Samo has a go at being Jerry Lewis here, playing three roles - a young loser, his upright father, and his tricky dead grandfather.

Plot outline sounds silly, perhaps even unoriginal ? Well, yes. Samo used a very similar story before in Where's Officer Tuba. But whereas Tuba was pretty muddled and dull, Gambling Ghost is a treat. The balance between comedy, action and drama is just right, and the film is entertaining almost all the way. There's a bunch of entertaining walk-on parts. Wu Ma appears as himself, playing Swordsman Yin from Chinese Ghost Story, and he's hilarious. Lam Ching Ying does his usual turn as the taoist priest. The climactic fight scene is well up to standard, especially helped by a thinner than usual Billy Chow and mean black American Robert Samuels. I would rate this as Samo's best starring film (as opposed to those with Jackie Chan and/or Yuen Biao).

Highly recommended.