Great Pretenders (film)

Great Pretenders
Film poster
Traditional Chinese	千王
Simplified Chinese	千王
Hanyu Pinyin	Qiān Wáng
Jyutping	Cin1 Wong4
Directed by	Ronny Yu
Screenplay by	Raymond Wong
Produced by	Clifton Ko
Starring	Raymond Wong Tony Leung Simon Yam Amy Yip
Cinematography	Sander Lee
Edited by	Ronny Yu
Music by	Lam Manyee
Production companies	Mandarin Films Ko Chi Sum Productions
Distributed by	Golden Princess Amusement
Release date	16 May 1991 (1991-05-16)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese
Box office	HK$4.3 million

Great Pretenders (Chinese: 千王) is a 1991 Hong Kong comedy film edited and directed by Ronny Yu and starring Raymond Wong, Tony Leung, Simon Yam and Amy Yip.

Taiwanese swindler Mr. Giant (Teddy Robin) loses in a poker match against Hong Kong swindler Wong Seung-chin (Raymond Wong) and they become sworn enemies. Meanwhile, Wong's apprentice Snake Wai (Tony Leung) meets Susan (Lok Wai), a widow who has recently returned to Hong Kong from Singapore. Planning to con a large sum of money from her, Wai sets up a plan with his acquaintances Yam Sai-sung (Simon Yam) and Yip Mei-mei (Amy Yip). However, Susan turns out to be swindler as well. Unable to salvage a fortune from Susan, Wai, Sung and Mei become indebted to her. In desperation, Wai seeks help from his mentor who wins back all the debts they owed Susan. Susan then becomes acquainted with Wong and his apprentices and they work together to swindle profiteer Lung Cho-tin (Leung Tin). They able to acquire HK$2 million form Lung very easily. Not wishing to be cheated, Lung hires Mr. Giant to battle against Wong.

The theme song of the film is Only Remembering the Old Deep Love (只記舊情重) composed by Joseph Koo with lyrics by Thomas Tang sung by Liza Wang.

Andrew Chan of the Film Critics Circle of Australia gave the film a score of 2/10 and wrote "The Great Pretenders is by no means a good movie. In fact, it is terrible and hard to finish…"^[1] Hong Kong Film Net Archived 5 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine gave the film a score a 6/10 and wrote "The Great Pretenders certainly isn't an example of great cinema from Hong Kong, but it is good enough to set aside ninety minutes of your life for, especially if you're a fan of the actors involved."^[2]

The film grossed HK$4,333,406 at the Hong Kong box office during its theatrical run from 16 to 28 May 1991 in Hong Kong.^{[citation needed]}

• Great Pretenders at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase
• Great Pretenders at Hong Kong Cinemagic
• Great Pretenders at IMDb