The story takes place in 1936. Although the United States is experiencing the worst economic depression in history, the gambling industry is still in full swing in the United States. Countless young men who want to get rich overnight have devoted themselves to the gambling business with their dreams without hesitation.
Black Luther and Hook are good partners, and they often do some fairy dancing in the streets and alleys. One day, there was a courier named Motorola Gang, who was regarded as a fat sheep by them. The two went back and forth, and in an instant, they were taken out of the hands of Motorola, and the casino owner Genji was deceived for a day's running water. Hook was delighted, it was the biggest sale he had ever made. So I came to an underground casino and lost 3,000 US dollars in an instant. This made his stripper girlfriend horrified and quickly abandoned her.
The depressed Hook could only come to his teacher Luther's house. Old Luther told him that he was going to wash his hands in a golden pot, and was going to introduce him to a real old man-Henry Conoff. But Hook just wanted to hang out with Luther, so a heated argument broke out between the two. Hook was angry and left Luther's house. But not wanting to meet someone from the anti-fraud bureau on the street, Schneider of the anti-fraud bureau told Hook that the cheated casino owner was very angry with the news and issued a lore order in the United States. Hook, eager to escape, came to Luther's house after bribing Schneider, only to find that Luther had already been killed. Poor Luther died the night before he washed his hands in the golden basin. Of course, people who set up flags in the movies would usually go to pick up the lunch quickly.
Longgen, the head of the underground casino, felt that being played by two street liars was a very shameless thing. After dealing with the hapless courier Motorola and the old black man Luther, he is still not satisfied, and he is not ready to let Hook go. The helpless Hook could only follow Old Luther's last words and go to Henry Kangfu for help. Henry Conoff is indeed a connoisseur, but he was recently wanted by the federal government for a bank fraud case. But after hearing the news of Luther's tragic death, he was still ready to seek justice from Longan, so he soon gathered a lot of people and made a wonderful plan.
Although the boss Longan is a ruthless character, he is also very cautious. So the old-fashioned Henry Kangfu is ready to gain his trust first. Henry Kangff and Hooke made small plans and mixed into Longan's fixed game. And using a series of wonderful thousands, attracted Longan's attention. Longan decides to take revenge on Henry Conoff, which gives Hook a chance to get close to Longan. According to Henry Confucius' script, Hook becomes an ambitious assistant who wants to replace him, and Henry Confucius plays the owner of an underground racecourse. After the first taste of sweetness, Longan quickly sinks deeper and deeper. He would never have dreamed that the entire racecourse was fake.
But Schneider of the Anti-Thousands Group was tirelessly looking for this slippery head because he received fake Hooker notes. Hook felt that he could solve the tail, but Henry Confucius didn't trust the ability of this hairy boy very much. Although Longan's men and Schneider are tracking the whereabouts of Hook. But Hook, eager for revenge, still followed the script and connected with Longan. On this day, the young man told Longan that he had a friend who worked at the radio station. This made it easy for him to know that Hook wanted to make money from the time difference between the broadcasting station and the horse betting venue because of the results of the horse betting across the country. After revealing his "hole card" to Longanhe, the young man said that he would need about 400,000 gambling capital to completely destroy Henry Kangfu. The old and hot Longgen didn't say anything on the spot, but left silently.
Surprisingly, the FBI was also involved, and they were here to track down Henry Conoff. The involvement of multiple forces has made the whole incident more and more complicated. The FBI found Schneider from the anti-thousands group, hoping that he could help assist in the investigation, otherwise it would stab him out of taking bribes. In desperation, Schneider had to agree to cooperate with this group of court eagle dogs. Because of Longan's insistence, Hook had to arrange for Longan to meet his "radio station friend", but this awkward meeting prompted Longan to finally make a bet. After this cheerful meeting, Hook was caught by accident, and he was brought before the FBI by Schneider. The FBI wants Hook to provide a plan for Henry Conoff's fraud syndicate to get personal loot and get it. Hook of course did not agree, but the insidious FBI used the safety of Luther's widow to threaten him into submission. In desperation, Hook decided to accept their cooperation proposal. But will Hook really betray Henry Conoff and the others?
At the end of the good show, Henry Confucius is indeed a born liar. Everything is in his calculations, using the fake FBI to get Schneider. Using a fake casino to defraud Longan of $500,000. He also used a bitter trick to make Longan believe that Henry Kangfu and Hook both perished together, and solved the troubles completely. In the end, Henry Kangfu and Hook completed their revenge against Longan, and also resolved the entanglement of the anti-thousand group Schneider. It is respectable that the two of them did not take a penny and carried luggage. Started wandering the world again, looking for new goals to rob the rich and help the poor.
This is a crime movie that is difficult to define, and I personally feel that the ultimate purpose is two-fold. On the one hand, I want to tell the audience that there are endless scams in casinos. In the 1970s, the Western world was experiencing a painful economic crisis because of the first and second oil crises, and the manufacturing industry continued to decline, resulting in high unemployment. This makes many people hope to become rich overnight, thereby changing their status quo. This desire has led to an endless stream of fraud incidents. As a result, a social problem has been formed, so this film also hopes to warn everyone by exposing the usual tricks of some liars.
On the other hand, it is for the government and entrepreneurs. The emergence of ancient and warm-hearted modern Robin Hood such as Hook and Henry Conove is to remind those unscrupulous tycoons not to drive the people to a dead end. After the nationwide revolution in full swing in the 1960s, people in the 1970s had an increasingly urgent need for quality of life. Especially in the golden 30 years after World War II, the huge middle class developed in the West. Their demands for social stability are becoming more and more urgent. This also leads to their sympathy and concern for vulnerable groups.
This kind of sympathy for the disadvantaged groups in society is also shown in the film. Such as the poor old Luther family, liars waiting for job opportunities, etc. In particular, the background of the story is set in 1936 before World War II, which was the most rampant era of fascism and the starting point of Nazi Germany's foreign expansion. The director hopes to use the crisis in this similar era to remind the government and entrepreneurs to properly handle the crisis and avoid new turmoil.
In the end, I have to admire the screenwriter's fuss. In the 1980s and 1990s, a large number of Hong Kong crime movies have the shadow of this movie, so it is reasonable for such a masterpiece to win the best Oscar.
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