The Lucky Stars is a series of Hong Kong action-comedy films that started with Winner and Sinners in 1983, written by and starring Sammo Hung, and starring Jackie Chan.
The first movie, Winners and Sinners (1983), revolves around the misadventures of five buddies who meets in prison - Teapot (Sammo Hung), Curly (John Sham), Exhaust Pipe (Richard Ng), Vaseline (Charlie Chin), and Rookie (Stanley Fung), where upon being discharged, forms a friendship and lives in the same apartment, sharing the block with Curly's sister Shirley (Cherie Chung). CID 07/Muscles (Jackie Chan), the gang's common friend and partner, is a top cop in the force and always in action, but somehow his pursues always ends up having the comic relief quintet of the Lucky Stars being dragged into his investigations. One hilarious misadventure after another ensues.
In the sequel, My Lucky Stars (1985), Muscles is assigned to investigate an officer in the force who have defected to the Yakuza. Assisting him is Inspector Barbara Woo (Sibelle Hu) and as usual, the Lucky Stars ends up being involved with Muscles' investigations. And somehow the gang all ends up in the Yakuza's underground headquarters. Notable scenes include Michiko Nishiwaki as a musclebound Japanese henchwoman who fights Sibelle Hu, Jackie Chan entering an amusement park's haunted house to find the Yakuza's hideout, and a climax that ups the brutality of the first movie, this time with Jackie, Sammo and Yuen Biao taking on legions of Yakuza mooks.
The third movie, Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Stars (1985), had the Lucky Stars sharing their apartment with an actress who is witness to an assassination, and being forced to bunk in with them. While the Lucky Stars bumbles around trying to get said actress' attention, Muscles' investigations ends up leading to a trio of elite hitmen (played by Chung Fat, Richard Norton and Yasuaki Kurata) having the Lucky Stars in their sights. Notably, there's a cameo from Andy Lau and Michelle Yeoh in this movie.
Further sequels are made involving this series, with much of the cast reprising their roles. However, Jackie Chan's character, CID-07/ Muscles only shows up in the trilogy, and is absent without an explanation in the later movies. note
Later entries such as Lucky Stars Go Places, Return of the Lucky Stars, Lucky Stars Ghost Encounter and How to Meet the Lucky Stars would focus more on slapstick elements rather than action. The spin-offs have more or less faded into obscurity due to a lack of Jackie Chan, focus on comedic instead of and action elements and the mou lei tao humor not really faring well to non-Cantonese speaking audiences and being difficult for a Cultural Translation, though they still have a small cult following for those growing up in the 80s and 90s.
Andy Lau notably returns in Lucky Stars Go Places, but not reprising his role from Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Stars. Rather, he's one of the many comedic cast and only contributes to the sole action scene of the film, beating up a platoon of commandos in a training exercise.
Winners and Sinners contains examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Played for laughs. Muscles is on the receiving end of a scolding from his police boss, and quickly tries to patch things up by frantically looking for his boss' pet terrapin, which went missing earlier in the morning. Muscles ends up finding it when he stepped on the terrapin to death...
- Acrofatic: Sammo Hung’s character, Kidstuff. Obviously…
- Booze Flamethrower: Played for laughs, when Vaseline did a Spit Take in front of a lit lighter Pipe is holding.
- Covert Pervert: Pipe in all three movies. Especially in the third where he volunteers to get himself beaten up by a female karate instructor so that he can get touched by a woman.
- Diner Brawl: CID-07 and Kidstuff confronting a suspect in a diner result in a full-blown Chase Fight.
- Destination Defenestration: Happens in all three movies. The above-mentioned diner brawl notably has Muscles sending a guy flying out of a window with a kick.
- The sequels have Muscles and Kidstuff sending opponents through tables, shelves and countertops in this same manner.
- Ensemble Cast
- Invisible Streaker: Spoofed, when Pipe read about a "magic" charm on a magazine and thought he can make himself invisible. The other Lucky Stars humours him by pretending not being able to see him, overlapping with Naked People Are Funny with a rather long scene (like, ten minutes too long) of Pipe simply walking all over the place while naked (Scenery Censor happens a lot) until they blew his cover after Pipe uses his allegedly invisible powers to peep on Cherie while taking a bath.
- Porn Stache: One on Pipe which shows up in all three movies. And subsequent spin-offs.
- Rollerblade Good: Jackie Chan’s CID-07 does some pretty impressive stunts with a pair of rollerskates, including engaging in a high-speed car chase. Including performing a Ramp Jump over a parked vehicle that gets in his way.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: The Lucky Stars inevitably end up sharing the same apartment block with Curly’s sister Shirley. Naturally he gets pissed if (when) either of the other four tries making a move on his sister.
- No Name Given: Jackie Chan’s character is simply called CID 07 / Cop #7086. The sequels however refer to him with his nickname, "Muscles".
- Subverted with the Lucky Stars, they do have names but they’re mostly referred by their nicknames based on their Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance. Curly has curly hair, Teapot is called as such because of his size resembling a teapot (large body, small arms), Pipe is a smoker, Vaseline is a Casanova Wannabe who frequently flirts with girls, and Rookie is the The Baby of the Bunch.
- Serious Business: For the Lucky Stars? Getting hooked up with girls .
- You All Meet in a Cell: The comedic quintet collectively known as "Lucky Stars" (Teapot played by Sammo Hung, Curly played by John Sham, Exhaust Pipe played by Richard Ng, Vaseline played by Charlie Chin, and Rookie played by Stanley Fung) all meets as prisoners in a cell before they are discharged together. They subsequently become a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits living together in the same apartment.
My Lucky Stars contains examples of:
- Agony of the Feet: During the fight between Inspector Woo and the henchwoman, Woo (who is wearing shoes) briefly turns the battle around by stomping the henchwoman’s foot (she had removed her slippers since she’s fighting indoors, typical Japanese-style). It’s a Curb Stomp Cushion moment for Woo until the henchwoman turns it back again to her favour.
- Amazonian Beauty: The Yakuza’s personal bodyguard is a muscular henchwoman (played by Michiko Nishiwaki) who takes on Inspector Woo and Kidstuff in the final action scene. Against Woo she holds her own well enough, but Kidstuff then knocks her out in a Single-Stroke Battle.
- Amusement Park: One is used by the Yakuza as the front for their smuggling activities. Muscles finds out a way to infiltrate by going into the Haunted House and locating a secret entrance.
- Braids of Action: The Yakuza dragon that Muscles have to defeat notably have this fashion.
- By the Hair: The Cat Fight between Inspector Woo and the henchwoman eventually have both women pulling each other’s hair in a desperate attempt to beat up each other.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The Amazonian Beauty henchwoman appears earlier in the movie in a seemingly insignificant role, as an elite Yakuza gambler. She comes back later for the final battle.
- Trope:Crossover: In the amusement park fight scene, Jackie Chan dressed up as the manga/anime character Arale Norimaki (Arale Chan) from Manga/Anime: Doctor Slump while fighting a samurai in kabuki make-up, 2 other member of the lucky stars appear as the Gatchans as well
- Cloth Fu: Part of the Yakuza’s henchwoman’s favoured method of attack, by disrobing her kimono and using it to ensnare her targets. Inspector Woo had the snot beaten out of her while getting all wrapped up by the henchwoman’s clothing. See it all in HD glory right here
. - Corrupt Cop: The Inspector played by Lam Ching-ying, secretly working for the Yakuza.
- Designated Girl Fight: Inspector Woo vs. the Yakuza’s henchwoman.
- Elaborate Underground Base: The Yakuza’s hideout is located beneath an amusement park.
- Eyepatch of Power: Kidstuff’s final opponent in the climax wears an eyepatch.
- Finger Wag: Kidstuff does this before his fight against the henchwoman, to intimidate her into coming at him so that he can knock her out in a One-Hit KO.
- Gratuitous Ninja: Inexplicably, some of the Yakuza mooks are dressed in this getup.
- Illegal Gambling Den: One of the Yakuza’s many activities the Lucky Stars have to help Muscles bust apart.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Muscles gets to use a katana he retrieved from some Yakuza in the finale.
- Railing Kill: Muscles vs The Dragon ends with Muscles knocking his opponent off a tall balcony and falling flat over a hundred meters down.
- Sequel Goes Foreign: Much of the second movie takes place in Tokyo instead of Hong Kong.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Inspector Woo, played by 90s asskicker Sibelle Hu, who is quite feminine but can still kick ass.
- Would Hit a Girl: Kidstuff against the henchwoman, though he only did it once and it only knocks her unconscious.
- Yakuza: They are the main baddies of the sequel.
Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars contains examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch Credits: The film opens with a black-and-white footage of the war for Falkland Islands, complete with booming patriotic music bracing the audience for an epic war movie… only for the narrator to state: "The war have absolutely nothing to do with the following movie. " Cue silly "mou lei tao" Hong Kong comedy.
- Beach Episode: Much of the third movie takes place in Thailand, where the cast (including Cherie, and a few of her lady friends) hangs out at a beach. Plenty of time for them to spend most of the movie ogling at the girls in swimsuits and bikinis.
- The Cameo: Michelle Yeoh as a karate instructor (with Boyish Short Hair, this is probably the only time you get to see Yeoh in this kind of getup). This was before she was a big star by the way, she had roughly two minutes of screen time and exits after getting her ass kicked by Sammo Hung.Kidstuff: "Sorry Miss, but like I said I don’t like being sat on by women. "
- Combat Pragmatist: During the transvestite fight, Inspector Woo gets outnumbered by machete-wielding transvestites. She simply whips out her revolver and kills three, sending the rest packing.
- Counterpart Combat Coordination: The final battle is a 3-on-3 fight between Muscles, Kidstuff and Fung against the three assassins. So Sammo Hung The Big Guy battles the Mighty Glacier assassin played by Richard Norton, Jack of All Stats Jackie Chan fights Multi-Melee Master Yasuaki Kurata, while Fragile Speedster Yuen Biao takes on Lightning Bruiser Chung Fat.
- Subverted that Sammo Hung later continues fighting Yasuaki Kurata after defeating Richard Norton though.
- Flare Gun: Used in an assassination scene, where the three assassins on motorcycles corners a target’s car. One stops the vehicle, another throws a tankard of gasoline through the back windows, and the third fires a flare gun at the gasoline. Cue explosion.
- Groin Attack: During the transvestite fight scene, Kidstuff punches one of them in the crotch.
- Improvised Weapon: The Japanese assassin played by Yasuaki Kurata tries intimidating Kidstuff with a pair of sais. Kidstuff responds by whipping two tennis racquets to counter him.
- Leave No Survivors: The trio of assassins, after killing their first target, a wealthy businessman (who’s on a paragliding vacation and getting himself pumped full of lead by three machine guns while in mid-air), also blows up the businessman’s boat where his girlfriend and driver is on using a rocket launcher.
- Megaton Punch: Kidstuff, Muscles and Fung all uses this in their final battle against their respective foes. Complete with their opponents going through a Slow-Motion Drop.
- Obfuscating Disability: One of the assassins tries to assassinate his target from his most convenient vantage point, a women’s washroom, when Shirley suddenly enters. Upon seeing the hitman with a gun, she pretends to be blind and fumbles her way into a nearby bathroom stall (without touching the baffled assassin), and even remains completely motionless when said assassin pushes the stall open and while she is doing her business.
- Sequel Goes Foreign: The third movie takes place largely in Thailand.
- Transvestite: A group of what appears to be massage girls approaches the Lucky Stars whom are chilling out in their chalet. They assume its either Pipe or Vaseline who called for "room service", but the girls are quickly revealed to be machete-wielding transvestites sent to kill them.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: The transvestites tries to sneak upon Kidstuff by sweet-talking him, but one of them gets too near. And Kidstuff noticed that she have an Adam's apple…
- Would Hit a Girl: To be fair, the "girls" are actually transvestites, and are trying to kill our main characters.
