The Private Eyes (1976 film)

This article is about the Hong Kong film. For the American film, see The Private Eyes (1980 film).

The Private Eyes
Traditional Chinese	半斤八両
Simplified Chinese	半斤八两
Literal meaning	six of one, half a dozen of the other
Hanyu Pinyin	Bàn Jīn Bā Liǎng
Jyutping	Bun3 Gan1 Baat3 Leong2
Directed by	Michael Hui
Written by	Michael Hui
Produced by	Raymond Chow
Starring	Michael Hui Samuel Hui Ricky Hui
Cinematography	Cheung Yiu-cho
Edited by	Peter Cheung
Music by	Samuel Hui The Lotus
Production companies	Golden Harvest Hui's Film Production
Distributed by	Golden Harvest
Release date	16 December 1976 (1976-12-16)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese
Box office	US$16.7 million(Asia)

The Private Eyes is a 1976 Hong Kong comedy film written, directed by and starring Michael Hui and co-starring his brothers Samuel Hui and Ricky Hui as well as Shih Kien and Richard Ng in his second film role. John Woo was the production designer and also co-director, though he was uncredited. ^[1] Sammo Hung served as the film's action director and Jackie Chan was also a stuntman. This is the third film of the Hui Brothers and it is the first film that established the Hui Brothers' comedies internationally. It became the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong at the time.

Overview

The film's Chinese title is 半斤八兩. The film is also known as Mr. Boo in Japan. ^{[2] [3]}

Plot

The film revolves around the exploits of a detective agency in Hong Kong called Mannix Private Detective Agency. It is headed by private detective Wong Yeuk-sze (Michael Hui) with his emotionally drained assistant Puffy (Ricky Hui). Meanwhile, Lee Kwok-kit (Samuel Hui), a kung fu expert, who works at a Vitasoy plant factory and spends most of the time doing kung fu tricks to impress a girl, ultimately loses his job. Seeking to find another line of work, Lee attempts to join Wong's detective agency. Despite Lee's impression with his kung fu talent which involves his snatching trick, Wong was not impressed. Then, as it appears that Lee would not get the job, Wong discovers that his wallet was missing and was presumed stolen by one bystander who bumped into them, which led to a scene where Wong fights the thief in the kitchen using sausage nunchaku as a weapon. Wong's onslaught backfires, and just as the thief walks away, Lee intercepts him and recovers the wallet, thus impressed Wong to hire him for the job. In truth, the wallet was in Wong's possession the whole time; they attacked an innocent bystander and stole his wallet.

The trio work together to serve their clients in many situations. For example, they were hired by a woman to capture photos of his husband's affair with another woman so she can get reward money at court. Later, they were also hired by a supermarket owner to foil an upcoming shoplifting case which leads to a scene where Lee puts his kung fu skills in use to fight thugs.

The most important part of the film is when a gang of robbers led by Uncle Nine (Shih Kien) who demands ransom from a cinema mogul. He then leads his gang to extort movie goers and Wong is one of them, who struggles against Uncle Nine in the mayhem, injuring his leg in the process. Lee, in the midst of the chaos, catches a few of the thugs and beats them up. Later, the gang leaves in an ice cream truck that one thug stole from the street, but Lee had defeated the thug earlier as he drives them to the police station. Along the way, Lee turns on the freezer which freezes the gang in the back. At the police station, Lee hands in the thugs to a police sergeant (Richard Ng), who appears throughout the film, both as a pursuer and as an investigation case to Wong and Lee. Lee later receives a good citizen award and leaves Wong's agency to start his own. Puffy also joins Lee.

Months later, an injured Wong returns to his agency with no assistant and no clients, who all went to Lee's agency known as Cannon Detective Service. Lee makes a deal with Wong to work together with Lee getting a higher share of profits. Wong refuses, and later learned a snatching trick from Lee, who was doing it in the beginning. Lee then offers a deal to work with Wong where they share half of the profits.

Cast

Cast	Role	Notes
Michael Hui	Wong Yeuk-sze, boss of the Mannix Private Detective Agency.	[4]
Samuel Hui	Lee Kwok-kit, a ku-fu expert	[5]
Ricky Hui	Puffy, Pighead	[6]
Shih Kien	Gow-suk (aka Uncle Nine)	[7]
Richard Ng	Police sergeant	[7]
Chu Mu	Mr. Chu	[7]
Angie Chiu	Jacky	[7]
Mars	robber
Tsang Choh-lam	bomb blackmailer of theater
Huang Ha	shoplifter in supermarket
Chan Yam	Substitute at the factory
David Cheung	[cameo] at hotel
Siu-Fong Lai	Mrs. Mok	[7]
Chan Kim-wan	Thief of Wong's wallet
Ko Hung	Biu
Lily Leung	Mrs. Chu
Chieh Yuan	Big Brother in gym
Lo Wai-chi	Mrs. Chow
Cheng Siu-ping	shoplifter in supermarket
Ng Kit-keung	Hung
Wong Chi-keung	drink in supermarket
Wan Leng-kwong	policeman
Siu Kam	Junior Brother in gym
Chan Lap-ban	theatre robbery victim
Yu Mo-lin	theatre robbery victim
Gam Lau	eats dim sum
Billy Chan	robber
Stanley Hui	Hotel owner, manager of the Love Hotel	[7]
San Sin
Cheung Sin-ming	King Kong
Joe Junior
Melvin Wong	theatre robbery victim
Jackie Chan	stuntman

Box office

The film grossed HK$8,531,700 at the Hong Kong box office and became the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong. ^{[8] [9]} Its Hong Kong gross was equivalent to US$1.7 million. ^[10] The film went on to gross US$5 million in Southeast Asia and US$10 million in Japan, for a total gross of US$16.7 million in Asia. ^[11]

Remake

The 1990 film, Front Page (新半斤八兩), reunites the trio of the Hui Brothers, which is also the last film the three appeared together. This time, the story revolves around the exploits of a tabloid magazine company. Like The Private Eyes, their exploits throughout the film resulted in investigation on celebrity scandals and their unfortunate situation involving the trio and a group of bank robbers.

Album

The Private Eyes 半斤八兩
Studio album by Samuel Hui
Released	23 December 1976 (1976-12-23)
Genre	Cantopop
Language	Cantonese
Label	PolyGram
Samuel Hui chronology
The Last Message 天才與白痴 (1975) The Private Eyes 半斤八兩 (1976) Fortune God Comes 財神到 (1978)

The Private Eyes is Hong Kong singer and the film's costar Samuel Hui's third Cantopop album. The title song is the film's theme song with the same name, which was a hit, using especially colloquial street Cantonese in the lyrics which was a breakthrough at that time. The use of street Cantonese was justified as the film, which depicted the working class, struck a chord with Hong Kong people after its release. ^[12]

Track listing

1. "半斤八兩"
2. "浪子心聲"
3. "打雀英雄傳"
4. "梨渦淺笑"
5. "大家跟住唱"
6. "有酒今朝醉"
7. "知音夢裡尋"
8. "鬼馬大家樂"
9. "夜半輕私語"
10. "斷腸夢"
11. "追求三部曲"
12. "流水恨"

References

1. "The Private Eyes". hkcinemagic.com. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
2. "Film Screenings - The Private Eyes". lcsd.gov.hk. 2 October 2018. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
3. "The Private Eyes". hkiff.org.hk. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
4. "The Private Eyes". fareastfilm.com. 26 June 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
5. "The Private Eyes". letterboxd.com. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
6. "The Private Eyes (1976)". allmovie.com. 1976. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
7. "The Private Eyes". videodetective.com. 16 December 1976. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
8. Fonoroff, Paul (9 September 2012). "Classic comedy captured spirit of Hong Kong". scmp.com. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
9. "abouthk.com". Archived from the original on 7 July 2011.
10. "Hong Kong's 20 Alltime Top Pix". Variety . 3 January 1979. p. 42.
11. "Chow, Past Reporter, Now Very Rich Filmmaker". The Daily Herald . 22 October 1979. p. 44. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
12. "許冠傑* – 半斤八兩 - The Private Eyes". discogs.com. 1976. Retrieved 20 October 2020.

External links

• The Private Eyes at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase
• The Private Eyes at Hong Kong Cinemagic
• Ban jin ba liang at IMDb
• The Private Eyes at rottentomatoes.com
• The Private Eyes in Encyclopedia of Chinese Film at google.com
• The Private Eyes at cityonfire.com