Laughters of "Water Margins" (1993)
"Never
say never". This saying is very true. And I realized it in the case of
this film. When I ordered it, I was sure I would not like it, I didn't
like the cover, I didn't know what to expect, I simply bought it
because of Ricky. And now? Now it is one of my favourite Ricky films.
As
I learnt, the story is very different from the original novel where
Ricky's character is more evil. The film is a kind of musical comedy of
the 11th Century China that was full of cheaters and swindlers. A
married couple (played by Teresa Mo and Ng Man Tat) comes to town to
cheat people out of their money. Their main target is Mr Simon (Ricky's
character), who is the richest man, a silly playboy (who actually never
had a girl, not even in a brothel). They finally manage to trick him,
and blackmail all his money from him, but the real winner of the story
is Sam, who plays the younger brother of the husband. He is the king
swindler who outwits everyone and gets all the money in the end.
At first I found the whole film very strange, weird even, with its unusual humour (for me), the too col
ourful costumes, the silly songs.
Naturally, as always, I was most interested in Ricky's character, but
the more times I watched the film, the more attracted I got to the
whole in general. The gags, the incredible characters enchanted me
every time I watched it. The cast is more than perfect, they couldn't have chosen better artists for this comedy. Sam Hui is supreme with his Drunken
Master style and oiled body. He has many great moments throughout the
film, but my favourite is when he meets the man-eating tiger and
climbes up a tree like a lightning, even the camera cannot follow his
movements.
As
I learnt, the story is very different from the original novel where
Ricky's character is more evil. The film is a kind of musical comedy of
the 11th Century China that was full of cheaters and swindlers. A
married couple (played by Teresa Mo and Ng Man Tat) comes to town to
cheat people out of their money. Their main target is Mr Simon (Ricky's
character), who is the richest man, a silly playboy (who actually never
had a girl, not even in a brothel). They finally manage to trick him,
and blackmail all his money from him, but the real winner of the story
is Sam, who plays the younger brother of the husband. He is the king
swindler who outwits everyone and gets all the money in the end. At first I found the whole film very strange, weird even, with its unusual humour (for me), the too col
ourful costumes, the silly songs.
Naturally, as always, I was most interested in Ricky's character, but
the more times I watched the film, the more attracted I got to the
whole in general. The gags, the incredible characters enchanted me
every time I watched it. The cast is more than perfect, they couldn't have chosen better artists for this comedy. Sam Hui is supreme with his Drunken
Master style and oiled body. He has many great moments throughout the
film, but my favourite is when he meets the man-eating tiger and
climbes up a tree like a lightning, even the camera cannot follow his
movements. T
eresa
Mo is simply superb and we can enjoy her marvellously rich palette of
facial expressions. For me the highlights are when she sees Sam's
muscular chest and the expression on her face when she meets Mr Simon.
That look on her face tells everything. Poor Mr Simon... I also had to
laugh out loud about her exclamation "King Kong!" when Sam gone crazy
after drinking some wine.
Of course what I love best about the film is Ricky's character, Mr Simon. He is such an amazingly stupid character that one cannot help but like him (well, I most certainly do). When I first saw him, my expression must have been similar to Teresa's, but when I recovered from the shock, I had to realize that this character is fantastic and casting Ricky for the role was the perfect choice, it wouldn't have worked with any other actor. Mr Simon is so funny, so stupid, bad, miserable but still lovable that only a comedic genius could portray him this perfectly. It simply had to be Ricky's sense of humour, his facial expressions (oh, those eyebrow movements!) and body language. The best.
eresa
Mo is simply superb and we can enjoy her marvellously rich palette of
facial expressions. For me the highlights are when she sees Sam's
muscular chest and the expression on her face when she meets Mr Simon.
That look on her face tells everything. Poor Mr Simon... I also had to
laugh out loud about her exclamation "King Kong!" when Sam gone crazy
after drinking some wine.Of course what I love best about the film is Ricky's character, Mr Simon. He is such an amazingly stupid character that one cannot help but like him (well, I most certainly do). When I first saw him, my expression must have been similar to Teresa's, but when I recovered from the shock, I had to realize that this character is fantastic and casting Ricky for the role was the perfect choice, it wouldn't have worked with any other actor. Mr Simon is so funny, so stupid, bad, miserable but still lovable that only a comedic genius could portray him this perfectly. It simply had to be Ricky's sense of humour, his facial expressions (oh, those eyebrow movements!) and body language. The best.
I
hardly recovered from the shock Mr Simon's first song gave me, when
another shock struck. The scene, when he was walking down the
street
just giggling to himself like an idiot, holding his LSD and Teresa
wanted to get his attention with throwing rods at him but kept
missing, is one of my favs. I absolutely adored it when Lydia taught
him how to get the girl's affection with his "sensuous eyes" and how to
seduce her. The remark of Mr Simon being wet was phenomenal (Ricky, Ricky). Those faces
Ricky made are beyond imagination. Naturally everything turned out to
be a disaster the next day, nothing quite worked as poor Mr Simon
planned.
street
just giggling to himself like an idiot, holding his LSD and Teresa
wanted to get his attention with throwing rods at him but kept
missing, is one of my favs. I absolutely adored it when Lydia taught
him how to get the girl's affection with his "sensuous eyes" and how to
seduce her. The remark of Mr Simon being wet was phenomenal (Ricky, Ricky). Those faces
Ricky made are beyond imagination. Naturally everything turned out to
be a disaster the next day, nothing quite worked as poor Mr Simon
planned. One of the funniest scenes is when they poison the husband (so does Mr Simon think, but how much he is mistaken...). When they see the naked body with his incredibly big size... Ricky is simply adorable holding up his little finger, letting us know his size... I was touched by that relieved little smile he flashed when the girl assured him that size doesn't matter...
As
I said, I loved the songs very much. They were quite melodious but very
silly, matching the characters perfectly. It's not a surprise if I say
that I loved Ricky's songs best. What I found really funny were the
melodies from The Jaws (when the shark attacked) played mostly when Sam
went insane after drinking wine, and the love theme from Love Story,
when Lydia's character realized she fell in love with Mr Simon. I
didn't know which of them I felt more sorry for...
I
cannot say more in my closing lines, that this film is another
masterpiece of the HK comedy genre. Its every minute is pure
entertainment, never boring and making fun of everybody and everything.
I recommend it to everyone who wants to laugh her/his head off.