Kung Fu Mahjong 3: The Final Duel (2007)

Such a frustrating disappointment

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

As the saying goes, everything comes in three. Bad luck comes in three; good luck comes in three and apparently so does Wong Jing. After the disgraceful Kung Fu Mahjong 2, a third movie is certainly not required, but then again why would Wong Jing care. It is really a nonsense film and luckily it never seems to take itself seriously. The good news is that it is slightly better than the lame sequel, but the bad news is that it isn't really a good film. Perhaps the only element worth relating to is the bad luck element that seems to parallel Neo's life so far. It is by all means a cheap production and the use of usual TVB's actors and actress, only further diminish the movie into an episode of TVB.The movie goes like this: A master Mahjong player finds out his new stepmother is greedy at his family fortune...Roger Kwok returns after making an absent from the sequel, but this time, he does not have to perform his trademark handicap role. While his performance in the first film, make the movie better than it deserves with his typical signature role, Kwok does nothing special here apart from being quite likable. Fellow TVB's co-star, Shirley Yeung appears as the bad luck girl and as usual she is adorable and cute, but nothing else. The two does however share a somewhat cute chemistry and their first kiss scene on the cruise is quite funny to an extent. In a surprising way, Chan Pak-Cheung is actually funny without being an annoyance. His performance here is scene-stealing and provides some much needed comic relief. It is good to see Chan finally able to produce a performance that is worthy in Neo's opinion.All in all, Kung Fu Mahjong 3 is hopefully the final duel as it all but shows that Wong Jing has clearly run out of ideas. It is a shame that everything comes in three, when sometimes one is more than enough. One aspect of the film that is worthy of some sort of recognition is the comments that Chan Pak Cheung make about life and bad luck – even if you are plain bad luck, playing mahjong is the same as living your life, you should never give up until the end. It's a cliché line that is seen in countless of movie, but it remains a true saying and a rare shining light on an absolutely nonsense film. Yes, KF3 is a bad movie, but to end on a good note, it is still better than Kung Fu Mahjong 2 and Chan Pak Cheung is actually funny – now that's a rare sight…I rate it 5/10.www.thehkneo.com

Tepid follow-up continues the downward spiral begun by the first sequel to an original and highly inventive and entertaining first outing. The first film was hilarious, exciting, energetic, and thrilling. KUNG-FU MAH-JONG 2 was less so, and failed to capture the same kind of verve and vitality. KUNG-FU MAH-JONG 3 is simply dismal. The attempts at humor are lackluster at best, and there's also virtually no action in the film beyond the "action" of the game, and unless you're really up on the minutiae of mah-jong (which the film's intended Hong Kong audience probably is) much of that won't make a lot of dramatic sense. The same basic cast is back and does a nice enough job (Yuen Wah has a very small and obligatory part as a fortune teller, but Yuen Qui once again plays the main character's Aunt). Roger Kwok is good as the leading man, Ken, and Shirley Yeung is charming as his leading lady, although the silliness of her having chronic "bad luck" is a bit overdrawn. Patricia Lau and Bo-yuan Chan play the, respectively, alluring and over-the-top, meanie villains this time around. The story is a fairly uninventive one about an attempt to thwart a fortune out of the Mah-Jong king, with a high-stakes game set as the determinant, with the usual kinds of nefarious deeds committed by the villain in his attempts to ensure a win. Logic isn't a member of the cast, though, and much of the storyline fails to hold up to sustained analysis (not that it's supposed to – it is, in fact, a romantic comedy; but the fragility of the story's foundation nonetheless weakens its logistical structure, which severely lessens the affect of the story's development). The romance is forced, the humor isn't funny, and while there is lots of mah-jong there is no "kung-fu" anywhere in the film, unless you count "Auntie" Yuen Qui's expert coin throwing that winds up foiling the villain's various attempts to cheat. An uninspiring, dreary, and very strained sequel.

Ken (Roger Kwok), has mastered mahjong and is nicknamed "The Half-Century Man" because he once won 50 hands of mahjong in a roll. Everybody expects him to succeed his father, Uncle Man (Ha Yu), to be the Grandmaster of Kungfu Mahjong. However, Uncle Man has a heart attack on his 60th birthday and is hospitalized. Sophie, Uncle Man's new wife takes the opportunity to persuade him to leave his estate to her instead of his son. Uncle Man tells her that she would get her wish if she beats Ken in a game of mahjong. Meanwhile, Ken falls in love with Nancy (Shirley Yeung), a lady of rotten luck. All her previous boyfriends were either bankrupt or had died in accidents. Ken's fortunes go downhill instantly, to the extent that when he plays mahjong with Sophie and her lover, Bowie, he's almost cleaned out.