Lawyer Lawyer

Best known in the West for his surprise crossover hits Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, actor/director Stephen Chow ruled as the king of Hong Kong comedy for most of the late 1980s and 1990s, churning out a succession of nonsense farces that playfully dismantled both film-genre archetypes and even conventional Cantonese culture. Lawyer Lawyer arrived only one month after Hong Kong’s handover from England to China, and it features Chow as a fast-talking Qing Dynasty–era lawyer outwitting beggar kings, rivals, and even a British court presided over by a bewigged Paul Fonoroff. Chingmy Yau (Naked Killer) costars (she often appeared in Chow comedies between her more salacious R-rated Category III roles), along with Karen Mok (Fallen Angels), now one of Asia’s biggest singers and performers. “Paul has more close-ups in Lawyer Lawyer than all his other films combined, though it was for practical reasons as many of the stars he ‘interacts’ with weren’t actually present during his days on the set.”