Rich and Famous (1987)
"Gong woo ching" (original title)

"Rich and Famous" is a film that is most definitely trying to emulate the classic Godfather films. The film focuses on both family, crime, loyalty, and revenge; themes Godfather explored to a greater, and better, degree. Also like the Godfather, this was a two-part series (at the time it was made, rather). However, this film comes nowhere near the level of those classic films and actually doesn't even rise above the status of average.

One reason is the acting. With the exception of Chow Yun Fat, who exudes a high level of charisma, the acting is generally over the top and unbelievable. The audience tends to find the proceedings humorous simply because the actors' inability to maintain any degree of seriousness. As a result, we find the film not truly emotionally involving or intense since we don't particularly care what occurs with these characters.

Another reason is the film's lack of focus. The narrative tries to incorporate many different story elements into the film, but this results in portions of the movie becoming underdeveloped as well as lacking any real sense of coherency. The audience sometimes becomes lost at the proceedings we are viewing, not knowing what are character's motivations are. We also get confused in which characters are whom since the narrative readily shifts focus between characters at a rapid rate.

The film's climax does contain a decent gun fight and is probably the highlight of the film. The movie tries to create an dramatic set piece with it taking place on grand steps of a church, but again since we don't care about the characters, we don't care about what happens; The scene loses it's intensity and suspense because of this. The other action set pieces are rather mundane in nature, with a feeling of it being too controlled rather than free flowing.

In general, this is a strictly average film and isn't recommended to the general film viewer... Only hard core genre enthusiasts and fans of Chow Yun Fat should consider this film for viewing.