Film Name: 整蛊专家 / Tricky Brains / The Ultimate Trickster / 整蠱專家
7/10. Revisiting Stephen Chow’s film from 30 years ago. I watched it back in the VCR era when discs were common, but that was ages ago. The humor works for some parts, but others feel too forced and break the immersion. Plus, the film’s values are confusing—young kids watching this might pick up the wrong lessons. The jokes are a bit stiff, yet it remains a classic worth seeing.
———–Plot Summary————–
I first saw this movie back in the VCR days. The opening left a strong impression, especially the scene where he sits on a toilet in the mall acting crazy before getting sent to the mental hospital. Turns out this guy came looking for him to mess with his wife, but the twist is his wife had already approached Stephen Chow first. So the dashing prankster Stephen Chow ended up driving the guy insane instead. Hahaha.
Cut to Andy Lau’s entrance—he was absolutely stunning 30 years younger! When he gets frisked by a beauty, it’s such a smooth move, yet he remains so innocent. Turns out it was a prank by his colleagues celebrating his promotion to assistant manager. What a talented crew—director Wong Jing, Uncle Tai, Chiu Shu-ching, and others.
Then Andy asks who the woman who searched him was. Wong Jing says she’s a prostitute. Then Rosamund Kwan appears, and Andy thinks it’s another prostitute coming to prank him again. He asks why she’s working as a prostitute, and Rosamund slaps him. After realizing it was a misunderstanding, the elevator scene is a bit over-the-top but also hilarious, and they make up. Walking along, they end up holding hands~~ Hahaha. Wow, Hong Kong back then was truly cutting-edge—rows of Mercedes-Benzes, elevators that were super modern. Hong Kong today is a shadow of its former self; if you don’t progress, you fall behind.
Then the plot twists again: Rosamund Kwan is actually the daughter of a company CEO, yet she falls for Andy Lau. At this point, a formidable villain must appear (like “Big Brother”), a classic TVB trope. This villain seeks out the prankster expert, Stephen Chow. So Stephen Chow pretends to be Uncle Tat’s son, pranking Andy Lau to get close to him. This part is also super classic: Stephen uses a key to open a broken door, then realizes he left the key in the lock after going inside, so he goes back out through the broken door to retrieve it. Too classic. Then he pranks Uncle Tat with a piece of spicy tofu and chili water, making Uncle Tat spit out a special effect fire that looks like it cost 50 cents.
After the “father and son” reunited and returned home, Huazi grew suspicious of Xingye and demanded a blood test to confirm their relationship. Unable to ask directly, he devised ways to make Xingye bleed. Classic scenes ensued: needle pricks, opera singing, and swatting flies. Finally, Stephen bangs his head against the wall, killing a fly and drawing blood. They take the blood for the test, and it matches perfectly. But Stephen had planned this step too—using Type O blood, which can match any blood type! Hahaha, being a prankster expert requires professional knowledge, you know.
Thus, Stephen gained further trust and even landed a job at Andy’s company. His entrance, dressed like a gambling god, is a classic scene. Later in the office, he gets pranked but always turns the tables. Claiming a spider was peeping at his chest, he lures Qiu Shuzhen into the men’s room and fakes death to trick the fat lady—hahaha. Later, during dinner, he deliberately scared Chiu Shu-ching by claiming he had AIDS—an absolutely iconic scene.
Back home, he put on a theatrical act. Andy Lau sent Stephen Chow to attend Shu-ching’s birthday party and apologize to her. That very night, she received a call from her boyfriend breaking up with her—I suspect this was another one of Stephen Chow’s pranks, sabotaging their relationship. They went to a bar to party, where he knocked on a bald guy’s head. They ended up getting beaten up by gangsters, and the boss went to bail them out at the police station. Stephen gave Andy a shirt that printed a tattoo on his back. During the fight with the gangsters, his back got ripped open, revealing the tattoo, making the boss think Andy was really a gangster.
Then, Andy and Stephen swapped identities for a day. Andy imitated Stephen’s thug act, only to have itching powder sprinkled in his underwear. At the cinema, someone slipped aphrodisiac pills into his soda. Andy struggled to control himself until he finally lost it, rushing to propose and kiss Rosamund Kwan. Meanwhile, her boyfriend got beaten up—perfect! Hahaha. The next day, Stephen dressed as Andy, wearing a suit and acting respectable to go to work. He even danced the square dance. Later, he had to negotiate with Japanese clients. He laced the tea with laxatives, sending the boss and others away so he could negotiate alone. He then had a showdown with the Japanese devils, hahaha! Both Andy and Stephen lost their jobs, and Uncle Tat also quit, declaring, “Family happiness is what matters most.”
That night, father and son threw Stephen a birthday party, which moved him to leave them and stop pranking them. But Shu-Cheng overheard a call revealing the pranks on Andy—and that Stephen was behind them. She confronted Stephen, demanding he clean up the mess.
Next came the reconciliation storyline, introducing the new villain “Prank King” with his fruit basket bomb. The final rescue mission at the boss’s mansion felt familiar—Uncle Da in drag as the boss, classic! Then Huazi turned into the Hulk, and the boss battle unleashed all sorts of prank weapons—classic yet utterly nonsensical. Finally, Stephen Chow’s drag show stole the show again, hahaha! City folks know how to have fun!
Please specify：Anime Phone Cases » Tricky Brains 1991 Film Review: Revisiting Stephen Chow’s classics, this one has rather muddled values.