I think most local guys will agree that WONG Jing is a fast director. He can make a movie within a month. 'The Tricky Master' is one of his quick productions. While we still talked about it's going to produce this summer. It opens today. Even though it is a quick production, we still have attractive castings from the two generations of comedies actor -- Stephen CHIAU Sing-chi who has been dominated the market since 90s and Nick CHEUNG Ka-fai who has been popular since his success from 'The Conman' onwards. WONG Jing even casts himself as the main baddy in the movie.

LEUNG Foon (Nick CHEUNG Ka-fai) is a undercover cop. He is assigned to a case for catching Tricky guy Ferrari (WONG Jing), who has been a guy playing tricks in gambling and stock market. LEUNG tried to join Ferrari's gang but he was attracted by 'First Love' (LAM Hey-lui) and resulted in the misunderstanding with his girl Pizza (Suki KWAN Sau-mei) and was being trapped by 'First Love' and Ferrari. Foon tried to get help from Pizza's relative (Sandra NG Kwan-yu) for asking her husband Master Wong (Stephen CHIAU Sing-chi).

It seems that WONG Jing has switched his comedy style since the success of 'The Conman' (1998) by putting up the tricks of the current movies and advertisement. This time he plays tricks on some ad. like the Lemon Tea and Leon's ad for a cell phone network. In addition, he also played tricks on some popular movies. Though it was already the third time for playing such tricks, audience can still laugh when watching as Nick CHEUNG Ka-fai has done his good work in imitating these castings.

'The Tricky Master' is a movie with lots of gags and using a typical plot to link them together. In terms of linkage, I consider audience shouldn't expect too much as their main purpose of the movie is to make you laugh for some tricks. In fact, some of the tricks are very funny like the ads, the introduction of BAT Leung-kam and TSANG Kan-wing. At least audience can get certain degree of enjoyment from them, though you have seen their performance like that in their past movies.

For the performance of actors, most of them get what is expected. However, as the plot only requires them to act as what they've done, you may find them no longer new. It seems that Stephen CHIAU hasn't got enough to act while it's a bit weird to see Sandra NG acting with her fake hair. For LAM Hey-lui, I regret to say that I prefer her performance in 'The Conmen in Vegas' (1999). This time she did not has much to satisfy audience despite she has done some actions. Nick CHEUNG has done his good work as he has made the movie more active.

In short, 'The Tricky Master' is a movie just like the Hong Kong version of 'Austin Powers' movie. You can get more fun if you see most of the movie they mentioned. There are several gags for you to laugh. Even though the main plot is a bit typical while Stephen CHIAU is not the main cast, it at least can give you some entertainment while you are in theatres. If you look for a funny movie, maybe this can be considered.