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麻雀飛龍 (1997)
Mahjong Dragon


Reviewed by: dandan
Date: 03/08/2006
Summary: fun and furious...

an enjoyable hong kong comedy about josephine siao; a debt ridden, gambling police woman who travels to china to meet a husband. she teams up chiu man cheuk; a professional gambler who is trying to escape from his past. the two make their way to hong kong, but trouble follows them...

the story is pretty standard, but the performance of siao and some pretty damn brutal, corey yuen choreographed, fighting. there's a great little cameo from sandra ng, which is always a good thing.

good stuff...


Reviewed by: Inner Strength
Date: 04/18/2002
Summary: Average

This is like a mixture between a Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow film. A messy uneven film with comedy and action thrown in. Has it's entertaining values sure enough, but not much as film making goes. Worth checking out if you have nothing better to do.

Rating: 2.5/5

Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy
Date: 03/07/2002
Summary: Josephine Siao steals the show!!

Josephine Siao is such a great actress, she steals this movie away from Vincent Zhao. Ok the funny thing is there is not much gambling in this, and the IIB rating is very funny to me.
There is no much blood at all and i found it that they purposely made it less bloody to give it a lower rating, but funny that is not the case. The fight scenes were more like a II or lower rating to me.

The fighting, was ok, but i was disappointed about the lack of gambling. The story is not that strong either. Worth a look just for Josephine Siao.

6/10


Reviewed by: MrBooth
Date: 10/11/2001
Summary: All over the place but entertaining

MAHJONG DRAGON (1997): Directed by either Yuen Kwai & David Lai or Jeff Lau, depending on whether you believe the credits at the start or the end of the film. Chiu Man Cheuk is "Quick Hands", a God of Gamblers type who ends up in prison after taking revenge for a friend who was killed. Once out, his main rival (Ken Lo) wants to either kill him or recruit him, neither of which appeals to him. He decides he wants to flee to Hong Kong. Josephine Siao is a cop with a gambling problem, who is believed by the village to be jinxed, a bad luck charm. Her uncle tells her to go to the mainland to seek a husband, to break the jinx. This brings her together with CMC, whom she marries on the agreement that he will teach her is gambling tricks. But Ken Lo isn't going to let him escape so easily...

The film is kind of all over the place in mood and plot, which is kind of charming. It feels more like a film that was made 5 years earlier. Chiu Cheuk carries off his role quite well, not seeming nearly as arrogant as he does in his later ultra-low budget films like THE BLACKSHEEP AFFAIR. The fight scenes are pretty well done - sped up and chopped up a bit too much, but with some great moves visible amongst this. There's some quite funny moments in the film too, with Sandra Ng and Blackie Ko and a particular young Triad providing the best of the laughs, and Josephine just behind. The highlight of the film is definitely the final showdown between Ken Lo and Chiu Man Cheuk, which is quite inventive and well staged. All in all, worth a visit for sure.


Reviewed by: grimes
Date: 04/09/2000

Josephine Siao plays a single cop with a gambling problem. On a trip to the mainland to look for a husband, she runs into super-gambler Zhao Wen-Zhou. She agrees to marry him so he can get a visa and flee his criminal past to Hong Kong as long as he teaches her gambling tricks.

Once in Hong Kong, Zhao Wen-Zhou falls for the girl next door (literally), whose brother is in love with Josephine Siao. Josephine Siao mistakenly ends up believing that Zhao Wen-Zhao is in love with her.

While Mahjong Dragon is not a great film, it is quite good. Most of the notable aspects of HK films show up in this one. Random weird humor, great kung fu (Josephine Siao and Zhao Wen-Zhao are both really great to watch), a bit of drama, gambling scenes and a super-cute pixieish female character (Zhao Wen-Zhou's love interest). Of course, it also has a bad rape "joke" but as I said it's not perfect. This is probably a film almost any Hong Kong film fan would like, because if you were attracted to HK films because of how they are different (from Hollywood films, for example) then this film has all those differences that you have come to know and love.

Reviewer Score: 8

Reviewed by: pablo
Date: 12/09/1999

Fan Sau Tin, traffic cop with a gambling habit, takes a trip toChina to look for a husband. There she runs into Quick Hands, one of two legendary gamblers who is looking to emigrate to Hong Kong and leave the gambling world. She takes him as a husband after learning of his skills But Quick Hand's past follows him to Hong Kong... The plot is all over the place in this film, and probably could have benefited from a little editing. Josephine plays her trademark character, which just doesn't fit into the story. Of course, with Corey at the helm, the action scenes are quite good. Overall, worth watching if bored. Features a ladder fight scene eerily similar to the one in _First Strike_, although Josephine isn't able to pull off the same stunts that Jackie does.


Reviewed by: spinali
Date: 12/08/1999
Summary: NULL

Bemoaning a romantic gulf in her life, traffic supercop San-Tin (Josephine Siao) studies gambling and hung fu with handsome martial arts/poker master Quick Hands (Zhao Wen Zhou) while vacationing in the mainland. She's clearly out of her depth, but he makes a deal: marry her if she'll bring him to HK (and out of trouble with his triad boss). Oh, and also has to win a million bucks for her. It's almost enough for San-Tin to stare at her legal husband all day, even if he's more interested in a young cutie who, in the pattern of modern HK romances, has a terminal brain tumor and six months to live. With great fights, entertaining gambling sequences, A-list stars and a five-way romantic plot, this one's eager to please.

(2.5/4)



[Reviewed by Steve Spinali]

Reviewer Score: 6