The Crazy Companies

Bearing more than a passing resemblance to such American comedies as Tommy Boy, this fairly amusing entry from prolific Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Jing stars Andy Lau as Tsui Ting-kwai, the heir to half of a ten-billion-dollar fortune. The only catch is that Ting-kwai has to work competently as an office boy for six months or his half of the money goes to his scheming brother. Naturally, Ting-kwai's brother is determined to sabotage him, and hires three morons to work with him in order to reflect negatively on Ting-kwai's own performance. Numerous comic set pieces follow, including a good deal of slapstick involving hypnosis, mistaken identity, misdiagnoses of AIDS (a popular comic theme in Hong Kong that year -- see Couples, Couples, Couples), people pretending to be blind, and the inevitable Bruce Lee references. Eventually, the four co-workers become friends and team up to thwart Ting-kwai's brother at his own game. Chingmy Yau leads a familiar supporting cast including Stanley Fung, Charlie Cho, Yung Sai-kit, and Sandra Ng. Followed in 1989 by The Crazy Companies II.