Synopsis: Uncle Tat looks for a new Saint Of Gamblers and finds him in the form of a dim-witted mainlander named God Bless You.

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Views: Prolific Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Jing returns to his favourite genre once again for a follow-up of sorts, to the Jeff Lau and Corey Yuen Kwai-directed hit film, All For The Winner. With Stephen Chow Sing Chi's character having now left to study under the legendary God of Gamblers, Uncle Tat heads back to the same mainland village where he found Chow, to search for a new Saint of Gamblers. He soon meets the dim-witted God Bless You (Eric Kot), a man who is even more stupid than his predecessor but has enough supernatural powers to convince Uncle Tat that he is worthy. Of course, lots of crazy adventures and antics prevail as Tat brings his new found Saint to the table crossing the paths of crazed triads, colourful opponents, and kick-ass femme fatales!

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If there was ever a film that deserved the description of a live-action cartoon, then The Saint Of Gamblers is one such film. Wong Jing takes the very genre he helped create and blends it with the madness of his zany Streetfighter 2 rip-off, Future Cops – cranking up the madness in almost every scene, and perhaps to compensate for having Eric Kot take the place of the wonderful Chow Sing Chi. While I'm not a huge fan of Kot, having first seen him in the Wong Jing directed Jackie Chan comedy City Hunter then again in Lawyer, Lawyer with Chow Sing Chi, Gorgeous, Gen Y Cops, Chinese Odyssey 2002, and Spy Dad, he does have some big shoes to fill here and doesn't do too bad a job in his performance. And while he certainly doesn't possess the comic timing of Chow, Eric was lucky enough to have the late, great Ng Man Tat to bounce off. While he never fails to entertain, Ng plays one of his most wildest and ridiculous characters yet and, although continuing that of his role in All For The Winner, cranks his performance up to eleven and just goes wild. It's probably not the kind of movie you should be watching if you're only starting out on Hong Kong cinema (especially from this era), as it may come across as completely bizarre and insane if you haven't already experienced All For The Winner, God Of Gamblers 2 & 3, or any other of Wong Jing's wilder offerings, but for me – The Saint Of Gamblers was hilariously entertaining and a lot of fun.

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While a lot of this is down to the comedy situations and gambling of course, the film also benefits from having a great cast and some fantastic fight scenes. Starring alongside Ng Man Tat and Eric Kot is the beautiful Chingmy Yau – Wong Jing's leading lady of the time who had made quite the impression in films like Royal Tramp, City Hunter, Naked Killer, Tricky Brains, Future Cops, Kung Fu Cult Master, and so much more. Here, Yau gets to kick ass and look good as she plays a role similar to that in God Of Gamblers Returns from the year before, and even gets a kung fu kid sidekick once again – this time played by the wonderful Sik Siu Lung from the Shaolin Popeye movies, in what would only be his 4th role. The great Ben Lam stars as Ray Thai, a gambling opponent who keeps the latter two people close by him and befriends Kot and Tat only to try and use their skills for his own gain. Although he also gets in on the action, Lam goes through a series of unfortunate mishaps whenever Kot is about and puts his comic talents to use as he gets beaten from all directions. The rest of the cast is filled out by a great list of names including Shing Fui On as a loud mouthed triad, William Duen playing-off his role of E-Honda in Future Cops, John Ching as a triad loan-shark, Teresa Ha as the mother of God Bless You, Nat Chan and Manfred Wong as competition announcers, Corey Yuen Kwai as a mahjong player, and Diana Pang Dan stars as a busty, leather-clad gambling vixen posing as a Thai queen who can hypnotise men. Of course, we can't forget about the exciting cameo by Donnie Yen as Interpol Officer, Lone Seven. I always thought that this cameo was just for one fight scene, but Yen actually appears a little bit more throughout as his intentions are to thwart Ben Lam's plans in becoming the leader of all illegal casinos around the world. At this stage of his career, Yen's fans were a bit unsure as to where he was going having left the Yuen Woo Ping party after Iron Monkey, Hero Among Heroes, and Wing Chun. His two films before this, Circus Kids and High Voltage didn't really make the same impact as his previous outings – and it looked like things were on a downward spiral after this with the broken Iron Monkey 2 and action-thriller Satan Returns for Wong Jing – a film which I really enjoyed to be honest.

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The awesome and often over-the-top action scenes are handled by Dion Lam Dik On, an actor and action choreographer who has been involved with some brilliant titles such as The Dragon Family, Angel Enforcers, City Cops, Shanghai Shanghai, Twin Dragons, The East Is Red, A Man Called Hero, Infernal Affairs, Red Cliff, and more recently League Of Gods and Dynasty Warriors. In The Saint Of Gamblers, Lam doesn't hold back and goes wild with some tight choreography, wacky gun-play, and even a riff on Dragonball Z that sees Eric Kot dress as Goku and Ng Man Tat as Piccollo, in a scene that reminded me very much of the aforementioned Future Cops. Of course, there are one or two special action scenes reserved for Donnie Yen that allow him to show off his awesome kicking techniques and display some genuine martial artistry, but to me it has to be child actor Sik Siu Lung who gets the best fight scenes as he goes up against ninjas, triads, and eventually gets to fight alongside Yen himself as he takes on Lam's heavies which include Jackie Chan Stunt Team member Andy Cheng. The film is neatly shot by prolific director and DOP Andrew Lau Wai Keung of Infernal Affairs fame. Although he had already been directing for a good 5 years already from his debut, Against All through to the Jacky Cheung movie, To Live And Die In Tsimshatsui in 1994, Lau continued to shoot as a DOP (and even still today) and has worked closely with Wong Jing for many years. As well as shooting this in 1995, Andrew Lau also shot and helmed the Wong Jing produced Lover Of The Last Empress and Mean Street Story, before moving into the Young And Dangerous saga the following year where his directorial career would take off...

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Although 1995 may have proved to be a quieter year for Wong Jing as a director with only this and the brilliant High Risk (released as Meltdown in the West) coming out, he was still a typically busy man and managed to produce a further 8 feature films including the awesome My Father Is A Hero, Lover Of The Last Empress, Sixty Million Dollar Man, and I'm Your Birthday Cake. I've always admired Wong Jing for his talents and ability to work so fast and hard, although many folk seem to dislike the man based on some of his weaker projects. Regardless, there is no denying the man is a powerhouse of Hong Kong cinema and has provided some of the most entertaining and memorable films from the jade screen – and is still going strong today. With The Saint Of Gamblers, Wong delivers a production that we've seen from him many times before and while Eric Kot may not have the screen presence or comic appeal of Stephen Chow Sing Chi, Wong Jing makes sure that he keeps things moving fast enough so that you can ignore his less funny moments. It's over 90 minutes of madcap comedy, fast and furious fight scenes, and plenty of silly gambling antics to keep any true fan of Hong Kong cinema happy!

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Overall: A lot of fun with plenty of insane comedy and brilliant fight action, The Saint Of Gamblers screams Wong Jing and highly entertains!