, show up. They kill his wife violently and leave the fetus (of their unborn child) in a Jar (Wong Jing as usual going over-the-top just to make his point) and challenge Ko Chun to show up in Taiwan for a Deadly Game of Gambling. Ko Chun also has to promise his wife, at her last dying breath, not to gamble for a year and neither to reveal his true identity as the ‘God of Gamblers’. The whole point being that he can come to terms, with everything that has happened and focus on what needs to be done (obviously something Wong Jing conjured up in his spare-time).

Nevertheless Ko Chun heads of to Taiwan, slowly bidding his time so that he can take his just revenge, and meets up with ‘Blacky Ko Sau-Leung’, playing a half-decent righteous triad in Taiwan, with connections that go as far as ‘Wu King Guo’, in fact they are in the same gang. Ko Chun also meets up with ‘Black Ko’s’ stronger, voluptuous older daughter, ‘Chingmy Yau Suk-Ching’ and at first they don’t get on too well, following with ‘Chingmy Yau’ departure, for more important business in Taiwan. During a Boat Party, hosted by Blacky Ko, all his family is rubbed off, except Kung Fu kid ‘Xie Miao’ (from other memorable roles in movies like ‘New Legend of Shaolin’ and ‘My Father is a Hero’) whom is saved by Ko Chun. After a few misadventures in a Chinese controlled Police Station, they end up in a hotel run by two con-artists, namely ‘Wu Chien-Lien’ and ‘Tony Leung Ka-Fai’ (from other previous roles in ‘Island of Fire’ and ‘Dragon Inn’). They evidently try to hustle Ko Chun and Xie Miao, only for it to back-fire in their faces, unknown to the fact they are dealing with the ‘God of Gamblers’. Due to turn of unfortunate events they have to smuggle themselves to Taiwan as refuges with the Chinese Police Force hot on their trail. Eventually Ko Chun reveals his true identity and seeks to take out his revenge on ‘Wu King Guo’ taking on his challenge in a Gambling Game, where winner-takes-all.

In comparison to the first, the sequel isn’t novel or surprising, and most of the jokes are not as hilarious as Wong Jing might have intended them to be. Also the whole effect of character development is weak at best, where ‘Chingmy Yau’, ‘Wu Chien-Lien’ and ‘Tony Leung’ take a back-seat role to ‘Chow Yun Fat’ with little introduction. Even the young ‘Xie Miao’ can’t compete against Chow, where most of the time he is over-shadowed continuously.

Overall the movie seems cheap and cheesy, with three quarters of the cast playing wacky roles most of the time, without giving them a chance to act properly. Thankfully Chow Yun Fat does carry most of the picture, and there is some mild love-development between ‘Wu Chien-Lien’ and ‘Chow’, although ends up in misery, thanks to Wong Jing, whom can’t but help kill of the heroin in the most obvious ways. All in all this is comedy movie with plenty of fun antics to keep the viewer at least interested if not overjoyed with laughter. A good sequel from Wong Jing, but not the best of it’s kind.

Overall Rating: 7.3/10