Money Crazy

One of Hong Kong's latest and hottest show biz properties today is a young director, John Y.S. Woo. John struck gold to the tune of HK$5 million for Golden Harvest, with Money Crazy(also known as The Pilferers' Progress), a Cantonese comedy. Money Crazyis a collage of humorous chaos, sight gags, witty colloquial gags and puns, shot in just two months with a standard budget of HK$1.2 million (inclusive of advertising costs). The B-grade product surprisingly turned out to be the biggest summer hit this year. Now, John Woo is walking tall and basking in the spotlight. Sharing the spotlight with John are Richard Ng and Ricky Hui (brother of the successful Michael and Sam). Asked who inspired him [as a filmmaker] John said: "Mel Brooks and Blake Edwards." The answer was not unexpected. But John was quick to point out that whatever he did in Money Crazywas original with lots of local flavour. "After all," he said, "Cantonese comedy is completely different; it's visual rather than verbal". Money Crazy's gags are indeed visual, and it might not have been as effective had it not been for the excellent comedy duo, Richard and Ricky. Their chemistry and timing are excellent. The two characters played by Richard and Ricky are very diverse. According to the director, Richard portrays the westernised Chinese while Ricky personifies the Hong Kong small guy from the school of hard knocks. John is a very satisfied man at the moment. He is very happy at Golden Harvest as he is given carte blanche to do as he pleases. His biggest dream is to make a film which will be accepted internationally, from Cannes, Berlin to Milan.