General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Lucky Guy (行运一条龙)

The Lucky Guy (行運一條龍) is a 1998 Hong Kong comedy film directed by Lee Lik-Chi (李力持) and starring Stephen Chow, Eric Kot, Daniel Chan, Sammi Cheng, Kristy Yang, Shu Qi, Ng Man-tat, and Sandra Ng¹⁵. It was released in Hong Kong on 16 January 1998 as a Lunar New Year comedy, set in a traditional cha chaan teng (tea restaurant) called Hang Wan, and earned HK$27.7 million at the Hong Kong box office, ranking third among local films that year¹^•².

Key fact	Detail
Chinese title	行運一條龍 (行运一条龙); English title The Lucky Guy; released in Japan as ラッキー・ガイ and in Korea as 럭키 가이³
Release	16 January 1998, Hong Kong⁴
Director and writers	Directed by Lee Lik-Chi; written by Lee Lik-Chi and Cheng Man-Fai (鄭文輝)³
Running time	100 minutes⁵
Box office	HK$27,726,705, third place in the 1998 Hong Kong annual box office¹
Ratings	IMDb 6.1; Douban 6.8⁶

Spoilers

Plot

The story takes place in 1990s Hong Kong at the Hang Wan Tea Restaurant (行運茶餐廳), a traditional cha chaan teng famous for its egg tarts and milk tea⁶^•⁷. Boss Li (吳孟達, Ng Man-tat) has run the restaurant for more than twenty years⁶.

The film follows three love stories among the men connected to the shop⁸. Waiter Ho Kam Sui (周星馳, Stephen Chow), nicknamed the "Prince of Egg Tarts" (蛋塔王子), is a self-styled lothario who treats courting women as an art form, but he is shaken when he meets his middle-school crush Yip Yuk Fan, Candy (鄭秀文, Sammi Cheng), again; she teases and takes revenge on him over old grievances³^•⁶. The earnest waiter Fook (葛民輝, Eric Kot) falls for Fanny (楊恭如, Kristy Yang), a sweet secretary at a kung-fu school, and asks the experienced Sui for help². Meanwhile Li's son Nam (陳曉東, Daniel Chan) meets Fon Fon (舒淇, Shu Qi), the runaway daughter of the wealthy businessman Law Chat-Fai, and the two gradually fall in love⁶.

The romantic threads are set against a threat to the restaurant itself: the landlady Flirty Si (吳君如, Sandra Ng) orders the shop closed, and the staff and owner unite against her⁶. Fon Fon appeals to her father, the dispute is settled, and the film ends with every couple united and the restaurant restored to its former liveliness⁶.

Cast and production

The principal cast maps onto the three romances and the shop's elders: Stephen Chow as Ho Kam Sui, Eric Kot as Fook, Daniel Chan as Nam, Sammi Cheng as Candy Yip Yuk Fan, Kristy Yang as Fanny, Shu Qi as Fon Fon, Ng Man-tat as Boss Li, and Sandra Ng as Flirty Si⁹. The large supporting ensemble includes Vincent Kok, Lee Siu-kei, Tin Kai-man, Wong Jing, and Wong Yat-fei, with the comedian Bat Leung-Gam (八兩金) playing Wu Lau-Shau, tenth-generation master of the "Wong Gik King Tin Fist"⁶.

The film was produced by Talentine Films (天下電影製作有限公司), Gold Harvest (金馬娛樂有限公司), and Movie Teen Limited (電影少年有限公司), and distributed by Wing-Scope Entertainment (永盛娛樂製作有限公司)⁷. Wong Jing and Li Kwok-hing served as presenters⁶.

Release and box office

The film premiered in Hong Kong on 16 January 1998, one day before Jackie Chan's Who Am I? opened⁴.

It earned HK$27,726,705, placing third in the 1998 Hong Kong annual box office behind The Storm Riders (HK$41,532,235) and Who Am I? (HK$38,852,845)¹. A scholarly survey of 1990s Hong Kong cinema lists the film's gross as HK$27,730,525, a small discrepancy between records¹⁰. The film was a Lunar New Year release, the seasonal slot for family-oriented Hong Kong comedies².

Reception

Audience scores have been moderate: IMDb rates the film 6.1 and Douban 6.8⁶, while the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer stands at 44 percent¹¹.

Kozo, the reviewer at the Hong Kong cinema site LoveHKFilm, called it a typical Lunar New Year comedy with funny bits amid sentimental hijinks, and noted that the three male leads and three female leads each receive roughly equal screen time, so it is not a Stephen Chow star vehicle²^•⁸. He judged that Chow seemed bored through the sentimental stretches and "phones in his performance", while observing that Chow was reportedly paid HK$17 million for the role². A Chinese-language critical assessment quoted by Baidu Baike argued that the story framework and character setup closely resembled the earlier hit All's Well, Ends Well (家有囍事), with the Chow, Kot, and Chan trio repeating the familiar three-brothers courtship formula, and that the newer cast members were uneven beside the veterans¹².

The film has retained a place in Hong Kong popular memory. Its line "年初四，假又放完、钱又使晒、工又要返，点会好样呀" ("The fourth day of the New Year: the holiday is over, the money is spent, work resumes, how could I look good?") is still quoted by Hong Kong workers after the Lunar New Year break¹³. Film scholar Kyle Barrowman's study of Stephen Chow's career groups The Lucky Guy with Chow's lesser-known vehicles such as When Fortune Smiles (1990) and Tricky Brains (1991), rather than his internationally known titles¹⁴.

References

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 1995 to 1999 › Black and satirical comedies › Released 1995 to 1998

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

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