Fu gui bing tuan (1989)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Kent Cheng

Writers:

Barry Wong (writer)
Jing Wong (writer)

Genre:

Action | Comedy

Plot:

Set in China during the Japanese occupation. A young man breaks out of a POW camp to marry his sweetheart...

Cast

Charine Chan	...	Nurse
Frankie Chan	...	Commander in White
Pak-cheung Chan	...	Dragon
Kent Cheng	...	Chocolate
Kuan Tai Chen	...	Triad Boss Gambler
Billy Ching Sau Yat	...	Japanese Soldier
Charlie Cho	...	Peter
Sam Christopher Chow
Fat Chung	...	Japanese Soldier
Tiet Wo Chu
Sammo Hung Kam-Bo	...	Brother Hung
Sau Leung 'Blacky' Ko	...	Hideki (as Blackie Ko)
Ben Lam	...	Little Dragon Fly
Wilson Lam	...	Red Horse
Andy Lau	...	Wah
Billy Lau	...	Donald Duck
Chia Hui Liu	...	Commander in Blue
Ken Lo	...	Japanese Soldier
Fong Lung	...	Japanese General
Kiu Wai Miu	...	Little Robot
Siu Chung Mok	...	Little Candy
Anita Mui	...	Jone
Fui-On Shing	...	Ugly Prisoner of War
Alan Tam	...	Robin
Joan Tong Lai-Kau	...	Nurse
Eric Tsang	...	Runaway
Kwong-Chin Tsang	...	Camp Doctor
Ridley Tsui	...	Japanese Soldier
Austin Wai	...	Little Tortoise
Jing Wong
Kirk Wong	...	Paul
Parkman Wong	...	Japanese Soldier

Also Known As:

Code of Fortune
Foo gwai bing tuen (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)
The Fortune Code (Hong Kong: English title)

Runtime:

UK:89 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Hong Kong:IIA | UK:15

An allstar cast? Not quite. This movie has a super-mega allstar cast!

First of all, I must point out that this movie is not very good overall, but it does provide a few great fight scenes, and it has one of the best casts I have ever seen in a movie. I haven't seen a Hong Kong movie this star studded since Sammo Hung's Millionaire's Express. Sammo is one of the stars of this movie, but unfortunately he is not the director. Kent Cheng is the director (the fat guy from Jet Li's Once Upon a Time in China and Jackie Chan's Crime Story. Kent cheng is also one of the stars, unfortunately. Let me go over the whole cast, just to give you an idea of how many people are in this movie. Gordon Liu (who played Pai Mei in Kill Bill part 2, and also starred in part 1), Alan Tam (the co-star of Jackie chan's Armour of God), Andy Lau (House of Flying Daggers), Sammo Hung (Dragons Forever), Jason Pai Paio (Shaolin Prince) , Ben Lam (Angry Ranger), Chen Kuan Tai (Boxer from Shantung), Austin Wai Tin Chi (Incredible Kung fu Master), Jimmy Lee (Rebellious Reign), Kirk Wong (the director of The Big Hit with Mark Wahlberg), Ridley Tsui (Tiger Cage 3), Ken Lo (Drunken Master 2), Max Mok (Once Upon a Time in China parts 2, 3, 4 and 5), Eric Tsang (Infernal Affairs), Anita Mui (Drunken Master 2), Nat Chan (Last Hero in China), Shing Fui On (Code of Honor), Blacky Ko (Shaolin Ex-Monk), Chung Fa (Magnificent Butcher), Chu Tiet Wo (legendary Weapons of China), Frankie Chan (Prodigal Son)... it just goes on and on.

Alright, so now that I have gone over the cast I need to talk about how bad this movie is. The humor is pretty lame most of the time, and the movie just isn't enjoyable. Kirk Wong, Eric Tsang and some guy named Donald Duck provide some good comedy, but there is way too much bad humor.

Basically the movie takes place during the Japanese invasion and the story is about Sammo getting Andy Lau, Alan Tam and Anita Mui to help him make sure the Japanese don't get the code to a Swiss bank account wih 500 million dollars the Chinese government put away to help rebuild the country. The story is horrible. So on to the fight scenes! There are a lot of fights, and some are really good. 2 of the highlights are Andy Lau vs Chung Fa and Sammo vs Chen Kuan Tai. The final fight is good, but it only lasts about 5 minutes. It is a dang good fight with tons of big stars, but I expected a lot more. I was very disappointed with this movie. Only worth watching to see tons of old school stars doing some modern day action.

The Megastar DVD has very good picture and sound quality. Subtitles are written well enough.