Today’s quick review: Once a Gangster. After 20 years in a gang, Roast Pork (Jordan Chan) wants to retire so he can manage his legitimate restaurants and spend time with his wife Nancy (Michelle Ye). But when his boss Kerosene (Alex Fong) tries to make Roast Pork his successor, Pork must come up with a convincing excuse to let Swallow (Ekin Cheng), a well-connected gang member who was just let out of prison, take the promotion instead.
Once a Gangster is a Hong Kong crime comedy about a gangster trying and failing to leave the criminal life behind. The story involves an inverse power struggle in a street gang, where everyone qualified to become the new boss wants nothing to do with the job. Once a Gangster has a premise that is ripe for comedy, and some of its jokes hit the mark. However, tonal inconsistencies and a shaky plot make it a rough watch overall.
Once a Gangster has fun playing its criminals against type. Pork and his fellow gangsters are shallow, easily distracted, and prone to petty lies. Seeing them take a straightforward situation and make it worse is one of the main draws of the movie. Once a Gangster also scores hits with some of its character dynamics, such as a clueless gangster (Conroy Chan) failing to spot an obvious undercover cop (Wilfred Lau).
But apart from these isolated successes, Once a Gangster struggles. The story has a promising premise but never finds anything interesting to do with it. The power struggle within the gang quickly gets mired in irrelevant tangents, and by the time it limps to a conclusion, there is very little reason to care. The movie also has trouble sticking to a tone. It skews heavily towards comedy but seems to lose sight of this on occasion.
The result is an inconsistent comedy with a few good ideas but lackluster execution. Once a Gangster may be worth a watch for fans of Chinese comedies, and it does attempt a style of humor that is not that common. But the movie finds itself outclassed by other comedies that can manage fun characters and an engaging story at the same time. Most viewers should steer clear.
For a Chinese martial arts comedy that handles similar characters with more skill, try Kung Fu Hustle. For a Chinese crime movie with a historical setting and a similarly varied tone, try Hero, starring Kaneshiro Takeshi. For a more effective crime parody, try Johnny Dangerously. For a more ludicrous one, try Mafia!.
[5.8 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1611840/). I give it a 5.5 for flashes of good comedy with a weak plot to hold them together.