The Magnificent Scoundrels (1991)

Valentino is a mediocre con artist who crosses paths with Kwan, a fellow con artist. Together, they impersonate various people and create numerous schemes to make money. Meanwhile, gangsters are making a scheme of their own.

Director:

Lik-Chi Lee

Writers:

Lik-Chi Lee (scriptwriter) (as Lik Chi Lee), Yiu-Ming Leung (scriptwriter) (as Edward Leung)

Stars:

Stephen Chow, Wu Ma, Tien Niu

Cast

Credited cast:
Stephen Chow	...	Romeo (as Steven Chow)
Wu Ma	...	Fat (as Ng Ma)
Tien Niu	...	Ping (as Nau Tim)
Amy Yip	...	Apple
Teresa Mo	...	Kwan (as Shun Kwun Mao)
Roy Cheung	...	Brother Tai-te
Wah Yuen	...	Brother Wah
Karl Maka	...	Master
Sandra Kwan Yue Ng	...	Jenny (as Sandra Ng)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sek-Lim Chan
Shun-Chuen Law
Gabriel Wong	...	Driver
Tin-Dok Wong
Kin-Wai Yeung
Corey Yuen	...	Cameo

Storyline

Valantino is a loser who's girlfriend has run off to get married, she mets a very lousy con-artist, thanks to her he's in trouble with a local mob boss. Meanwhile another low life is in trouble with the same boss, he's ordered to rob a rich man's house and he'll split whatever he steals with the mob boss. Chow and Mo go to the same house to rob it by trying to draw the occupants out of the home with free tickets to go see Sally Yeh. Wu has beforehand lured away the maids from the house with the help of a Filipino party-animal. But chaos breaks loose as they confuse each other with a relative of the occupant and the occupant respectively. Each thinking the other has money, they keep on trying to scam each other here and there. Wu even goes so far as to hire Amy Yip to seduce Chow. Mo is jealous and tries to have her breasts enlarged so that hers are even bigger than Yip's...

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Plot Keywords:

artist | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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User Reviews

Kind of a moronic comedy.

Stephen Chow is a comic genius and his movies showcase his quick humor and at times tastefully done slapstick comedy. But, I think he overdoes the comedy in a nonsensical way in this flick, where he plays con artist Valentino who impersonate various people with another con artist to create money-making schemes. In their way are some gangsters who has tricks up their sleeves as well.

The plot is actually pretty slow with the movie consumed with moronic jokes and far-fetched stupidity. It made me wonder how the great Wu Ma (of Chinese Ghost Story fame) would get himself cast in such an oddball comedy, but, I guess that's called versatile acting. This film would generate some laughs from viewers, but I've seen much more entertaining and funnier stuff from Hong Kong than us.

Grade D

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Release Date:

10 October 1991 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Qing sheng

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinema City Enterprises, Magnum Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1