Not having seen the 1992 Hong Kong crime action drama "Do Sing Dai Hang: San Gor Chuen Kei" (aka "Casino Tycoon") before now in 2022, I must admit that I was actually looking forward to watching it, as the movie had Andy Lau in the leading role.

However, I have to admit that I found the storyline in the movie to be somewhat erratic and skittish. It felt like writer and director Jing Wong was just making things up as the filming of the movie was progressing. I didn't really feel that there was a fully cohesive and constructed narrative to the movie. The things that happened throughout the movie felt too random and one scene wasn't really leading up to the next.

The acting performances in the movie were adequate, taking into consideration the shortcomings of the script and storyline. Andy Lau was delivering his usual good performance, so at least he made the movie watchable. The movie also had the likes of Chingmy Yau, Paul Chun and Hoi-San Kwan on the cast list, so there are some familiar faces for fans of the Hong Kong cinema.

Now that I have seen "Do Sing Dai Hang: San Gor Chuen Kei", I can check it off of my to-watch-list. However, I doubt that I will ever return to watch this movie a second time. And if you are a newcomer to the Hong Kong cinema, then this is not a movie that I would recommend as something you should sit down and watch.

My rating of "Do Sing Dai Hang: San Gor Chuen Kei" lands on a four out of ten stars.

Browsing round on Netflix UK, I stumbled on a series of Hong Kong Action flicks which I had never heard of before,leading to me meeting the tycoon.

View on the film:

Released the same year as Ringo Lam's Full Contact and John Woo's Hard Boiled (1992-both also reviewed),writer/director Jing Wong gives the Heroic Bloodshed action a scatter-shot mood of short, sharp slo-mo hits, as the camera scans the casino floors covered in blood.

Taking the first roll of the dice as a Historical Drama via following Hsin and his family flee to Macu as Hong Kong falls to Occupation, the screenplay by Wong takes a left-field turn into a strange genre mash-up,which whilst never binding together, offers delights thanks to how at odds each element is, going from a blistering shoot-out one moment, to a hilariously arch Melodrama romance the next.

Appearing to be the only one fully aware about the peculiar tone of the flick, Andy Lau shines as Hsin,thanks to Lau one moment having Hsin tear up and screeching over a broken heart, and then flipping over to chewing the scenery as he takes on the underworld in order to become a casino tycoon.

Based on the lives of three Hong Kong magnates who made their fortune with the Casino in Macau, it is very reminiscent of "The Bund" in context and overall execution, good production, simple, flawed, a little exaggerated, however good...