During Hong Kong’s filmmaking heyday in the late 20th century, so many movies were made that directors carried over ideas from film to film, actors kept their personas in different roles, and cross-referencing was common.
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That was especially true of the gambling movies of the late 1980s and early 1990s, a highly prolific genre made famous by producer and director Wong Jing with 1989’s God of Gamblers.
Wong’s film was parodied by rising star Stephen Chow Sing-chi and director Jeff Lau Chun-wai the following year in All for the Winner, and Chow’s version was such a big hit that Wong hired him to star in the sequel to God of Gamblers.
Here we look at the three interconnected films that set Hong Kong’s gambling genre in motion.