Gallants

Nostalgia is a winning formula brightly brewed by Clement Cheng and Derek Kwok for Gallants. The award-winning 2010 kung fu comedy is a delightful showcase for various 1970s Hong Kong action stars and veteran actor-musician Teddy Robin (Kwan). The gnome-like and far from handsome comic character chews the scenery charmingly as a randy, bullying kung fu master awakened from a three-decade-long coma.

Many of the usual comic kung fu figures are gathered in a rural restaurant that the master's two loyal ageing weary-boned pupils (Chen Kuan-tai and Yeung Siu-lung) operate in his former martial arts academy. A bumbling estate agent wimp and wannabee fighter (Wong Yau-nam) arrives from the big city, meeting local gangsters, a bullied old schoolmate who's become a US-educated show-off fighter (rapper MC Jin), a pretty girl from Shanghai (JJ Jia) and an old lady doctor (Susan Shaw Yin-yin) with unrequited love for the mischievous master.

When the cliches are cobbled together, with a 30-year-old duck carcase and high-speed action choreography, the audience ends up with a predictable low-budget version of Kung Fu Hustle. Like that Stephen Chow masterpiece, this is a movie that shows its love for old-style Hong Kong movies, and respect for vintage actors who still make the right moves when a director zooms, pans and swivels around them with TLC. Robin's background music recalls the Spaghetti Western era, and the screen is infectious fun when he fills it with wild eyes and craggy features.

Andy Lau was one of the film's producers, and his faith in Kwok's concept was rewarded when the film won the 2010 Hong Kong Best Picture title and awards for Best Supporting Actor (Robin) and Supporting Actress (Shaw). Small is beautiful when it's so clearly heart-felt.