''Lawyer Lawyer'' (Cantonese ,

Jyutping Jyutping is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK), an academic group, in 1993. Its formal name is the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme. The LSHK advocates for ...

syun3 sei2 cou2, literally "compute death weed") is a

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

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 ...

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 ...

produced, directed and co-written by Joe Ma.

Plot

Stephen Chow Stephen Chow Sing-chi (, born 22 June 1962), known professionally as Stephen Chow, is a Hong Kong filmmaker, former actor and comedian, known for ''Shaolin Soccer'' and ''Kung Fu Hustle''. Early life and education Stephen Chow was born in British ...

is Chan Mong-Gut, a famous Chinese lawyer, who must defend his apprentice Foon, who got framed for murder, in court. Stephen Chow stars as Chan Mong-Gut, a famous Chinese lawyer who was killed in the Qing dynasty. He must defend his apprentice, Foon, who has been framed for murder in Hong Kong. Being the third worst lawyer in China, he challenges the British legal system with no evidence on hand and manages to identify the killer in a hilarious way.

1997

The film was released during the same year as the

Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong Sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China (PRC) at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony. Hong Kong was established as a special admini ...

. As the film deals specifically with the issue of justice, it can be interpreted as responding to the fears of the

PRC China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

takeover and to the general uncertainty of what that meant to the people of Hong Kong, as long as you ignore the content of the movie itself, which implicates the UK as the source of injustice. The film promotes a normative vision of justice that can prevail over any tyranny, suggesting that knowledge of law, and the freedom to express it, is more important than brute strength (as embodied by the trials and tribulations of Chang Mong-Gut over countless foes).

Cast

as Chan Mong-Gut ''(credited Steven Chow)'' *

Eric Kot Eric Kot Man-fai is a Hong Kong singer and actor who studied in California and is the second youngest of three brothers. He formed a comedic music duo with fellow DJ and comedian Jan Lamb called Softhard in the 1980s. He also runs a fashion s ...

as Foon *

Karen Mok Karen Mok (born Karen Joy Morris (), 2 June 1970) is a Hong Kong pop diva who is one of the leading Asian pop singers and actresses with a career spanning three decades. She is the first female Hong Kong singer to win the Golden Melody Award and ...

Chingmy Yau Chingmy Yau Suk-zing (born 16 May 1968) is a retired Hong Kong actress. Background She entered the Hong Kong film industry after competing secondary school in the 1987 Miss Hong Kong Beauty Pageant. She was one of the leading actresses in the ...

* Kar-ying Law ''(credited as Law Ka Ying)'' * Tat-ming Cheung ''(credited as Cheung Tat Ming)'' *

Vincent Kok Vincent Kok Tak-chiu (; born 15 August 1965) is a Hong Kong actor, scriptwriter and film director. Vincent's ancestral hometown is Shandong province. Kok is best known for his frequent collaborations with Stephen Chow, acting and co-writing wi ...

Tats Lau Tats Lau Yee-Tat (; born 23 February 1963) is a Hong Kong musician, songwriter, singer and actor. Music career During the 1980s, Tats Lau was active in Hong Kong's independent music scene. He established several underground bands including D ...

''(credited as Lau Yee Tat)'' *

Paul Fonoroff Paul Fonoroff (born 1954 in Cleveland, Ohio) is one of Hong Kong's best known film critics and film historians. Biography A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Paul Kendel Fonoroff began studying Chinese in high school, continuing at Brown University ...

Bowie Lam Bowie Lam (, Lam Bo-yee; born 4 September 1965) is an Hong Kong actor with the TVB network. He has starred in several popular dramas including ''File of Justice'' and '' Healing Hands''. Before working in entertainment, Lam held other occupations ...

Spencer Lam Spencer Lam Sheung Yee (; 14 December 1934 – 23 April 2009) was a football defender, coach and announcer, as well as an actor. Spencer was a graduate of the Chinese University of Hong Kong with an economics major. He was once a secondar ...

''(credited as Lam Sheung Yee)' * Siu-kei Lee ''(credited as Lee Siu Kee) *

Simon Lui Simon Lui Yue Yeung (; born 8 July 1964), also known as Simon Loui and Simon Yu, is a highly prolific Hong Kong-based actor famous for starring in many low-budget and/or horror films since the early 1990s. He began drawing attention when he was fe ...

Wyman Wong Wyman Wong (born 21 May 1969) is a Cantopop lyricist from Hong Kong.The Style Issue
''Tim ...

Moses Chan Moses Chan Ho (born 16 April 1971) is an actor from Hong Kong. Career and personal life Chan lived and studied in Australia (Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney) for 10 years prior to returning to Hong Kong to embark on his acting career. On 17 Nov ...

King-fai Chung Chung King-fai, SBS, is a Hong Kong actor and pioneer of contemporary performing art. He is also a director, TV producer, programme host and performing arts educator. He is the founder and president of the Hong Kong Federation of Drama Societies ...

''(credited as Chung King Fai)'' *

Bobby Yip Bobby or Bobbie may refer to: People * Bobby (given name), a list of names * Bobby (actress), from Bangladesh * Bobby (rapper) (born 1995), from South Korea * Bobby (screenwriter) (born 1983), Indian screenwriter * Bobby, old slang for a consta ...

''(credited as Bat Leung Gam)'' * Kin-yan Lee ''(credited as Lee Kin Yan)'' *

Quinton Wong Quinton is a place name, a surname or a masculine given name. The place name originates from Old English ''cwen'' "queen" or ''cwene'' "woman" and ''tun'' "farmstead, estate". The English surname and given name may originate from the English plac ...

''(credited as Quin Tin Wong)'' * Madam Nancy * Kai-man Tin ''(credited as Tin Kai Man)''

External links

*
''Lawyer, Lawyer''
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 ...

* 1997 films 1990s Cantonese-language films 1997 comedy-drama films Films directed by Joe Ma Hong Kong comedy-drama films 1990s Hong Kong films {{1990s-comedy-drama-film-stub