This prequel to God of Gamblers plays almost like a remake of the influential original (also by director Wong Jing); and in its own way, it's more satisfying. Sister Seven (Anita Yuen) is the daughter of a minor triad chieftain; Ko Chan (Leon Lai) is a gambling master whose specialty is poker, and he's been tutored by the Southeast Asian God of Gamblers on technical and psychological techniques; Love Ngo (Jordan Chan) is the sullen Vietnamese hitman who'll do anything for Sister Suen for just a bowl of rice; and cute Kent Kg (Gigi Leung) is master of manipulating dice, a gal who knows the values just by listening to the dice jingle. In a double-cross, Ko Chun is shot in the head by his mentor (with a gun disguised as a roll of lipstick -- I don't want to think about why a grown man would be carrying lipstick in the first place). The only thing that brings Chun back to full awareness is cheesecake (Moe! Larry! Cheese! -- it's amazing how different cultures independently come up with the same gags), his first step to the God of Gamblers World Competition in Law Vegas. Leon Lai has been developing quite a name for himself as a proficient actor; the story itself is favored with the starts and stops of your average poker game. Chow Yun-Fat doesn't appear until the very end, but with the inherent merits of this one, I'm not sure if it matters all that much.
(3/4)
[Reviewed by Steve Spinali]
Reviewer Score: 7
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