Film Name: 江湖情之英雄好汉 / Rich and Famous / Black Vengeance
The golden age of Hong Kong cinema was dominated by gangster films. Productions by the Mak Tai-hung Company, produced by Henry Tse, starring Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau and Man Chi-leung – these were box office guarantees. As for the content? They were thrilling to watch back then, but seem rather ordinary now.
The protagonists are Chow Yun-fat and Andy Lau, yet Chow doesn’t appear until twenty minutes in, while Andy, injured after the safe-cracking scene, has limited screen time. Conversely, the antagonist, Man Chi-leung, features throughout the entire film. This arrangement seems rather peculiar. My understanding is that the film was made with surplus footage from other productions, using the same cast for additional scenes. At the time, both Chow and Liu were top-tier stars. Liu was famously dubbed “Liu the One-Hit Wonder” for allegedly shooting twelve films in a single year – it’s unlikely he carried every role. Chow was even busier, known as “Double Chow, One Cheng”.
Thus, the less prominent Man Chi-leung carried the entire narrative. His arc spanned from initially tampering with dog race tickets at the track, to later seizing the silver box, being bribed by Boss Chu to eliminate Fan Maysang, hunting down Andy Lau to sever Alan Tam’s finger, culminating in the climactic wedding hall confrontation. Even so, his screen time still felt insufficiently developed, largely driven by plot progression. Alan Tam’s role was even more conspicuously peripheral, barely touching the main narrative and seemingly included solely to pad out the film. His arc culminates with the stammering Mai Yingxiong wielding an iron bar to savagely beat Man Chi-leung. This was partly because both Andy Lau and Chow Yun-fat were only there for reshoots, staying on set for mere days and thus unable to film the final scene.
In gangster films, female roles are often secondary, appearing chiefly as hostages or catalysts for brotherly betrayal. This film features Wang Xiaofeng and Carina Lau, yet Wang receives scarcely any full-face shots, while Lau’s relationship with Chow Yun-fat is hurriedly glossed over.
The dialects prove rather amusing: Brother Ji speaks Teochew, Fan Meisheng’s Thai character uses Shandong Cantonese (likely remnants of the Kuomintang left behind in Northern Thailand), while Boss Zhu suddenly slips into Shanghainese during negotiations. Hong Kong truly was a melting pot, a gathering place for all manner of people.
Finally, a minor gripe: during the antique shop battle, Brother Ji’s henchmen wielding bricks and machetes numbered at least a hundred. Cut to the next shot, and suddenly Brother Ji himself is charging into the fray with a submachine gun, firing away. Except for the driver, not a single henchman remains. Evidently, audiences won’t buy a gangster film unless Chow Yun-fat is storming the front lines with a gun blazing.
Please specify：Anime Phone Cases » Rich and Famous 1987 Film Review: A run-of-the-mill gangster flick