The Hui Brothers had much success in the late 70s and early 80s with films such as ‘The Private Eyes’ and the box-office smash sequel ‘Security Unlimited’. However, after a minor wrangle between Michael and Samuel, the brothers went their separate ways (not working together as a threesome until the late 80s). Michael went on to great success with a number of box-office hits, whereas Samuel joined Karl Maka in a film called ‘Aces Go Places’.
Small-time jewel thief King Kong (Samuel Hui) makes the grave error of crossing the mob when he interrupts a transaction by smashing through a window and stealing a consignment of diamonds. The mob hire the infamous White Glove—another, more notorious jewel thief—to get the gems back at any cost. Not only has he that to contend with, but also the attentions of White Glove’s legal nemesis, the Chinese-American detective Albert Au (Karl Maka), and no-nonsense female rookie Nancy Ho Tung Sze (Sylvia Chang). To add to this, King Kong’s accomplice (Dean Shek) hides the diamonds before his untimely death and just has time to tell King Kong that the location is tattooed on the bottoms of former girlfriends. After being forced to form an alliance, King Kong, Albert and the feisty Nancy set about finding this sensitive information.
When released, this first film in the highly successful ‘Aces Go Places’ series was a box-office smash. The characters of King Kong, Albert and Nancy took their place in Hong Kong cinema’s hall of fame and inspired countless imitations. Popularity led to the Aces films being bought by German company Atlas International and released across Europe as the ‘Mad Mission’ films. The skill of director Eric Tsang is his ability to blend the caper-comedy interplay of Hui and Maka with a number of nifty set-pieces and stunts. The performances are all first-rate, with the chemistry between Hui, Maka and Chang being an obvious highlight. Alongside the strong central performances, Tsang fills the screen with cameos and comedic turns from some of Hong Kong’s top stars. Chan Sing stands out as crime boss Al Capone, showing a natural touch for comedy that had rarely been given a chance to shine up until this point.
Unlike much of today’s canto-comedy, the humour in ‘Aces Go Places’ translates very well and certainly doesn’t seem to have dated after nearly twenty years. In fact, it sometimes seems far more sophisticated than the supposed Wong Jing comedies that seem to litter the box office year upon year. It’s also fair to say that the pace and momentum of the film is far more successfully maintained than in the aforementioned comedies.
A number of sequels followed, but none could match the original (though all were certainly worth watching) for its sheer energy and originality.
