THE WARLORD
Cantonese: Dai gwun fat
Mandarin: Da jun fa
English: The Warlord

THE HAPPIEST MOMENT
Cantonese: Yat lok ya
Mandarin: Yi le ye
English: Happy Instances

These two popular Shaw Brothers comedies from writer/director Li Han-hsiang introduced Michael Hui Koon-man to HK audiences and helped pave the way for his huge success with Golden Harvest and the revival of Cantonese cinema as a box office force.

Hui made his film debut in THE WARLORD essaying the title role of bald brigand Pang Ta-fu, whose battle record against the Japanese led to him being appointed ruler of Shantung, following the Sino-Russian conflict in the early 20th century. It has not rained for three months and the area's crops are ruined but, when Pang threatens to blast the Dragon King out of the sky, the heavens open and a deluge follows. As a result, Marshal Pang's popularity soars with the people, particularly the men, who admire the fact that Pang has more wives than he can remember. The Marshal is called to judge a rape case, in which Kao Pai (KIDNAP's Hu Chin) claims to have been assaulted by Kao Chen-pai (KIDNAP's Lin Wei-tu), her late husband's brother-in-law. Each principle in the case offers a very different account of what happened, so Pang comes up with an extremely unorthodox method of determining who is telling the truth. Little does he know it but Pang has sexual problems of his own as every one of his wives is cheating on him. However, his 4th mistress (Tina Ti Na) comes up with an ingenious plan to loot a treasure-laden tomb in a manner that will not agitate the people and lead to rebellion. The riches will be used to pay Pang's poor soldiers, who have not received any wages in months, thanks to their boss' terrible luck at gambling.

Hui displays the timing and priceless facial expressions that would help make him HK's God of Comedy (and had already made him a popular star on TVB) but the looping of his voice by another actor in both versions is quite distracting, as Hui made a point of shooting many of his later features with sync sound. Some of the wordplay does not survive translation and the episodic nature of the narrative does not allow the humor to build as much as one might hope; most of the comedy here is dark in nature and induces smiles rather outright hilarity (eg. Pang and a rival warlord deciding the outcome of battles via pitched games of mahjong, while their men needlessly slaughter each other). Taiwanese censors decided that Pang was a most unflattering send-up of Chiang Kai-shek and banned the film in that country. However, the character is such a broad amalgam of humorously evil traits, one would have to be an incredibly devoted worshipper of Chiang to be offended. The large supporting cast includes Lily Ho Li-li, Simon Yuen Siu-tien (part of a fun running gag about how Pang's verdicts can be guessed by the way he rubs his bald head), Lee Man-tai, Lee Heung-kam, Liu Wai (as the world's worst horn player), and a very young Stephen Tung Wai as "Bad Luck," an aptly named messenger boy.

While THE WARLORD plays like a series of vaguely connected sketches, THE HAPPIEST MOMENT is an erotic comedy anthology set in Northern China during WWII. In the opening story, Hui plays Luo, a lecherous old bluffer whose sexual desires are too much for his weakened sai lo. Resorting to an Indian aphrodisiac that must be consumed three hours beforehand and only works for thirty minutes, Luo carefully plans out his day to the second. However, a Japanese military parade throws off his schedule, necessitating a second dose and unforeseen consequences for him and his girlfriend (Tanny Tien Ni). Hui also appears in a second role (patterned after his Marshal Pang character from THE WARLORD) as the local police lieutenant, who figures out a way to profit from the situation. The officer then announces the opening of a clinic for sexually transmitted diseases but, unfortunately, ends up with syphilis himself. On the plus side, he now has an excuse to supervise the prostitute examinations. In the next segment, Hui plays an elderly woman with stomach trouble who checks into a far too accommodating hospital that allows her to eat whatever rich foods she desires. The final story centers around dimwitted apprentice barber Xiao Liu (Hui), who is caught between his money-obsessed boss and the man's shrewish wife (Hu Chin). After a year in the shop, Xiao Liu has still not mastered the basics of the trade, so his boss makes the mistake of letting the bumbling lad practice on him. When Xiao Liu is asked to join a group of men standing watch over a recently deceased local, he gets some unexpected help with his mahjong game.

Corrupt and incompetent men in positions of power are again placed under the microscope but, as evidenced by the synopsis, sex dominates much of the humor this time out. Some of the dirty wordplay does not really come across but the visual gags are fairly amusing (in the opener, a pair of Japanese women insist on patronizing an all-male Chinese bathhouse, with predictable results). The third segment is definitely the weakest, consisting mostly of ancient medical gags dating back to the dawn of sound. Story #4 requires a decent working knowledge of mahjong for one to appreciate some of the jokes but does offer the chance to see Hui excel in a simpleton part, the opposite of the bumbling (but reasonably intelligent) everyman he would specialize in later on. Ku Feng and Chan Shen co-star.

THE WARLORD and THE HAPPIEST MOMENT are available at Poker Industries.