Fat Choi Spirit (aka Sure Win) is this year’s big Chinese New Year comedy. I saw a poor bootleg version yesterday (the 12th - perfect day!), but I still found it enjoyable, I will be one of the first to buy the VCD as soon as it is released in April. Johnnie To has reunited the cast of last years hit ‘La Brassiere’ for another fast fun comedy, with Andy Lau taking the main seat.

Andy plays a man who is addicted to mahjong, mainly because of his luck. He has never lost, and has enough money to by his girlfriend (Gigi Leung) a big house, who doesn’t seem to appreciate him. He has not seen his family for a long time, and when he meets his mother again and his brother (Louis Koo), he finds out that not only his brother unemployed but has lost a lot of money from gambling. Not just gambling though, it was a scam Andy later discovers. He decides to help his brother by plotting a revenge mahjong game against the people who beat his brother. But this leads to trouble. Lau Ching Wan is the man Andy must beat back…but who win? You’ll have to wait until you see it I guess.

There is not a lot new here, especially plot but it is after all a Chinese New Year comedy, so not to be taken seriously. It’s just a fun movie. Johnnie To in my opinion has been making worst and worst movies over the last few years, but this one looks a lot better, like he’s returning to the good ways he used to make films.

I think the amount of mahjong scenes was too much, though a lot of funny scenes make them more interesting. Overall it is funny, but a lot of messing around…but it’s that time of year, so you can forgive them. I might have to change my rating at a later date, after all this is the first 2002 movie I have seen, so it is impossible to rate it in comparison to others. But I would say this rating is about fair.

Rating [3/5]