A 1986 film which I think has the biggest STARS!

[Guest Liu chung liang]

Not only it has a big cast, but big stars, stars i have deep respects for. All of the best from the East, with a couple of Westerners thrown in. I just love this film, and the first version I saw was with a friend and it's titled "Shanghai Express". The quality was kind of old school, and there were too many people to see. All I remember seeing was, Sammo, Yuen Biao, Cynthia Rothrock, Richard Norton, Kurata, Oshima, and Kenny Bee. That was it. I DIDN'T RECOGNIZE HUANG JANG LEE WHO WAS PLAYING THE JAPANESE HAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to a friend I got the HKL version, and the quality is hella a lot better.

So many STARS!!! I seriously think this film is what HK Cinema is about. I say it's HK CINEMA AT THEIR BEST.

This flick just rocks! and it's just cool to see all of the geniuses of HK & MA films work together.

I wanna list everyone here hehe:

Sammo Hung

Yuen Biao

Eric Tsang

Olivia Cheng Man-nga

Rosamund Kwan

Emily Chu...... i think she's really cute. remember her? she is from "Heart of Dragon" with Jackie.

Wong Yuk-waan

Richard Ng

Kenny Bee ..... one of my favorite. he usually does dramatic roles.

Wu Ma

Mang Hoi

Lydia Shum!!!! ... She's that fat woman in Drunken Tai Chi lol..

Cynthia Rothrock

Au Hoi-lun

Jimmy Wang Yu..... WITH THE KWAN TAK HING LOOK, PLAYING WONG KEI YING!!! HAHA SWEET!

Sek Kin

Yukari Oshima

Yasuaki Kurata

Dick Wei

Guan Shan

Yuen Wah

Hwang Jang-lee

Bolo Yeung..... He's really in this film.

Johnny Wang Lung Wei.... A regular from the Shaw Bros.

Lam Ching Ying!!!

Richard Norton

Chin Siu-ho

Yip Wing-cho

Meg Lam Kin-ming

Billy Lau Nam-kwong

Hsiao Ho

Walter Tso Tat-wah

Fan Mei-sheng

Chung Faat

Phillip Ko Fei..... He's like in every HK KF film.

Lau Kar Wing

Wu Fung

Peter Chan Lung

Chin Kar Lok

Yuen Tak

Lee Man-tai

Billy Ching Sau-yat

Siu Tak-foo

Yuen Miu

Chow Gam-kong

Paul Chang-chung

James Tien..... who worked with Bruce and Jackie.

Sek Kin

Corey Yuen Kwai... of course who we all know, directed most of jet li's filmz etc.

A lot of fantastic fight scenes in this film... I like them all really.... but picking a few.... the Yuen biao vs. Dick wei was sweet as hell.... the sammo vs. rothrock was sweet, enter the fat dragon once again.... kurata's fight with norton was sweet and FUNNY haha... oshima just dominated... and one little fight scene with biao & sammo vs. Hwang jang lee, which i thought i would never see is great. now the 3 kung-fu-teers had fought him lol.

[Guest Markgway]

Great entertainment and an amazing cast.

[Guest jmungus]

aka millionaires express, hk`s lunar new years movie of the year 86.

luv it too. been a fave of mine for many years & "thanx" to the internet, i learned theres actually people being very critical with this action packed, funny, engaging good-time-goodie-bag.... :eek i pity the fools :hat

some opinions for the people who dunno yet:

www.dragonsdenuk.com/revi...xpress.htm

www.kfccinema.com/reviews...aires.html

www.thestuntpeople.com/ar...naires.htm

[Guest sammofan]

Yuen Biao's jump off the top of the burning building is absolutely amazing! :eek And Sammo films it as if it was no big deal...Unbelievable!

[Guest WalkOn]

I enjoyed this film, a real KF movie fan's treasure. My favorite scenes are the obvious as well, Yuen Biao vs Dick Wei, Sammo vs Cynthia, Richard Norton vs Kurata, Oshima chopping people up and the glimpse of WJL was a treat as well.

I haven't seen it in a decade so it's time to watch it on DVD and finally spot Bolo. Can someone tell me what scene he is in:p ? I may just have to look a bit harder this time.

[Guest Markgway]

He's the one who spots the fire starting.

[Guest killer meteor]

"Jimmy Wang Yu..... as THE KWAN TAK HING WONG FEI HUNG!!! HAHA SWEET!"

I thought he was playing Wong Kei-ying. Either way a hilarious performance.

This is a fantastic film. I would love to see another everyone but the kitchen sink movie

[Guest Chinatown Kid]

This was a great film with really good action sequinces, Yukari Oshima looked hot in her little anime style outfit and also looked like a real bad ass. I just wish the fight scene with Sammo and Biao against HJL was longer!

[Guest Liu chung liang]

HAHA THAT'S RIGHT... HE WAS PLAYING WONG KEI YING. I'M SORRY. I'll correct that LOL. I got excited. It's just that on the interview Sammo gave for this film. He was mentioning Jimmy Wang Yu going as Kwan Tak Hing. I guess he meant like the way Jimmy was dressed. It was suppose to give a reminder of Kwan, but yeah, Jimmy plays Wong Kei Ying, and the little boy plays his son Wong Fei Hung.

The fight with sammo & biao vs. hwang.... they all wanted it longer too, but they ran out of time or something like that. the 4 teams on the film was disappointed, but from the look of hwang jang's character. he doesn't exactly look like that tough SOB i remembered. he's not thunder-foot in this, you know? lol. even though it was short, the fight still came out beautifully. i still LOVED it, and it didn't suck.

if you didn't notice Bolo... we see him in 1 little scene, and this is during that fire sequence. he's like the guy loosening the cotton or whatever it is.

i just think it's really cool to see everyone as the movie goes on. it keeps you watching till the end, and it's a lot of fun.

yeah yuen biao's jump from the top of the burning building to the ground was AWESOME. these guys do amazing stunts like this, and it's still like NOT ENOUGH?! if they make a mistake. they'll have to re-do it. that's superb. i praise them.

that fight with biao and wei was so wicked. i never seen yuen biao move with such grace and speed. his movements were beautiful and i loved the way it was choreographed. this is definitely one of the films where we see Yuen Biao at his best.

[Guest WalkOn]

Thanks for the tips!

[Guest The Running Man]

The fact of how huge the amount of names are in the cast in this film just shows how crappy HKL's trailer was for the film. All they say is, "Sammo Hung aaaaaaand Yuen Baio" as if it's just any old film that they did.

[Joseph_Kuby]

Sammo wanted Jackie to play the Kenny Bee role but Jackie declined because he preferred working on Armour of God (something which angered Sammo considerably). Both Millionaire's Express and Armour of God were made, roughly, at the same time (Armour had made more money).

It's a shame, really, because having Jackie, Sammo and Bill* versus Hwang, Yukari and Kurata (as initially intended) would have bested all the other "three bros." finales. Imagine how much money the film would have made at the box office (probably rivaling the same year's John Woo's A Better Tomorrow).

Which reminds me - Don't Give A Damn was meant to be a three bros. film with Jackie playing the role Bill played and Bill playing the role Kaneshiro played. The reason why it never came into fruition was because Jackie was working on Rumble in the Bronx.

Twin Dragons and Drunken Master II had the potential to be three bros. movies. In the finale of Twin Dragons, Bill and Sammo could have played car factory workers who fight in unison with Jackie against the gangsters. In the finale of DM II, Biao and Hung could have played factory workers. Of course, in an ideal world, Mark Houghton would have stayed to complete the film after Lau Kar Leung left.

I've always wanted to know what it would be like if Sammo had a fight with Michael Woods since both of them can do incredible things regardless of their weight. Bill vs. Mark, Sammo vs. Woods as well as Jackie vs. Ken Lo would have made DM II even better.

* Anglicized name of Yuen Biao. Back in the early '80s (particularly when Wheels on Meal was released) there was an attempt by Golden Harvest to have Biao's anglicized name be Jimmy as a subliminal way to market him as the next Jackie. I'm not sure how far this materialized as I only read about this in The Essential Jackie Chan Sourcebook by Jeff Rovin and Kathy Tracy.

[yuen13]

Sammo wanted Jackie to play the Kenny Bee role but Jackie declined because he preferred working on Armour of God (something which angered Sammo considerably). Both Millionaire's Express and Armour of God were released, roughly, at the same time (Armour had made more money).

It's a shame, really, because having Jackie, Sammo and Bill* versus Hwang, Yukari and Kurata (as initially intended) would have bested all the other "three bros." finales. Imagine how much money the film would have made at the box office (probably rivaling the same year's John Woo's A Better Tomorrow).

Which reminds me - Don't Give A Damn was meant to be a three bros. film with Jackie playing the role Bill played and Bill playing the role Kaneshiro played. The reason why it never came into fruition was because Jackie was working on Rumble in the Bronx.

Twin Dragons and Drunken Master II had the potential to be three bros. movies. In the finale of Twin Dragons, Bill and Sammo could have played car factory workers who fight in unison with Jackie against the gangsters. In the finale of DM II, Biao and Hung could have played factory workers. Of course, in an ideal world, Mark Houghton would have stayed to complete the film after Lau Kar Leung left.

I've always wanted to know what it would be like if Sammo had a fight with Michael Woods since both of them can do incredible things regardless of their weight. Bill vs. Mark, Sammo vs. Woods as well as Jackie vs. Ken Lo would have made DM II even better.

* Anglicized name of Yuen Biao. Back in the early '80s (particularly when Wheels on Meal was released) there was an attempt by Golden Harvest to have Biao's anglicized name be Jimmy as a subliminal way to market him as the next Jackie. I'm not sure how far this materialized as I only read about this in The Essential Jackie Chan Sourcebook by Jeff Rovin and Kathy Tracy.

thanks for the info! it's a shame, it could've been great.

one thing though: PLEASE stop calling Yuen Biao BILL. it's like raping him in broad daylight...

[Joseph_Kuby]

You tell that to the Westerners who referred to him as that when they were working with him on Wheels On Meals.

XD

Imagine what the Canadians referred to him as when he moved to Canada.

[David Rees]

Apparently Kwan Tak Hing was asked to play the role of Wong Kei Ying in the film, he refused after reading the script and not liking the way the characters were portrayed.

I thought Jackie was filming Project A 2 at the time and not Armour Of God..i could be wrong...

Great film..

MY BLOG: http://asiancultcinema-drees5761.blogspot.com/

[Joseph_Kuby]

Thanks for the info. I didn't know Kwan turned it down. I just assumed Sammo didn't hire him because he was too ill or dead.

I was confused because I got the impression that both Millionaire's Express and Armour of God were '86-made movies that were released in '87.

I guess it doesn't help when there's reviews that have both films listed as '86 or '87.

After looking at the release dates (that's if they're any indication of production order) at the HKMDB, I've come to the conclusion that the film that Jackie may have opted to work on (instead of working with Sammo) was Police Story.

Police Story: 12/14/1985 - 01/10/1986

Millionaire's Express: 01/30/1986 - 02/26/1986

Armour of God: 01/21/1987 - 02/19/1987

Project A 2: 08/19/1987 - 09/10/1987

[yuen13]

Apparently Kwan Tak Hing was asked to play the role of Wong Kei Ying in the film, he refused after reading the script and not liking the way the characters were portrayed.

I thought Jackie was filming Project A 2 at the time and not Armour Of God..i could be wrong...

Great film..

MY BLOG: http://asiancultcinema-drees5761.blogspot.com/

during the making of PROJECT A2 Sammo and Yuen were busy with EASTERN CONDORS not MILLIONAIRE'S EXPRESS.

that's why both turned down the to be in the sequel to PROJECT A.

[Joseph_Kuby]

Also, 1987 was the year when Jackie was offered the chance to make a film with Tom Hanks called Singapore Sling but because Jackie had a busy schedule, it never came to be.

Thank God!

Whilst I can live in a world without Police Story 2, a world without Dragons Forever or Project A 2 would be unfathomable.

[David Rees]

I think your right Yuen, thanks for clearing that up.

[SimonMW]

Richard Ng told me some amusing yet slightly frightening stories about when he had to do the comedy run across the roof of the moving train. All credit to the guy for even attempting it!