Not much on the plot front on this one – and not much of anything else for that matter. Sammo Hung plays three generations of swindler, and is eventually, after much larking about, tasked with seeking revenge for his grandfather’s death.

GAMBLING GHOST is a bit of a forgotten film in Sammo’s canon. I was only vaguely aware of its release back in the day, and it quickly fell off the radar after that. Thankfully, Soulblade have seen fit to release this on DVD for it to be judged against his other work.

Frankly, it just doesn’t cut it. It’s mildly interesting to note that there’s not much actual gambling in this film (apart from a dream sequence, an aborted game of Mah-Jong and a crooked game of dice) and not that much ghost activity. It’s not even that much fun seeing Sammo playing three generations of the same family. In fact, sometimes the whole film sees to be centred around fitting humorous cameos in (Lam Ching-Ying, Ng Ma and Richard Ng). Oh, and of course, some jokes about Nina Li-Chi’s boobies. The humour never rises above mildly funny, but only reaches this dizzy height on a couple of rare occasions.

Looking down the cast list at the potential talent only makes things worse. Although credited highly, Billy Chow only appears right at the very end, as does 80’s arch-villain James Tien. The former shows his stuff in a brief fight that is quite entertaining, while the latter might just as well have stayed home.

The Soulblade DVD claims to be remastered, but once again it’s about as remastered as my arse. I really don’t know how they keep getting away with this – the transfer’s pretty horrendous. Worse still, the subtitles are worse than anything I’ve seen in a long time, although they do throw the occasional unintentional howler at you (“Kill that shit guy” was my favourite).

All in all, a very disappointing film, and I can now understand why it’s been unavailable for so long.