General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Aces Go Places II (最佳拍档之大显神通)

Aces Go Places II (最佳拍檔之大顯神通, also released as Mad Mission 2) is a 1983 Hong Kong action comedy produced by Cinema City, directed by Eric Tsang, and the sequel to Aces Go Places (1982), starring Sam Hui and Karl Maka as the thief-and-detective duo King Kong and Albert "Baldy" Au.¹^•² Released on 5 February 1983, it grossed HK$23,273,140 and was the top-grossing Hong Kong film of 1983.²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Original title	最佳拍檔大顯神通; other titles include 最佳拍檔2：大顯神通, Aces Go Places 2, and Mad Mission 2¹
Release	5 February 1983, Hong Kong; ran 5 February to 3 March 1983¹^•³
Box office	HK$23,273,140, first place in the 1983 Hong Kong rankings²^•³
Key credits	Director Eric Tsang; writer and producer Raymond Wong Pak-Ming; action director Lau Kar-Wing; Cinema City Company Limited production¹^•²
Principal cast	Sam Hui (許冠傑), Karl Maka (麥嘉), Sylvia Chang (張艾嘉), Yasuaki Kurata (倉田保昭)²^•³
Runtime	99 minutes per Far East Films; a Taiwanese broadcaster lists 1 hour 42 minutes¹^•⁴
Signature set pieces	A battle robot, a bicycle race, cars driving on two wheels, and a climactic giant-robot battle³^•⁵

Spoilers

Plot

Once he has helped bring the master criminal White Glove to justice, King Kong becomes a target of the Italian Mafia, which first dispatches a deadly robot against him and then contracts the infamous hit man Harry to complete the task.¹ The Chinese-language synopsis names the American killer 黑手襪 ("Black Glove") coming to Hong Kong to avenge his brother 白手襪 ("White Glove"), while the duo is manipulated by a pair of Japanese gang siblings.⁴ Local criminals Bull and Juju frame King Kong and Baldy for a bank robbery, and the story builds to a climactic battle against an advanced robot.¹^•²

Cast and characters

Sam Hui and Karl Maka reprised their roles as King Kong and Albert "Baldy" Au, and Sylvia Chang returned, whose love-hate relationship with Maka's character deepened from the first film, including a wedding that is wrecked.²^•⁵ The Japanese martial-arts actor Yasuaki Kurata (倉田保昭) joined the cast, alongside Wong Ting-Hwan (汪庭歡), Li Ka-Ting (李家鼎), Tai Shan (泰山), Lau Nam-Kwong (樓南光), Cho Tat-Wah (曹達華), and Hon Kuk-Tai (韓國材).²^•³ Tsui Hark, Eric Tsang, and Raymond Wong made special guest appearances.²

Production background

The film was made by Cinema City Company Limited (新藝城影業有限公司). Eric Tsang directed, Raymond Wong Pak-Ming wrote and produced, Lau Kar-Wing served as action director, and the cinematography was by Wong Yuet-Tai (黃岳泰), with producer Lai Wing-Keung (黎永强) also credited.¹^•²

Commercial context. The 1982 first film, made by the group Baidu Baike calls the "新藝城七怪" (Cinema City's seven eccentrics, including Shi Tian, Maka, Wong, and Tsui Hark), had set the highest box-office result since Hong Kong opened as a port. The sequel sold below Cinema City's expectations in Hong Kong itself but earned steadily in Southeast Asian markets, which convinced the studio to continue the series with higher budgets and a comedy line aimed at competing with Golden Harvest's "福星" (Lucky Stars) comedies.²

Action and style

The film keeps the formula of the original but expands the scale of its effects and stunts.¹ Where the first film centered on Knight Rider-style car action, this sequel introduces a battle robot.³ In the style of the Bond films it opens with Sam Hui fighting a robot before the credits roll.⁵ A retrospective review highlights a spectacularly staged bicycle race, car chases in which cars ride on two wheels and explode, a bar brawl around the one-hour mark, and a final battle between a giant robot and a swarm of small robots, judging the stunts superior to comparable Hollywood projects of the time.⁵ The choreography was by Lau Kar-Wing.¹

Parody. The villain Filthy Harry (Glen Thomson) parodies Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry as styled in Sergio Leone's 1960s westerns, an example of the parody-driven comedy that distinguishes the film from contemporaneous Hong Kong comedies.⁵

Release and box office

The film opened in Hong Kong on 5 February 1983 and ran until 3 March, grossing HK$23,273,140 and ranking first overall for the year; it was never theatrically released in Japan.¹^•³ Baidu Baike records the same figure as 23.27 million Hong Kong dollars and calls it the 1983 Hong Kong annual box-office champion, while noting that the film underperformed Cinema City's expectations at home even as it succeeded in Southeast Asia.²

The LUMIERE database of the European Audiovisual Observatory records international release titles including Aces Go Places II (Australia, Canada), Mad Mission Part 2: Aces Go Places (Australia, United States), Ases del metal (Spain), La folle équipée (France), Mad Mission 2 (Denmark, Finland), Bláznivá mise 2 (Czech Republic), Το μυστήριο του άσπρου γαντιού (Greece), and 悪漢探偵2 (Japan).⁶

Reception and legacy

A retrospective review on hkcinema.ru calls it possibly the best of all five series entries, saying the makers achieved optimal proportions of action, humor, and parody, and finds Sylvia Chang's performance outshining those of Hui and Maka; the same review notes that the robot scenes sometimes tip into farce and that fight scenes are comparatively few.⁵ Within the franchise, the film repeated the first film's feat of topping the annual Hong Kong box office, and its Southeast Asian earnings secured the series' continuation.²^•³

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026