| Junta | 4.5  |
|
| jeffy | 4 |
|
| Anel | 4 | |
| Archibald | 4 |
Jade ring and chocolate... |
| François | 3.75 | |
| Marc G. | 3.5 |
|
| Ghost Dog | 3 | |
| Alain | 3 | |
| Sonatine | 3 |
|
| Ordell Robbie | 2.25 | |
| drélium | 2  |
God Of Gamblers is one of the favourite movie of hong-kongese people. Indeed, when you know the attraction of hong-kongeses from all social class, for gambling, added to the fact that Chow Yun-Fat is a local national monument, you can only understand why.
Because even if the scenario is undeniably inventive, the supporting roles quite funny and the music one of the most famous one in HK cinema, it's clearly Chow Yun-Fat and his unsurpassed charisma that make the success of the movie.
It's the story of Ko-Chun alias To San (the god of gamblers) who is well-known throughout the world as the most gifted gambler, whatever the game. Only that one day, he falls into the trap set for someone else by To-Jai (translated Knife in the subtitles but I think instead of the To used for the word blade or knife, it's here the same To as in To San that is to say "gamble", wich gives "Gambling Child" or "Young Gambler"), a young crook who tries to make money out of gambling. During the accident, Ko-Chun looses his memory and ends up with the mental age of a child, which is going to enrich To-Jai (Andy Lau Tak-Wah) who's already noticed his gambling skills, yet not knowing that he's the legendary To San.
There are 4 sequels to this movie, all directed by Wong Jing. Rather than confine himself to one sequel or even one trilogy, he managed to make out of just one film, two trilogies, sharing the same first episode (this one) alright, but both having nonetheless their own relevance.
Nosing out the big success after the release of God Of Gamblers, he directs the year after God Of Gamblers 2, wherein he stages To-Jai's life (Andy Lau), named King Of Gamblers since his adventures with To San, however with a new
character bugging him : To Sing (Stephen Chow Sing-Chi) and his half-assed magic powers.
The following year, Jing directs the third and last episode of this first trilogy : God Of Gamblers 3 : Back To Shanghai wherein there's only Stephen Chow, named Saint Of Gamblers and launched in the 30's Shanghai...!
It's only three years after that, five years after the first episode that Wong Jing finally directs the real sequel : God Of Gamblers' Return wherein To San (Chow Yun-Fat) himself comes back in a sequel not extraordinary yet worthy of looking at.
Then, two years after, he directs the final episode of this second trilogy and of the whole saga : God Of Gamblers 3 : The Early Stage wherein Leon Lai Ming plays the young To San, as it's a prequel.
Andy Lau is far from his nowadays playing skills but still shows a simpleness and a sense of derision which serves the character. 
Chow Yun-Fat is actually well-groomed and impressive, and shows again that he's more than just a good actor.
You can even find that he isn't technically spotless in some scenes, however he never looses his natural ease and his unselfconciousness. He doesn't play To San role, Chow Yun-Fat is To San just like he is Mark and Ken in the A Better Tomorrow saga for the good reason that he knows how to express this attitude and this energy which make him as convincing with glue in his hair and a most important jade ring around his finger than sloppy with an IQ as high as the number
of cards in a deck and a chocolate bulimia.
In Brief, beyond the fact that this film is epoch-making as it launched a long wave of gambling movie until recently, the magnetism of Chow Yun-Fat's unblemished class, a pert Andy Lau starting up, an excellent music, a few good action sequences and mostly some great and absorbing gambling scenes make of God Of Gamblers a major Hong-Kong movie.
