This early Jackie Chan movie was originally released as WU FI XING in 1985. The film is a more of a comedy than most Chan films, as Jackie shares billing with four other Chinese comedians and the director Sammo Hung, playing his usual role (at the time) as a dolt, this time named Teapot. The film also features more characterization than we are used to in these films, such as Jackie’s daredevil exploits causing catastrophes (such as causing a 50 car pile-up while chasing crooks) and getting demoted. A lot of time is spent developing Sammo’s goofy persona, so in the end when he finally does some kung-fu everyone is surprised.

A group of bumbling thieves and conmen are released from prison (played by Charlie Shin, Fung Shui Fan, Sammo, John Shum, and the hilarious Richard Ng). They move in to Curly’s (John Shum) house where his sister Shirley (the cute Cherie Chung) resides. The five decide to go straight, and open a cleaning business. One of their first houses they clean happens to be home to a counterfeiting operation. Soon they are embroiled in a war between two feuding triad gangs. Then they bump into Jackie (after he’s been demoted) and draw him into the intrigue as Curly’s sister is captured by one of the triad gangs. In the finale, Chan gets to fight Yuen Biao (among others).

This is a truly funny movie without belittling the characters. A lot of humor stems from ex-cons living with Curly and Shirley; they all try to pick her up behind her brother’s back, and he’s constantly threatening them. The most hilarious part of the film is the infamous "invisible" scene. I won’t reveal it, but it involves Richard Ng’s character, who believes in astral projection and the like. More humor when the five cleaners sneak into a black tie party held by the triads.

Jackie has better material to work with this time around and better characterization. His well intentioned actions get him in hot water with his superiors and he gets to act using despair and desperation. His antics include causing a huge traffic accident, and mistakenly beating up innocent people. Of course, Chan gets to perform some outrageous stunts including a classic one involving him on roller skates and a semi truck.

SIGHT

The widescreen 1:85:0 cinematography comes through clear but there are some signs of softness in the image. This transfer does not look as polished as more recent Chan films like SUPERCOP because it was filmed in the mideighties. But considering the age of the film, the transfer is fairly well done. The colors are genuinely bright and appear accurate. Contrast and brightness are good with decent shadow detail. A few of the night action scenes appeared a little soft, possibly due to poor lighting during filming. The transfer is not perfect, but adequate. The English subs appear beneath the letterboxed image and are easy to read.

SOUND

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is not the best I’ve heard, but again, considering the age of the film it is more than adequate. The mix is active and particularly lively during the stunt and fight scenes. Frequency response is good, but the bass is low. The score helps to enhance the wacky goings-on in the movie. The Cantonese and Mandarin dialogue sounds natural and is limited to the center channel.

FEATURES

The trailer for Winners and Sinners is 40 seconds long and is letterboxed (1.85.1) and in stereo. Also included are trailers for other Chan films THE YOUNG MASTER (3:40, 2.35.1, stereo), WHEELS ON MEALS (3:38, 1.85.1, stereo), and DRAGONS FOREVER (2:42, 1.85.1, stereo).

CONCLUSION

An excellent early Jackie Chan/Sammo Hung effort, with an emphasis on outrageous humor, and as usual great stunts and martial arts from Chan/Hung. Jackie gets a chance to actually display some acting range, and the flaws that disturbed me from other films of this period are not here. The film works as a whole, and comes off a rousing piece of filmmaking. A good DVD mastering job by Tai Seng. My only complaint is the lack of an English soundtrack. I know subtitle purists may balk, but the beauty of DVD is that it is a small effort to add an English dub to it; especially when we know an English dub exists for the film.

WINNERS AND SINNERS is available from DVDEmpire.com

                                                  Rating (out of 5):