REVIEW: ‘Royal Tramp’ (1992)

Hong Kong funnyman Stephen Chow applies his unique brand of nonsense humor to the role of a tricky-brained schemer recruited by a rebellious secret society to infiltrate the imperial court in Wong Jing’s big-screen adaptation of celebrated author Louis Cha’s final wuxia novel, “The Deer and the Cauldron.” ROYAL TRAMP is an action-packed and highly irreverent take on the wuxia genre where repeated phallic jokes mingle freely with outrageous wirework action from action director Ching Siu-tung.

Wong Jing couldn’t have found a better literary role for the KUNG FU HUSTLE star to play. Chow is Wei Xiaobao, a selfish and sly playboy living in a brothel until he meets Chen Jinnan (Damian Lau), leader of the Heaven and Earth secret society, which is committed to overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and restoring Ming rule. Jinnan tricks Xiaobao into working for the society by infiltrating the imperial palace. With next to no martial arts skill to call upon in a world filled with palm-blasting fighters able to fly through the air and reduce their victims to puddles of gelatinous goo, Xiaobao passes as a eunuch and through fast talk, quick wit and a lot of luck manages to navigate his way through several treacherous and interwoven plots involving the Emperor (Derek Wan ) and his amorous sister (Chingmy Yau), a ruthlessly ambitious general (Elvis Tsui) with unsurpassed kung fu skills, a cunning and powerful mistress (Sharla Cheung) posing as the Emperor’s mother, a martial arts-fighting eunuch (Ng Man-tat) driven mad with penis envy, and a mysterious martial arts manual.

ROYAL TRAMP is a fertile playground for Chow to unleash a torrent of verbal and physical gags associated with “mo lei tau,” a nonsensical attitude exhibited in popular Hong Kong comedies of the late 1980s and early ’90s. The verbal jokes are not as dominant as in some of his other early films which should make it easier for non-Cantonese-speaking audiences to follow along. Still, there are some local pop cultural references that will undoubtedly be lost on Western viewers. The slapstick comedy speaks for itself and points to the even more insane visual schtick seen in Chow’s more recent films. For reasons I cannot fathom (although Bey Logan has a suggestion in his audio commentary on the Dragon Dynasty DVD release), Chow spends the early part of the film wearing a goofy children’s hat that looks like a tiger. Later, fear from the sight of dead bodies causes his queue (pigtail) to stand on end. At another point, Chow tries unsuccessfully to take advantage of twin sisters previously conjoined, who share a physical bond that extends to a reproachful slap in the face. All throughout, Chow engages in humorously absurd dialogue heavily laced with mockery and a hint of abject cynicism towards the martial world and the elite. When he’s given his first real taste of power after seemingly defeating general Oboi (Tsui), Xiaobao is quick to seize on the opportunity to womanize and embezzle government funds. Only distaste for violence seems to keep him a notch higher on the morality scale than his enemies. It’s a character you can’t quite cheer for but he’s enough of an everyman underdog to definitely empathize with.

ROYAL TRAMP sees Wong Jing at the top of his game as a filmmaker. Earlier in the year he had released, as producer, the edgy cult classic NAKED KILLER and FIGHT BACK TO SCHOOL, another in a long string of successful Stephen Chow films. He followed this one up with a sequel to ROYAL TRAMP and martial arts actioners LAST HERO IN CHINA, with Jet Li, and CITY HUNTER, with Jackie Chan. Despite the zaniness of all of these films this would be a fairly solid record if not for lesser titles like RAPED BY AN ANGEL and GHOSTLY VIXEN.

Wong is often derided for being a shameless commercial sellout willing to exploit the success of others and use any amount of sex, violence and low-brow humor to market his films. Are other mainstream Hong Kong filmmakers all that different apart from generally being less successful in their attempts? It’s all true but also true is that Wong is a dependable filmmaker and has a knack for adapting martial arts tales to the big screen. He started out in the business as a screenwriter and penned a variety of films including several excellent classic kung fu titles, notably LEGEND OF A FIGHTER and SHAOLIN PRINCE. After moving into the director’s chair he jumped on the wire-fu bandwagon of the early ’90s late with a number of over-the-top martial arts movies. Films like THE NEW LEGEND OF SHAOLIN blurred the lines between wuxia fantasy and kung fu conventions, while usually parodying both.

ROYAL TRAMP is fully immersed in the conventions of wuxia lore as laid out by Louis Cha but a another important influence may be the long tradition in Cantonese cinema of “songgun” films that feature the tricky exploits of protagonists usually associated with litigators known as songshi. It’s something akin to a Chinese Columbo by way of Perry Mason. TRICKY BRAINS (1991) with Chow and Wong Jing is another example, although the best modern example is JUSTICE, MY FOOT where under the direction of Johnnie To Chow actually plays a sly songshi.

Action in ROYAL TRAMP is on the level of Wong’s KUNG FU CULT MASTER. In other words, it’s off the hook, zany fun. Ching Siu-tung heads up a talented stunt team that includes veterans Yuen Bun, Ma Yuk-sing, and stunt actress Yeung Ching-ching. Dion Lam also contributes stunt choreography. His work can now be seen in blockbuster Hollywood films such as SPIDER-MAN 2 and DOOM. Something I had overlooked until Logan pointed it out was the excessive doubling by the supremely talented Xiong Xinxin. He doubles for Elvis Tsui, Ng Man-tat and Derek Wan for virtually all of the complicated kicking, acrobatics and aerial work. He is the Yuen Wah of his generation, a stunt actor who could practically do it all and better than most. His best onscreen showcase remains his portrayal of “Clubfoot” in ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA 3 and subsequent sequels.

It’s interesting how in the age of digital video and post-production all the wires used in a film like ROYAL TRAMP suddenly appear clear as day. I never had this problem watching wirework films for the first time in the 1990s on murky, third-generation VHS tapes passed around among friends. If you can overlook their obvious presence in heaving stunt actors and props around in every direction, the action still holds up very well. As usual, it is the immense creativity, energy and artistic editing that carries each scene. This is quite apparent during a confrontation between Sharla Cheung and a white-bearded Elvis Tsui. She has this fantastic trick of snaking her body around a large circular beam. Likely, Ching and his crew simply wrapped cloth matching her robes around the beam but the illusion is very effective. Another memorable scene is when Ng Man-tat fires a palm blast of internal qi energy known as the “De-Bone Palm” through a door, catching a fleeing victim in the back, who promptly disintegrates from within. We never really see the full gory details but this is a brilliant example of how inventive Hong Kong action directors could effectively compensate for a lack of fancy visual effects more often seen in Hollywood films like BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA.

The martial arts action does not escape lampooning. Chow works in one of his usual Bruce Lee references, as he does with practically all of his movies. There is also a wonderful gag where Chow and Wan begin sparring by mimicking Kwan Tak-hing and Sek Kin from the old WONG FEI HUNG films of the 1950s and ’60s.

Elements of the film that unfortunately cannot be overlooked are the plethora of penile references that ultimately have a significant bearing on Xiaobao’s efforts to beat General Oboi. It’s generally funny stuff but I’m sure someone will be offended. Not having read “The Deer and the Cauldron,” as of this writing, I don’t know how prominent the penis is in the story. Avid martial arts movie fans no doubt are aware of the role that the male member has in kung fu lore. It’s often treated as a weak spot for more than obvious reasons that internal masters compensate for literally by drawing up into their bodies. This concept made its first major appearance in Lau Kar-leung’s EXECUTIONERS FROM SHAOLIN in 1977. With Wong Jing directing this concept is taken to extremes, no doubt influenced by his Category III films at the time.

The production looks good and shows that Wong, for all his faults, was successful enough to draw on sizable resources at a time when unless your name was Tsui Hark or Jackie Chan, funding was difficult to procure. He makes good use of them as well.

ROYAL TRAMP was a huge box office success upon its initial release in Hong Kong, and along with its sequel shot immediately after, has since proven to be one of the better Stephen Chow and Wong Jing collaborations. The two have a lot in common as filmmakers, especially where crowd-pleasing comedy is concerned. The major difference is that Chow’s humor, with the exception of his mo lei tau speak, travels better outside of Hong Kong. This leads to the only drawback. The humor is not as well developed for an international audience as films like SHAOLIN SOCCER and KUNG FU HUSTLE. It’s also one of those Chinese New Year features that tries to offer a little bit of everything, which doesn’t always work so well when you’re in the mood for a strict comedy or actioner. That’s a small complaint though. This is a fast-moving, visually pleasing and all-around entertaining wuxia parody with something to offer for just about everyone.