''All the Wrong Clues for the Right Solution'' () is a 1981 Hong Kong comedy film directed and co-written by
Tsui Hark
Tsui Hark (, vi, Từ Khắc, born 15 February 1950), born Tsui Man-kong, is a Hong Kong film director, producer and screenwriter. Tsui has directed several influential Hong Kong films such as ''Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain'' (1983), the ...
. The film stars
George Lam
George Lam Tsz-Cheung (born 12 October 1947), also known professionally by his surname Lam, is a Hong Kong-based veteran Cantopop singer, singer-songwriter, music producer and actor, with a career that has so far lasted more than four decades. Lam ...
as Yoho,
Karl Maka
Karl Maka (born 29 February 1944) is a Hong Kong film producer, director, actor and presenter.
Early life
On 29 February 1944, Maka was born as Mak Kar-sheung in Taishan, China. In 1958, at age 14, Maka moved to Hong Kong.
Education
In 1969 ...
as Ah Capone and
Teddy Robin Kwan
Wai Pang Kwan (; born 20 March 1945 in Guilin, Guangxi), known professionally as Teddy Robin (), is a Hong Kong English pop singer-songwriter, actor, and director and producer. He began his music career in mid 1960s when Hong Kong English pop w ...
as Inspector Robin. Yoho is a down on his luck detective who find himself in trouble with the ganger Ah Capone who is planning to cheat elderly millionaires out of their stocks.
The film was Tsui's first commercial success and was the fourth highest grossing
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
film of 1981. It was nominated for five ''
Golden Horse Awards
The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards () is a film festival and awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan. It was founded in 1962 by the Government Information Office of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The awards ceremony is us ...
'' and won three (Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Editing). The film was followed by a sequel in 1983 titled ''
All the Wrong Spies
All or ALL may refer to:
Language
* All, an indefinite pronoun in English
* All, one of the English determiners
* Allar language (ISO 639-3 code)
* Allative case (abbreviated ALL)
Music
* All (band), an American punk rock band
* ''All'' (All a ...
'' directed by
Teddy Robin Kwan
Wai Pang Kwan (; born 20 March 1945 in Guilin, Guangxi), known professionally as Teddy Robin (), is a Hong Kong English pop singer-songwriter, actor, and director and producer. He began his music career in mid 1960s when Hong Kong English pop w ...
.
Plot
Chief Inspector Robin (
Teddy Robin
Wai Pang Kwan (; born 20 March 1945 in Guilin, Guangxi), known professionally as Teddy Robin (), is a Hong Kong English pop singer-songwriter, actor, and director and producer. He began his music career in mid 1960s when Hong Kong English pop w ...
) receives information about the release of a felon who is rumored to be interested in murdering someone. At first, he is unable to determine the identity of both the felon and the supposed victim. However, after some research, he concludes the felon is triad boss Ah Capone (
Karl Maka
Karl Maka (born 29 February 1944) is a Hong Kong film producer, director, actor and presenter.
Early life
On 29 February 1944, Maka was born as Mak Kar-sheung in Taishan, China. In 1958, at age 14, Maka moved to Hong Kong.
Education
In 1969 ...
) and the victim is private investigator Yoho (
George Lam
George Lam Tsz-Cheung (born 12 October 1947), also known professionally by his surname Lam, is a Hong Kong-based veteran Cantopop singer, singer-songwriter, music producer and actor, with a career that has so far lasted more than four decades. Lam ...
). In order to protect Yoho, Inspector Robin arrests him on a trivial charge and locks him up at the police station.
After Capone is released from prison he meets up with the four heads of the four families to re-establish his position as head honcho and express his goal of murdering Yoho. He issues a death warrant for Yoho and sends henchman, Popeye (
Eric Tsang
Eric Tsang Chi-wai (; born 14 April 1953) is a Hong Kong actor, film director, producer, and television host, best known for hosting the variety show ''Super Trio series'' on the Hong Kong television network TVB over 18 years. He currently holds ...
) to act upon it.
Yoho and Inspector Robin turn out to be childhood friends. Inspector Robin repeats his reason for keeping Yoho locked up, however Yoho appears to be unconcerned and insists on leaving. To prevent him leaving, Inspector Robin imposes a $5000 bail. However to his surprise, a mysterious woman (
Yiu Wai) arrives to promptly pay the $5000 bail money upfront. Although Yoho doesn't know the woman, he leaves with her. On the way out, they bump into Popeye who deliberately got arrested in order to kill Yoho in prison.
Yoho follows the mysterious woman to her house where he learns she is married to a rich, disabled old man, Yummy (
Tang Kee-chan
Tang Kee Chan (, 17 February 1912 – 2 July 1991) was a Hong Kong actor, singer and radio personality. He is often referred to as the "King of Comedy (諧劇大王)" which is a moniker given to him by the Hong Kong entertainment industry as ev ...
). The old man informs Yoho that his wife is in fact trying to kill him in order to obtain his assets. Yoho promises the old man that he'll obtain evidence of his wife's treachery.
After Yoho follows the old man's wife, they are both captured by Capone who locks them up and leaves them to die. They eventually escape and return to Yummy's house and notice some henchmen posted outside. Yoho learns that Capone tricked Yummy into believing that Yoho and his wife were having an affair to pave the way for Mimi to seduce Yummy. Filled with rage, Yummy chased and shot at the pair. They were finally able to escape and leave the house separately. On his way, Yoho meets a young woman, Wai (Marylinn Wong) who helps him escape the henchmen.
Meanwhile, Mimi successfully seduces Yummy who learns of her true intent and drops down in a faint. On his way to unconsciousness, he reveals the existence of a daughter and that he'll leave everything to her.
Wai tells Yoho of her relationship with Yummy. During their conversation, Yoho receives a phone call from Inspector Robin who tells him that Yummy is in the hospital. Yoho follows Wai to the hospital and finds that Capone's henchmen are also looking for Yummy. Yoho decides to try and spirit Yummy out of the hospital. Unfortunately, he is ambushed and Wai is kidnapped by an unknown party.
Capone receives a phone call from a woman claiming she has Wai and that he must come up with the ransom to rescue Wai if he wants Yummy's assets. After they disconnect, the woman is revealed to be Yummy's wife. It is then revealed further that it is a huge scam as Yummy, Yummy's wife and also his daughter are a family of professional swindlers. As well, Yoho was already privy to all of this but didn't uncover their identities because he wanted to find out about Yummy's swindling scheme. Yoho partners up with Yummy for a second scheme, to swindle the four heads of the four families. With Yummy's agreement, Yoho then sets up the four heads of the four families.
Both Capone and the fours heads of the four families arrive at the appointed place at the same time. After a shoot-out, Inspector Robin appears with a troop of policemen and arrests everyone. The random is collected but as both bags are deposited into a police cruiser, it is driven away by Yoho. Inspector Robin and Capone give chase but only Inspector Robin makes it to the pier where Yummy and his family are waiting for Yoho. Yoho hands over the ransom to Yummy. In an apparent betrayal, Yoho and Inspector Robin shoot each other while Yummy takes the opportunity to escape with his family and ransom. After the boat takes off, Yoho and Inspector Robin get up unharmed and Yummy finds the random is actually worthless paper. Yoho and Inspector Robin then take off with the real money to Paris.
Cast
*
George Lam Chi Cheung as Yoho
*
Teddy Robin
Wai Pang Kwan (; born 20 March 1945 in Guilin, Guangxi), known professionally as Teddy Robin (), is a Hong Kong English pop singer-songwriter, actor, and director and producer. He began his music career in mid 1960s when Hong Kong English pop w ...
as Chief Inspection Robin
*
Karl Maka
Karl Maka (born 29 February 1944) is a Hong Kong film producer, director, actor and presenter.
Early life
On 29 February 1944, Maka was born as Mak Kar-sheung in Taishan, China. In 1958, at age 14, Maka moved to Hong Kong.
Education
In 1969 ...
as Ah Capone
*
Tang Kee-chan
Tang Kee Chan (, 17 February 1912 – 2 July 1991) was a Hong Kong actor, singer and radio personality. He is often referred to as the "King of Comedy (諧劇大王)" which is a moniker given to him by the Hong Kong entertainment industry as ev ...
as Yummy
*
Yiu Wai as Yummy's wife
*
David Wu (Hong Kong actor)
David Wu Tai Wai (Chinese 胡大為; born Hong Kong, 1952) is a Hong Kong-Canadian editor, director, and actor of film and television, known for his collaborations with directors John Woo and Ronnie Yu. He is also the editor of several interna ...
as Capone's dumb thug
*
John Shum Kin-fun as Piano player in bar
*
Bolo Yeung Sze as Brawler in bar
*
Eric Tsang Chi-wai as Popeye
* Marylinn Wong Cho-shut as Yummy's daughter, Wai
Style
Unlike
Tsui Hark
Tsui Hark (, vi, Từ Khắc, born 15 February 1950), born Tsui Man-kong, is a Hong Kong film director, producer and screenwriter. Tsui has directed several influential Hong Kong films such as ''Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain'' (1983), the ...
's previous films, ''All the Wrong Clues for the Right Solution'' is a commercial comedy without any social commentary or avant-garde elements of his previous three films.
[Morton, 2009. p.46] The film is a parody of Hollywood gangster and detective films.
Tsui's initial idea was to make what he described as a "silly movie. All the movies I've done before were very serious and very depressing"
Release
''All the Wrong Clues for the Right Solution'' was released on 23 July 1981.
The film was Tsui Hark's first major box office success grossing $7,479,976 in making it the fourth highest grossing film in Hong Kong.
In 1983, the film was followed up with a sequel ''
All the Wrong Spies
All or ALL may refer to:
Language
* All, an indefinite pronoun in English
* All, one of the English determiners
* Allar language (ISO 639-3 code)
* Allative case (abbreviated ALL)
Music
* All (band), an American punk rock band
* ''All'' (All a ...
'' directed by
Teddy Robin Kwan
Wai Pang Kwan (; born 20 March 1945 in Guilin, Guangxi), known professionally as Teddy Robin (), is a Hong Kong English pop singer-songwriter, actor, and director and producer. He began his music career in mid 1960s when Hong Kong English pop w ...
.
Reception
Tsui Hark won the award for Best Director at the Taiwan
Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards
The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards () is a film festival and awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan. It was founded in 1962 by the Government Information Office of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The awards ceremony is us ...
for his work on ''All the Wrong Clues for the Right Solution'' which was Tsui's first major film award.
[Morton, 2009. p.47] The film also won the Golden Horse Award for Best Cinematography and Film Editing.
It was also nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Feature.
See also
*
List of comedy films of the 1980s
*
List of Hong Kong films of 1981
A list of films produced in Hong Kong in 1981:
1981
References
External links
List of Hong Kong films released in 1981* Hong Kong films of 1981 aHKcinemamagic.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hong Kong Films Of 1981
1981
Events January
* ...
Notes
References
*
External links
*
"All the Wrong Clues for the Right Solution"at
Hong Kong Movie Database
The Hong Kong Movie Database (HKMDB) is a bilingual (English and Chinese) website started in 1995 by Hong Kong resident Ryan Law to provide a repository for information about movies originating from Hong Kong and the people who created them.
Th ...
"All the Wrong Clues for the Right Solution"at
Hong Kong Cinemagic
Hong Kong Cinemagic, sometimes referred to as HKCinemagic, is a bilingual ( French and English) website providing a repository for information about Chinese language films from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, and the people who created them. The websi ...
*
*
{{Tsui Hark
Hong Kong crime comedy films
1980s parody films
1980s crime comedy films
Hong Kong detective films
Films directed by Tsui Hark
1981 comedy films
1981 films
Triad films
1980s Hong Kong films