The Royal Tramp Collection (Two-Disc Special Edition) [Import]

ROYAL TRAMP 1- Wong Jing's parody of the novel Duke of Mount Deer is a funny movie with some amazing wire fu action sequences. Stephen Chow stars as a man who is just an ordinary person surrounded by extremely powerful people. He is given a mission to steal a secret book, and it's a suicide mission. He has to steal it from an evil General played by Elvis Tsui. Chow fakes being a eunuch so that he can steal the book, but instead he accidentally becomes good friends with the Emperor. The group that sent Chow on the mission wants to kill the Emperor. Why am I trying to explain the story? Its probably the least important thing about this movie. Its all about the nonstop jokes and amazing wire fu action sequences. The fights have some crazy stuff going on. If you are a fan of wuxias then you are really gonna dig this. And the comedy is also very good. In the second half of the movie alone I remember laughing outloud at least 10 times. Its a crazy ride all the way through. Highly recommended to Stephen Chow fans. Rating- 3.5/5

ROYAL TRAMP 2- as expected, part 2 picks up where part 1 left off. Unforunately, it doesn't have the energy that part 1 has. I was very excited to see Brigitte Lin and Yen Shi Kwan have big roles, but with a boring story there isn't really much for them to do. It's not a bad movie, it just doesn't have nearly as many hilarious moments or amazing action scenes as part 1. The action scenes are once again creative, but I was disappointed that Yen Shi Kwan doesn't really get to do any fighting himself. 2.5/5

Picture and sound quality are good. Picture is kind of grainy, but not bad at all for a movie from 1992.

Only a couple of special features to speak of. Bey Logan gives a great commentary on part 1, and on part 2 he repeats himself quite a bit, but its still a good listen.

There is a 10 minute interview with Wong Jing that is interesting. This is only half of a 2 part interview, so I don't understand why Dragon Dynasty didn't put the other 10 minute interview on here. That's my only complaint about this release.

Dragon Dynasty finally releases something from Stephen Chow. What we get is the Royal Tramp films which are really just one long film.

Chow is young and charming and Sharla Cheung(the queen mother) is a stunning beauty but the films are all over the place. The first film is an enjoyable, early 90's Chinese comedy. The second film gets messy with too many new characters continually being introduced and confusing plot twists. The second film gets pretty stupid and is not near as funny or entertaining.

Not a bad release from Dragon Dynasty. They certainly have done worse.

I picked this up more out of curiosity related to dragon dynasty movies than an actual knowledge of the work of Stephen Chow. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The movie is very entertaining, but more so for its comedy than for its fight sequences (though those are pretty good as well). I must say that after watching the first, I instantly watched the second. Watching the second picked up almost exactly where the first one left off, making both movies being in the collection much better for fans. As to the plot, fairly basic, an emperor, plot at assassination, and someone caught in the middle. The real reason to watch this is the comedy, a very old school style, slapstick, physical comedy, and some low brow jokes, but all very funny. While I wasn't aware of Stephen Chow before, I must say this makes me interested in pursuing his other work. Recomended!