''Great Pretenders'' (Chinese: 千王) is a 1991 Hong Kong

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

edited and directed by

Ronny Yu Ronny is a given name, sometimes a short form (hypocorism) of Ryan. It may refer to: * Ronny (footballer, born 1986), Brazilian footballer Ronny Heberson Furtado de Araújo * Ronny (footballer, born 1991), Brazilian footballer Ronieri da Silva Pi ...

and starring Raymond Wong, Tony Leung,

Simon Yam Simon Yam Tat-wah (; born 19 March 1955) is a Hong Kong actor and film producer. He received international acclaim for his performances in international film festival and box office hits such as ''Naked Killer'', '' SPL: Sha Po Lang'', ''Election' ...

and

Amy Yip Amy Yip (born 10 July 1966) is an actress who was one of the leading sex symbols of Hong Kong Cinema in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Yip is best known for her roles in Hong Kong Category III films such as ''Sex and Zen'' and ''Erotic Ghost Stor ...

Plot

Taiwanese swindler Mr. Giant (

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 wa ...

) loses in a poker match against Hong Kong swindler Wong Seung-chin ( Raymond Wong) and they become sworn enemies. Meanwhile, Wong's apprentice Snake Wai ( Tony Leung) meets Susan (Lok Wai), a widow who has recently returned to Hong Kong from Singapore. Planning to con a large sum of money from her, Wai sets up a plan with his acquaintances Yam Sai-sung (

) and Yip Mei-mei (

). However, Susan turns out to be swindler as well. Unable to salvage a fortune from Susan, Wai, Sung and Mei become indebted to her. In desperation, Wai seeks help from his mentor who wins back all the debts they owed Susan. Susan then becomes acquainted with Wong and his apprentices and they work together to swindle profiteer Lung Cho-tin (Leung Tin). They able to acquire HK$2 million form Lung very easily. Not wishing to be cheated, Lung hires Mr. Giant to battle against Wong.

Cast

Raymond Wong Pak-ming Raymond Wong Pak-ming (Chinese: 黃百鳴, born 8 April 1946; sometimes transliterated as Raymond Wong Bak-ming) is a Hong Kong film producer, playwright, director and actor. He is one of the most successful producers in Hong Kong cinema, h ...

as Wong Seung-chin *

Tony Leung Chiu-Wai use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates = , burial_place ...

as Snake Wai *

as Yam Sai-sung *

as Yip Mei-mei *Leung Tin as Lung Choi-tin *

as Mr. Giant *Lok Wai as Susan So *So Hiu-lam as Susan's fat brother *Lee Lung-kei as Cunning Kei *Cho Chai as Wing *Gabriel Wong as Beauty contest emcee *

as Beauty contest judge *Law Ching-ho as Victim of Wai's watch scam *Yeung Wan-king as Lost watch owner *Tsui Kwong-lam as Butcher playing mahjong *Chu Yat-hung as Housewife playing mahjong *Garry Chan as Drunk man outside hotel *Benz Kong as Card dealer *Joanna Chan as Monica *Chan Chi-hung as Superintendent Lee *Lau Leung-fat as Jewelry appraiser *Yip Wing-hung *Paul Cheung *Tony Chow *Lam Yim-fung *Liu Sou-bing *Woo Kwan-hung *James Ha as Tin's thug *Lai Sing-kwong as Tin's thug *Jameson Lai as Tan's thug *Chan Tat-kwong as Tan's thug *Christoper Chan as Tan's thug *Pinky Cheung as Li Li-li *Nicky Li as Drunk man hit by car *Ng Kwok-kin as Police officer *Hui Si-man as Rich widow *Lam Kwok-git

Theme song

The theme song of the film is ''Only Remembering the Old Deep Love'' (只記舊情重) composed by

Joseph Koo Joseph Koo Kar-Fai, MBE, GBS (born 3 February 1933), is a Hong Kong composer, who is considered one of the most respected composers in Hong Kong. He used the pen name Moran (莫然) for Mandarin songs early in his career. Early life Koo has ...

with lyrics by

Thomas Tang Thomas Tang (鄧心平, January 11, 1922 – July 18, 1995) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the first American of Chinese descent appointed to the federal judiciary. Education and ...

sung by

Liza Wang Elizabeth "Liza" Wang Ming-chun SBS (born 28 August 1947), is a Hong Kong diva, actress and MC. She is a personality in Chinese-speaking communities. She has been nicknamed "The Big Sister" in the Hong Kong entertainment circle.Xinhuanet.Xinhu ...

Reception

Critical

Andrew Chan of the

Film Critics Circle of Australia The Film Critics Circle of Australia (FCCA) is an association of cinema critics and reviewers. It includes journalists in "media, television, major national and state papers, radio, national and state, online and freelance writers, Australian ...

gave the film a score of 2/10 and wrote "''The Great Pretenders'' is by no means a good movie. In fact, it is terrible and hard to finish…
Hong Kong Film Net
gave the film a score a 6/10 and wrote "''The Great Pretenders'' certainly isn't an example of great cinema from Hong Kong, but it is good enough to set aside ninety minutes of your life for, especially if you're a fan of the actors involved."

Box office

The film grossed HK$4,333,406 at the Hong Kong box office during its theatrical run from 16 to 28 May 1991 in

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 ...

References

External links

* *
Great Pretenders
' 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 ...

* {{Ronny Yu 1991 films 1991 comedy films Hong Kong slapstick comedy films Films about gambling 1990s Cantonese-language films Films directed by Ronny Yu Films set in Hong Kong Films shot in Hong Kong 1990s Hong Kong films