Conman in Tokyo (2000)

Hong Kong no longer boasts the gambling heroes of days gone by -- the type of card trick legends that films can be made of. The last great master -- a man named Cool (Koo) -- vanished from Hong Kong's illegal gambling scene three years ago, leaving only present-day trickster Jersy (Cheung) to top the local rankings. At the badgering of his girlfriend (Chung), Jersy leaves behind his singing n' dancing buddies and goes shopping in Japan. And who do the pair come across on their northern excursion? Cool, of course.

Now living in Tokyo as a restaurateur, Cool is quietly keeping tabs on Karen (Chu), the woman that should have been his wife. She's become a vegetable and is now wed to a nasty piece of work and Cool is unable to do anything but look on. A lengthy retelling gives both Jersy and viewers the skinny on how this unfortunate situation came about. Soon, with Jersy's help, Karen is rescued and taken back to Hong Kong. The plot seems somewhat over by this point, yet the film has only reached the one hour mark.

Back in Hong Kong, attention quickly shifts to gambling as Conman in Tokyo travels towards a most ludicrous finale. Cool settles back into his old home, bets on the horse races and teaches Jersy how to throw playing cards as weapons. And ultimately Jersy is raked into a gambling showdown aboard an aircraft carrier.

Setting the final sequence on the warship is high novelty -- complete with missiles and a jet fighter primed to explode for added drama. It's a fun concept yet as much as I like a good gimmick, too much of Conman in Tokyo still seemed like a rehash. Even on the big ship (actually the decommissioned Minsk aircraft carrier moored at Shenzhen), the gambling hall is kitted out with a TV wall for the battling gamblers to bet on the footy as they duel with the cards, similar to the grand finale of 1999's The Conman.

Nick Cheung doesn't offer anything new in the lead either, instead dishing up another performance littered with rambling lines and assorted gag poses. Immediately after one relatively emotional flashback sequence, Cheung even challenges viewer interest in the past events with his absurdly overblown humour. Thankfully Louis Koo's there to offset him with a quieter and firmer performance more fitting of a master gambler. And Christy Chung is a delightful support with a cheerfully trashy acting turn.

The film itself echoes Chung's enthusiasm and good cheer. For its faults, Conman in Tokyo is still entertaining fluff with that aircraft carrier sequence providing the prime silliness. Another splash of nonsense comes earlier with the film's requisite dotcom plug -- instead of fabricating a dubious plot element or placing unlikely taxi ads, they simply create a dream sequence littered with a website logo and interrupt the film with it. The direction of the film is at times anonymous, and key action moments rely on digital effects, but director Tony Ching still held my interest best when it all slows down. Old-style Japanese locations come across sharp and are framed nicely in their surrounds, Louis Koo is made to be surprisingly agile in a tree and Athena Chu's is captured well for the big screen; her character introduced to viewers against softly falling leaves.

The painted billboard for Conman in Tokyo at the Imperial Theatre.

The President Theatre's Conman in Tokyo painted billboard.

Credits:

Directed by Tony Ching Siu-tung
Presented by Wong Jing
Starring Louis Koo Tin-lok, Nick Cheung Ka-fai, Christy Chung Lai-tai, Athena Chu Yan, Yasuaki Kurata , Joe Cheng Cho and Wong Tin-lam (cameo)