Laughing Times

Laughing Times (Chinese: 滑稽時代) is a 1980 Hong Kong adventure comedy film written and directed by John Woo. The film stars Dean Shek as the Chinese Charlie Chaplin. This is the first film produced by Cinema City, a film company established by Shek, Karl Maka and Raymond Wong.

Laughing Times
Film poster
Traditional Chinese	滑稽時代
Simplified Chinese	滑稽时代
Hanyu Pinyin	Huá Jī Shí Dài
Jyutping	Waat6 Kai2 Si4 Doi6
Directed by	John Woo
Screenplay by	John Woo
Produced by	Karl Maka
Starring	Dean Shek Wong Wai Karl Maka Wu Ma Lee Chung-keung Chic Lau
Cinematography	Manny Ho
Edited by	Tony Chow
Music by	Frankie Chan
Production company	Cinema City
Distributed by	Cinema City
Release date	24 December 1980 (1980-12-24)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese
Box office	HK$5,186,448.50

Plot

In the post-war community, where the economy is falling and many businesses are bleak, a starving wanderer named the Chinese Charlie Chaplin meets an orphan (Wong Wai) who was used to do illegal things by bad guy Master Ting and the two become fast friends. Later Charlie also meets a poor singer, whom he develops a funny romance with, and a drunkard. Due to humiliation from Ting, the drunkard turned to drinking. Later, Ting abducts the kid and the singer, prompting Charlie and the drunkard to finally rise up with ambition and risk their lives to save the kid and the singer and eventually, Ting was unable to evade the law.

Cast

• Dean Shek as Chinese Charlie Chaplin
• Wong Wai as the Kid
• Karl Maka as Master Ting
• Wu Ma as Drunkard
• Lee Chung-keung
• Chic Lau
• Tai San as Man wearing shades
• Tsang Cho-lam as Barber Cheung
• Wong Sau-man as Singer
• Ho Pak-kwong as Chiu Siu-man's Father
• Hoi Sang Lee as bodyguard
• Fung King-man as Man eating noodle
• Chiu Chi-ling as street performer
• Wong Yat-fei as Man getting scalp
• Sai Gwa-Pau as Man who chokes on noodles
• Raymond Wong as Man eating banana
• Ting Yue
• Shing Wan-on
• Chan Fei-lung
• Luk Ying-hong
• Chu Tak-wai as policeman
• Ho Wan
• Leung Hung

Box office

The film grossed HK$5,186,448.50 at the Hong Kong box office during its theatrical run from 24 December 1980 to 11 January 1981 in Hong Kong.

Reception

Sean Gilman of Seattle Screen Scene called the film a "Chaplin homage".

External links

• Laughing Times at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase
• Laughing Times at Hong Kong Cinemagic
• Laughing Times at IMDb