Perverse Permission

For this next episode in our Wong Jing series, writer and critic Will Sloan joins John and Samm to talk about Jing’s God of Gamblers trilogy: God of Gamblers (1989), starring Chow Yun-Fat as one of the world’s greatest gamblers, who gets amnesia; God of Gamblers II (1990), starring Stephen Chow as a gambler with super powers who teams up with the God of Gamblers’ protege (Andy Lau); and God of Gamblers Part III: Back to Shanghai (1991), where Stephen Chow’s super powers accidentally send him back in time to Shanghai in 1937. for gambling, musical numbers.

Will Sloan is a Toronto-based writer, critic, and cohost of The Important Cinema Club. His book, Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA is out now!

In this Thanksgiving episode, John and Samm are running the gauntlet through three of Wong Jing’s gambling and crime films from the late ’80s: Born to Gamble (1987), yet another tale of a gambler (Natalis Chan) deceiving his prospective love interest (the divine Joyce Godenzi) to try to win her heart; Doubles Cause Troubles (1989), where two cousins (Maggie Cheung and Carol Cheng) are forced to live together for an inheritance, but they get swept into a plot involving gangsters, a secret code, and crooked cops; and Casino Raiders (1989), where Andy Lau and Alan Tam play two professional gamblers on the wrong side of the law who are forced to contend with nefarious Japanese businessmen as one of them falls in love with a wealthy heiress (Idy Chan). While Born to Gamble and Doubles Cause Troubles are comedies, Casino Raiders is more of a melodrama, but all three represent variations on how some of Jing’s common themes developed throughout the ’80s… which we are thankfully almost finished with.

Our suffering is legendary, but it is for you, dear listeners. This also isn’t really a Thanksgiving episode, but we wanted to give you something to play loudly to get your relatives out of the house.

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John and Samm are running the gauntlet of some of Wong Jing’s late ’80s comedy series, so you don’t have to! This episode, we’re discussing The Romancing Star trilogy (1987-1989), about a foursome trying to find love while working in an auto shop (among other places), and The Crazy Companies (1988) double feature, where a former actor competes with his nefarious brother over the future of the family business. These films unite actors like Chow Yun Fat, Andy Lau, Natalis Chan, Stanley Fung, Eric Tsang, Shing Fui-on, and others for a series of over-the-top gags, subplots about frustrated romance, plenty of workplace shenanigans, and lots of off color jokes that could only come from Hong Kong ensemble comedies in this period.

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For this special, spooky episode of our Wong Jing series, John and Samm explore the horror comedies Wong Jing made in the late 1980s as a director, writer, and actor. We discuss films he wrote and acted in, like Lam Ngai-kai’s The Ghost Snatchers (1986), about a high rise building haunted by the ghosts of Japanese soldiers from WWII; Evil Cat (1987), about a demonic cat entity that must be defeated at all costs; and Ghost Busting (1989), about office workers who have to learn to fight off the ghosts swarming their building. We also dive into his directorial efforts like Mr. Possessed (1988), where Kenny Bee is tormented by a ghost who doesn’t want him to find a girlfriend; Ghost Fever (1989), where Wong Jing plays an asshole who cheats on his pregnant wife and is terrorized by angry ghosts as a result; and the insane Haunted Jail House (1989), part women-in-prison film, part sex comedy, and part horror movie.

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For Halloween season, John and Samm are taking a break from Hong Kong to visit the autumnal cemeteries and crumbling castles of France. We discuss the career of French fantastique director Jean Rollin, broadly covering his vampire films and key tropes before plunging into his work as a director of soft and hardcore sex films. Rollin was often forced to take on these kinds of work for hire projects to make a living as a director, so we also talk a lot about the limitations that shaped his career, what was going on with European cinema at the time, trends in horror and erotic films, etc. We also get a bit, er, loose in this episode, so fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the phantasmagorical ride!

If you’re in or around Chicago, John is screening Rollin films every week this month at the Alamo for Terror Tuesday.

Thanks for listing and please follow Samm and John over at Patreon for more!