The first in a line of “Lucky Stars” movies. The titles in this series are: Winners and Sinners, My Lucky Stars, Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars, Lucky Stars Go Places and Ghost Punting. It always seems that they made more, but that appears to be the lot. To be honest, only the first three are worth a mention, and that may be due to the presence of a certain mop-haired superstar…

Despite the bad reputation that these films generally have, it’s worth noting that they were HUGE at the time, particularly in Japan for some reason. Also, this is notable as one of the first instances of Jackie Chan in a modern setting (Cannonball Run beats it by a couple of years).

The plot, as such, revolves around big bad James Tien (who I’m sure logged more time as a villain in the 80’s than anyone else) and some counterfeiting plates, which arrive in the possession of the Lucky Stars gang in a rather convoluted way. But who cares about plot in a Lucky Stars movie?

Jackie Chan is not in this film very much, and is doubled surprisingly often. Taking what he learned from Battlecreek Brawl, he skates a bit. And that really is it. Unlike the other two Lucky Stars movies he was in, he does not turn up at the end to fight the bad guy. If you are expecting a full-blown Jackie and Sammo fest, you are going to be seriously disappointed (as I was when I first saw the film). Why distributors can’t be more honest about the billing of their stars is beyond me. If I’d have known it was just an extended cameo for Jackie, I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more. And as for Yuen Biao, just forget he’s mentioned at all and you may get a pleasant surprise.

As for the Lucky Stars themselves, at this point they had not yet honed their “horny guys together in a room with a beautiful girl” routine, and this film is all the better for it. In fact, I have to say that at times it’s actually very funny. Richard Ng, as ever, is notable. This time he tampers with invisibility with hilarious, if predictable, results.

For all its faults, definitely one of the better Lucky Stars films, although My Lucky Stars beats it by a whisker.