# Chicken and Duck Talk (鸡同鸭讲)
**Chicken and Duck Talk** (雞同鴨講; [Cantonese](https://www.edgepedia.org/cantonese): *Gai tung ngap gong*) is a 1988 Hong Kong [comedy film](https://www.edgepedia.org/comedy-film) directed by Clifton Ko and starring Michael Hui as the stingy owner of a traditional roast duck restaurant whose business collapses when an American-style fried chicken fast food chain opens across the street.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095396/) Produced by Ronny Yu through Hui's Film Production Co., it was released in Hong Kong on July 14, 1988 and became the highest-grossing film of the summer 1988 season there.[2](https://www.yesasia.com/global/chicken-and-duck-talk-1988-dvd-hong-kong-version/1004002859-0-0-0-en/info.html) • [3](https://kungfutube.info/23529)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | 雞同鴨講 (simplified: 鸡同鸭讲); English title *Chicken and Duck Talk*, also known as *Chicken and Fast Food*[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095396/) • [4](https://www.cinemasie.com/en/fiche/oeuvre/chickenandducktalk/) |
| Release | July 14, 1988 (Hong Kong); January 23, 1992 (Japan)[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095396/) • [3](https://kungfutube.info/23529) |
| Director / producer | Clifton Ko Chi-Sum; producer Ronny Yu Yan-Tai[5](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/chicken_and_duck_talk.html) |
| Writers | Michael Hui, Clifton Ko, Joe Ma, and James Yuen[4](https://www.cinemasie.com/en/fiche/oeuvre/chickenandducktalk/) |
| Box office | HK$29,378,769 in Hong Kong, ranked 4th for the year; highest-grossing film of summer 1988[3](https://kungfutube.info/23529) • [2](https://www.yesasia.com/global/chicken-and-duck-talk-1988-dvd-hong-kong-version/1004002859-0-0-0-en/info.html) |
| Language / runtime | Cantonese; runtime reported as 99 minutes by IMDb and 95 minutes by 1905.com[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095396/) • [6](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/1988716/) |
| Honors | One of the "Top 10 Chinese Pictures of the Year"; Michael Hui won a Best Performing Actor award at the Cinetex International Comedy Film Festival, Las Vegas, 1989[2](https://www.yesasia.com/global/chicken-and-duck-talk-1988-dvd-hong-kong-version/1004002859-0-0-0-en/info.html) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Michael Hui plays Ah Hui, the owner of a Hong Kong-style café specializing in roast duck, run for decades on a secret roast duck recipe that supports his family and a staff of longtime employees.[7](https://tv.apple.com/sg/movie/%E9%B8%A1%E5%90%8C%E9%B8%AD%E8%AE%B2-chicken-and-duck-talk/umc.cmc.267ra9aake8pag6sdzgas9q9c?l=zh) The restaurant is popular for its food despite poor hygiene, spotty service, and a stingy boss who gives small bonuses and cajoles employees into accepting poor working conditions; when customers find cockroaches in their soup, the staff go to great lengths to deny or destroy the evidence.[5](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/chicken_and_duck_talk.html)
The status quo breaks when Danny's Fried Chicken, a KFC-like chain owned by Poon (Lawrence Ng) and his deputy (Guk Fung), opens across the street with a friendlier staff, a cleaner environment, and food aimed at young customers.[5](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/chicken_and_duck_talk.html) Business collapses, and Hui loses his longtime employee [Cuttlefish](https://www.edgepedia.org/cuttlefish) (Ricky Hui) to the rival, who parades in a chicken costume to advertise it.[5](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/chicken_and_duck_talk.html) • [8](https://www.blu-ray.com/dvd/Chicken-and-Duck-Talk-DVD/88956/) Hui answers with cheap gimmicks of his own, including a duck costume assembled from buckets, plates, and household leftovers, leading to a public brawl with his former employee in chicken wear.[9](https://www.heroic-cinema.com/reviews/chicken-and-duck-talk-1988/) • [10](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/1992/03/chicken-and-duck-talk-2/) At home, his wife (Sylvia Chang) urges him to accept a renovation loan from her mother (Pak Yan), but he is too proud to listen.[5](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/chicken_and_duck_talk.html) After every attempt to fight the chain fails, the Scrooge-like boss re-evaluates his relationships at home and at work, reforms his practices, and wins back his customers.[8](https://www.blu-ray.com/dvd/Chicken-and-Duck-Talk-DVD/88956/) • [7](https://tv.apple.com/sg/movie/%E9%B8%A1%E5%90%8C%E9%B8%AD%E8%AE%B2-chicken-and-duck-talk/umc.cmc.267ra9aake8pag6sdzgas9q9c?l=zh)
## Cast and production
The cast combines the Hui brothers with established Hong Kong actors: Michael Hui (Ah Hui), Ricky Hui (Cuttlefish), Sylvia Chang (Mrs. Hui), Lowell Lo (Chimp Chan), Lawrence Ng (Danny Poon), Guk Fung, Pak Yan, Yip Wing-Cho, Law Koon-Lan, and Hui Ying-Ying.[5](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/chicken_and_duck_talk.html) • [6](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/1988716/) [Sam Hui](https://www.edgepedia.org/sam-hui), Michael's brother, makes a cameo appearance, and singer Paula Tsui appears as a restaurant customer.[3](https://kungfutube.info/23529) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095396/)
The screenplay is credited to Michael Hui, Clifton Ko, Joe Ma, and James Yuen.[4](https://www.cinemasie.com/en/fiche/oeuvre/chickenandducktalk/) The film was made at a point when Michael Hui's popularity had been declining, and the Japanese fan-site Kungfu Tube credits it with reviving his standing through a story that mixes slapstick with sentiment.[3](https://kungfutube.info/23529)
## Reception and box office
The film earned HK$29,378,769 at the Hong Kong box office, placing 4th for the year, and was the highest-grossing film of summer 1988.[3](https://kungfutube.info/23529) • [2](https://www.yesasia.com/global/chicken-and-duck-talk-1988-dvd-hong-kong-version/1004002859-0-0-0-en/info.html) It was named one of the "Top 10 Chinese Pictures of the Year", and Michael Hui received a Best Performing Actor award at the Cinetex International Comedy Film Festival in Las Vegas in 1989.[2](https://www.yesasia.com/global/chicken-and-duck-talk-1988-dvd-hong-kong-version/1004002859-0-0-0-en/info.html)
Critics have treated the film as a classic of 1980s Hong Kong comedy. In LoveHKFilm's poll of the top 100 Hong Kong films of the eighties it placed 27th with 135 points and one first-place vote, with the site crediting Michael Hui, rather than director Clifton Ko, as the creative force behind it.[11](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/blog/damnyoukozo/2012/03/19/top-100-hong-kong-films-of-the-eighties-numbers-30-21/) Reviewer Kozo called it "as much a document of Hong Kong as it is a crowd-pleasing comedy", praising its cultural specificity while noting its sloppy production values and generous overacting.[5](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/chicken_and_duck_talk.html) Far East Films gave it 4 out of 5 stars, judging Ko's sitcom-style direction the film's weak point while calling it a clear influence on [Stephen Chow](https://www.edgepedia.org/stephen-chow)'s comedies such as *God of Cookery* and *Shaolin Soccer*.[12](https://fareastfilms.com/review/chicken-and-duck-talk/) The American critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, writing in 1992, compared Hui's screen persona to W.C. Fields or [Rodney Dangerfield](https://www.edgepedia.org/rodney-dangerfield) rather than the "Chinese Jerry Lewis" label he often received, and noted the film's score borrowing from [Jacques Tati](https://www.edgepedia.org/jacques-tati)'s *Jour de fête* and the James Bond films.[10](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/1992/03/chicken-and-duck-talk-2/)
## Themes
The film's central conflict is the clash between a traditional Chinese roast duck restaurant and a Western fast-food chain, which the Hong Kong Film Archive describes as a comedy of culture clash between Chinese and Western dining.[13](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-03_newsletter/newsletter-105_e.pdf) The same archive notes that, unlike Euro-American traditions, most Hong Kong comedy films assume a didactic role, and cites *Chicken and Duck Talk* as an example that reinstates Confucian hierarchical values in its ending.[14](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/OLD-6.-Research-and-Publication/06-03_newsletter/newsletter86_e.pdf) A related academic reading describes the film as a vehicle for Michael Hui's social satire, in which his working-class characters lampoon Hong Kongers' obsession with "getting rich quick" and ridicule the population's "money mania".[15](https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ac.14.2.170_1)
Reviewers have also read the film as satire of small-business life: Time Out suggested it could be taken as a sardonic commentary on a farcical struggle to modernize, while LoveHKFilm observes that the conflict between Hong Kong-style cafés and corporate chains like [McDonald's](https://www.edgepedia.org/mcdonalds) and KFC had long been a live issue in the city.[16](https://www.timeout.com/movies/chicken-and-duck-talk) • [5](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/chicken_and_duck_talk.html)
## References
1. [Chicken and Duck Talk (1988), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095396/)
2. [Chicken And Duck Talk (1988) (DVD) (Hong Kong Version), YesAsia](https://www.yesasia.com/global/chicken-and-duck-talk-1988-dvd-hong-kong-version/1004002859-0-0-0-en/info.html)
3. [ホンコン・フライド・ムービー／雞同鴨講（1988）, KUNGFU TUBE](https://kungfutube.info/23529)
4. [Chicken and duck talk, CinemaSiE](https://www.cinemasie.com/en/fiche/oeuvre/chickenandducktalk/)
5. [Chicken and Duck Talk (雞同鴨講) (1988), LoveHKFilm](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/chicken_and_duck_talk.html)
6. [鸡同鸭讲 (1988), 1905电影网](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/1988716/)
7. [鸡同鸭讲 Chicken and Duck Talk, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/sg/movie/%E9%B8%A1%E5%90%8C%E9%B8%AD%E8%AE%B2-chicken-and-duck-talk/umc.cmc.267ra9aake8pag6sdzgas9q9c?l=zh)
8. [Chicken and Duck Talk DVD (Gai tung ngap gong / 雞同鴨講), Blu-ray.com](https://www.blu-ray.com/dvd/Chicken-and-Duck-Talk-DVD/88956/)
9. [Review: Chicken and Duck Talk (1988), Heroic Cinema](https://www.heroic-cinema.com/reviews/chicken-and-duck-talk-1988/)
10. [Chicken And Duck Talk, Jonathan Rosenbaum](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/1992/03/chicken-and-duck-talk-2/)
11. [Top 100 Hong Kong films of the eighties, numbers 30–21, LoveHKFilm](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/blog/damnyoukozo/2012/03/19/top-100-hong-kong-films-of-the-eighties-numbers-30-21/)
12. [Chicken And Duck Talk (1988) Review, Far East Films](https://fareastfilms.com/review/chicken-and-duck-talk/)
13. [Hong Kong Film Archive Newsletter Issue 105](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-03_newsletter/newsletter-105_e.pdf)
14. [Hong Kong Film Archive Newsletter Issue 86](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/OLD-6.-Research-and-Publication/06-03_newsletter/newsletter86_e.pdf)
15. [Stokes, Lisa Odham, and Hoover, Michael. "Food Fight, Food Fight: Culture and Economy in Chicken and Duck Talk", Asian Cinema 14.2 (2003)](https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ac.14.2.170_1)
16. [Chicken and Duck Talk film review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/chicken-and-duck-talk)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1980s › Satirical, black, and parody comedies of the 1980s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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