Ban jin ba liang (1976)

Michael Hui was the best-loved Hong Kong movie star of the '70s, and this 1976 detective-story farce was his biggest hit. Hui is also a major moviemaker, sadly neglected in the West--a populist writer-director-star whose light-footed physical humor and observant deadpan wit suggest a mutant hybrid of Jacques Tati and Jerry Lewis. The premise here is paper-thin (three idiots form a detective agency), but the movie sticks closer than most commercial HK comedies to the textures of common life in the colony: cluttered construction sites, cheap office buildings, mediocre dim sum restaurants. There's even a long sequence in a typically jam-packed Hong Kong movie palace. There's a wonderful Bruce Lee-style nunchaku routine, performed with link sausages, and an attempt to cook a chicken from a recipe on a TV cooking show--after the channel has been secretly switched to an exercise program ("Now rotate the neck counterclockwise..."). If this episode looks familiar it's because émigré Hong Kong director Stanley Tong ripped it off, almost shot for shot, in his Hollywood dud Mister Magoo. Costars include Michael's brothers Sam, a top Canto-pop singer who contributed the jaunty theme music, and Ricky, a gifted hangdog straight man. | Gönderen: Avangart