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After the last conman film (Conman in Las Vegas), it will not take
a degree to figure out that Conman in Tokyo doesn't actually feature
a lot of gambling. Instead, slapstick comedy, kung-fu action and
banal dialogue are offered for those unsuspecting viewers, or for
those who likes this kind of stuff. I admit that previous gambling
films such as the God of Gamblers series had comedy, kung-fu etc.
but those were done with panache, with style, but this time, it
is simply awful.
Nick
Cheung reprises his role as the young triad gambler Jersey, the
student of King (Andy Lau of the previous films), who is as quick
with his feet as is with his wisecracking jokes. He embarks on a
shopping spree with his model girlfriend Banana (Christy Chung)
to Tokyo, only to find themselves being conned by the travel agent
representative, who has done a runner with their money. One night,
while trying to locate a place to eat in the backstreets of Tokyo,
they stumble upon a small Chinese restaurant, owned by a guy called
Cool (Louis Koo).
We
soon realise that Cool was once a famous gambler who can throw cards
like a ninja throws stars, and fight like a shaolin master on fire.
As the story unfolds, we learn that Cool's ex-girlfriend (Chu Yan)
is now the wife of his once best friend (Ben Lam), and she is a
vegetable; due to an incident.
Cool
is soon to be challenged to a poker game on board a battleship,
but we all know that other things would happen, and everything would
end up in gunfights and kung-fu fighting and card fights too. Louis
Koo isn't bad as the retired gambler, but all he seems to do is
brood about the place and look handsome. Nick Cheung is Nick Cheung,
who is trying so hard to be the new Stephen Chow. And Christy Chung
is just plain annoying. The other leads aren't given much to do,
and are easily forgettable, as is this film.
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