Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars (1985)

Sammo Hung

Hong Kong

105 min, color, Cantonese (English subtitles)

This is the third entry in the Lucky Stars series that began with Winners and Sinners and My Lucky Stars, all directed by Sammo Hung and with the politically incorrect sex-starved comedic troupe that includes Richard Ng, Charlie Chin, Stanley Fung, and Eric Tsang, and guest-starring Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao for some really explosive action alongside Sammo.

This time the gang is vacationing in Thailand, trying to get laid (in vain) and escape murderous assassins (successfully) in turn. Sibelle Hu returns as Miss Woo, but this time breaks Sammo's heart almost immediately by making a rather direct confession that she does not love him. This merely frees him to try scoring with other girls, which he immediately does when Rosamund Kwan replaces Sibelle has the hapless member of the opposite sex doomed to spend a night at the gang's apartment.

The rest of the film is basically a hit-and-miss affair with sexual humor, of which either most got lost in the translation or much was never funny even in Chinese. There are several decent physical jokes of the Three Stooges type, and Sammo's flipping of Michelle Yeoh is rather well done. Nothing can save the middle of the film from boring inanity, not even Rosamund showing up in a wet shirt.

The good thing (if you, like me, own this on DVD) is that the film is not a total waste. In fact, it's not a waste at all when it comes to the action sequences. There are two big scenes with Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao, in which they both shine and demonstrate their rather different fighting styles. There is also the excellent fights with Sammo, who agile and powerful, much to the surprise of Richard Norton (as he confesses in the interview), who happens to play a Caucasian baddie in this film. These are not to be missed, especially the final all-out fighting scene at the restaurant.

The Hong Kong Legends DVD is the way to own this film. It comes with a great anamorphic widescreen transfer (1.85:1) and an excellent Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. There's also an English dub but I have not heard it and I doubt anyone ever will. The extras include a feature-length commentary with Bey Logan and interviews with Richard Ng and Richard Norton, both very informative and well-worth the time, especially the latter one, where Richard Norton discusses his life and martial arts involvement (a likeable guy altogether who has only good things to say about people he's worked with).

November 11, 2003