Three Against The World DVD Region All

Silent-movie inspired, Republican-era action comedy that feels like the sequel to a now-missing movie, this bears the mark of the Sammo (one of the heads of Boho Films) with a scene filmed on the Millionaires Express train, and another set in that rural shack from the beginning of Dragons Forever, the remainder being shot on what look like leftover sets from Peking Opera Blues. All the fat is trimmed from this caper film about three who are often against the world, but currently against each other. Teddy Robin is Old Fox Cho, a little guy in a big suit with a tiny head who resembles a Chinese David Byrne; Norman Chu as one of those wryly bemused silent men of mystery that he's made his trademark; and Andy as the detective Charlie Chan. Chu and Cho want to steal a valuable Koran on display in a local museum and Andy has been hired by an insurance company to prevent this. Complications, obviously, ensue.

Directed by Yuen Woo-ping's brother, Brandy Yuen, this movie gleefully gives the audience a little bit of everything. There are gambling scenes for the gambling film fans, a martial arts throwdown or six for those who want to see a little Yuen Brothers patented action choreography, and there're noir references a-plenty for the nostalgia set. On top of all that there're strains of the trickster movie all over this flick like dirty fingerprints. Taken from the popularity of Stephen Chiau's tricky films like Tricky Brains, with a dash of The Sting thrown in this movie takes great delight in deceiving the audience and its characters alike with sudden shifts in allegiance, plot twists coming out of nowhere, and sudden revelations of elaborate cons ringing in at the last minute. Heads will spin, but it's all in the name of entertainment.

Three Against the World gives you every twist and turn on English and Chinese subtitles. From gambling set pieces, gun-on-gun action, song-and-dance numbers, and a final series of cascading fight sequences this is lite entertainment the way it should be, in all its lo-brow glory: a little song, a little dance, a little action, some romance.

by Grady Hendrix