4 Star

Swindlers Versus Greedy People.

From the time when Hong Kong was obsessed with gambling, writers/directors Jimmy Heung (Fatal Bet, From Beijing with Love), Jing Wong (City Hunter, Royal Tramp) collaborate with Corey Yuen (The Transporter, Yes, Madam!) to bring us this intense revenge film. All set around the gambling world and how criminal organizations use casino’s to make huge amounts of money.

Crab Chan (Andy Lau, Infernal Affairs, House of Flying Daggers) has just been released from prison for cheating at gambling, but he is Asia’s number one gambler, and he doesn’t need to cheat. But he used to with his best friend Sam Law (Alan Tam, Armour of God, The Banquet), but they would only do it to people that deserved it. Now he is out and Bo Bo (Rosamund Kwan, Millionaires Express, The Head Hunter) picks him up and takes him to see Sam who is working at a casino. By the end of the night, Crab is loaded as he and Sam swindle the owner of the casino out of loads of money as he is not a nice man.

Their reputation precedes them, and they are invited to the US to help out a casino that is losing millions, and they cannot work out how it is being done.

In San Francisco, Lake Tahoe Brother Lung runs the casino where a group of Japanese are fleecing the casino and that is not good for business. For a week now they have won sixty-million, and they need it stopped. They have all the latest close circuit TV’s with zoom in-facilities, and they still can’t see it. It appears that there are six Japanese working together, with a Mr Taro (Fong Lung, The Longest Nite, My Name is Nobody) as the ring leader.

Sam says he needs to be at the table, and after visiting a couple of seats he comes back perplexed until he is brought a coffee and the woman is wearing a shiny bracelet. It’s a light bulb moment as Sam works out what has been going on.

With that done and a very happy Mr Lung, the lads have some free time and that is when Sam spots the rich heiress Tong Koyan (Idy Chan, The Return of the Condor Heroes (TV Series), On the Run) and she must be his.

He sets out to woo her, as Mr Toro sets about getting his revenge on the swindlers.

Casino Raiders is an immersive experience as we track the lives of our four players as they try to turn their lives around, either by change or by force of nature. Guns, bullets and aces high.

CASINO RAIDERS [ZHI ZUN WU SHANG] (Eureka Classics) Special Edition is available on Blu-ray

SPECIAL BLU-RAY EDITION FEATURES:

 

• Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju) [2000 copies]

• 1080p presentation on Blu-ray from a restoration of the original film elements

• Original Cantonese audio track

• Optional English subtitles

• Brand-new feature length audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)

• Brand-new feature length audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder & Arne Venema

• Brand-new featurette by CFK (Crazy From Kong) looking at the “gambling film” craze that hit Hong Kong cinema in the late 1980s and early 1990s

• Brand-new interview with Billy Chan

• Original theatrical trailer

• PLUS: A limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by David West [2000 copies]