LAUGHTER OF WATER MARGINS, with Sam Hui Koon-kit, Teresa Mo Shun-kwan, Ricky Hui Koon-ying and Ng Mang-tat. Directed by Clifton Ko Chi-sum. On Mandarin circuit.
NOTHING sets a new Hongkong movie trend faster than a runaway success. Since The Eagle-Shooting Heroes - Dong Cheng Xi Jiu opened to rave reviews last year, the territory's film-makers have been busy making farces of period dramas.
The products of their efforts have arrived for the summer in the guise of The Flirting Scholar, with Stephen Chiau Sing-chi and Gong Li, and now Laughter of Water Margins .
This film concentrates on a famous chapter from a Chinese classic, The Water Margin, in which Mo Chung becomes the village hero after killing a man-eating tiger. He later kills his adulterous sister-in-law who has murdered his brother.
The only facts retained in Laughter of Water Margins are the names of the lead characters. Mo Chung, played by an oily Sam Hui (he is greased up like a bodybuilder), is a ne'er do well - albeit one with principles - who loses control if he as much as touches a drop of alcohol.
After being mistaken for the tiger-killing hero, Mo lands a job as a policeman in the village where his brother Tai-long (Ng Mang-tat) is running a lucrative business blackmailing the men his wife, Kam-lin (Teresa Mo), seduces.
Reluctant to do away with Hui, Ng makes him an unwilling accomplice.