Tam Sing who has accomplished his status as the Southern King of
Gambling Kings receives a report that one of his former masters,
Cheuk 1 Fu, has passed away. He prepares himself to go to Shanghai
for a funeral. At the same time, he plans to get ready for a game
with Do Yat Siu, the Northern King of Gambling Kings.
In some small country, Ah Lung lives everyday as a con artist
with his partner, Ah Miu (Ng Man Tat). But one day, they get caught
by the hoodlums they managed to deceive and Ah Miu is killed.
Ah Lung decides to escape to Shanghai for his future, leaving
his grandmother and his cousin Ah Bo behind.
At the port, Ah Lung encounters with Tam Sing and even works
his ways to share the same room on the ship. But when Ah Lung
attempts to steal Tam Sing's gold, Tam Sing pulls tricks to get
Ah Lung off the ship. Despite these small obstacles, Ah Lung makes
it safe to Shanghai and attends Cheuk 1 Fu's funeral, much to
Tam Sing's annoyance.
A clusmy newbie reporter Fa Tse Ling is given an order by her
superior to get a coverage of Cheuk 1 Fu's funeral. As she busily
tries to squirm some interesting news at the funeral, Do Yat Siu
makes his grand appearance and challenges Tam Sing to a game,
saying that the corpse of Cheuk 1 Fu is in his hands. Tam Sing
agrees. Meanwhile, Tse Ling meets Ah Lung right there and foolishly
entrusts her camera to him upon his honeycombed words. She later
finds out that Ah Lung took off with her camera (which wasn't
hers but her boss') and becomes furious.
Ah Lung tags along to Tam Sing to watch the game with Do Yat
Siu. Tam Sing tells Do Yat Siu that the funeral was actually held
yesterday because he knew ahead of time that Do Yat Siu would
lie about Cheuk 1 Fu's corpse to make this game take place. They
decide to do the coin flipping and the result turns out to be
a draw. They compliment each other's skills and Tam Sing announces
his retirement, much to everyone's surprise. On his way out, Tam
Sing is caught by Ah Lung who wishes to become his student. Tam
Sing is reminded of himself many years ago as he looks at Ah Lung,
then advises Ah Lung to go learn from Do Yat Siu. He throws one
important advice to Ah Lung - to never attempt to become the king
of gambling kings.
Ah Lung, disappointed that his plan backfired, then goes to Do
Yat Siu to challenge him, only to be left with humiliation in
public. He vows to get even and in the process, he meets whom
he thinks is a master gambler named Chan Yim Bak, who is in fact
Do Yat Siu's master. Do Yat Siu thought Ah Lung had a great potential
and hence sent Chan Yim Bak to guide him. Not knowing this initially,
Ah Lung continues to bug Chan Yim Bak to teach him some skills
while bad-mouthing Do Yat Siu. Cham Yim Bak finally snaps and
scolds Ah Lung for being so immature and says that he doesn't
understand why Do Yat Siu thinks so highly of Ah Lung. Realizing
his childish behavior, Ah Lung tries to apologize to Do Yat Siu
but doesn't come through easily.
In the meantime, Fa Tse Ling has her own share of troubles at
work when she is required to get some news on Do Yat Siu for losing
her camera. She persistently follows Do Yat Siu around who just
wouldn't give her a minute of his time to answer her questions.
He even throws her into a swimming pool! Tse Ling also meets Ah
Lung again and just when she is about to yell at him for her camera
deal, he gives her another (stolen) camera as a compensation and
even buys her a bigger one. While Tse Ling doesn't give a damn
about Ah Lung, he seems to take a bit of interest in her. Tse
Ling eventually calls it quits at her work and walks out, not
knowing what to do. Just then, she sees a newspaper ad for a private
tutor. She goes to the house that's looking for a tutor, only
to find out what a monsterously mischievous the boy was. The boy
jokingly asks her to jump off a tree, and when she really does,
he looks at her in a different light and becomes submissive. But
when she discovers later that the boy, Ah Chan, is actually Do
Yat Siu's son, she leaves the house - until Do Yat Siu holds her
back and pleads her to stay because Ah Chan needs some caring
hands. Tse Ling agrees to stay and becomes Ah Chan's private tutor.
Do Yat Siu, after Tam Sing's retirement, thinks that there is
no one else in the gambling business to emulate his fame. However,
he is concerned about one person, Dau Tin, who is sponsored by
Chow Dai Chin, who was once a legendary gambler. Do Yat Siu is
confident that nothing could harm him so he uses tricks to win
a contract that he and Dau Tin were fighting for. Dau Tin is very
unhappy about this and asks Chow Kong, Chow Dai Chin's one and
only son, to step into the picture. Chow Kong at first tries different
tactics to bring Do Yat Siu down, including sending men to assassinate
him, but to no avail. Realizing that Do Yat Siu's only weakness
is his son, Chow Kong kidnaps Ah Chan and Tse Ling and challenges
Do Yat Siu to a gamble. Do Yat Siu, of course, is winning until
he hears Ah Chan and Tse Ling screaming because Chow Kong ordered
Dau Tin to rape Tse Ling. Do Yat Siu is distracted and guesses
the outcome of the game, and surprisingly wins. And much to Chow
Kong's disgust, he sees Ah Lung proudly walking downstairs with
Tse Ling and Ah Chan. Ah Lung had come to save the two and beat
Dau Tin. Very grateful that Ah Lung rescued the two, Do Yat Siu
adopts Ah Lung as his brother and Ah Lung vows loyalty.
Chow Kong is in bad terms with his father's young mistress,
Wai Lan. She laughs at Chow Kong when she hears that he has lost
in bringing Do Yat Siu down. She then tells him that Do Yat Siu
has only lost to one person in his entire life, which is his ex-wife.
Taking a major pride in her beautiful looks, she then plans to
seduce Do Yat Siu but fails due to his nature of not trusting
women anymore. This upsets her greatly and seeing that Tse Ling
is the closest woman by his side, she insults Tse Ling of being
his 'secret lover.' This causes Tse Ling to be reluctant around
Do Yat Siu and when he finds out about this, he decides to avenge
for Tse Ling by humiliating Wai Lan. He first makes Wai Lan think
that he has fallen for her, then leaves her in her bedroom naked
at a party and takes off with her clothes, laughing his heart
off. After this event, Wai Lan is determined to get rid of Do
Yat Siu just as much as Chow Kong.
Just when everything is going smooth with Do Yat Siu's life,
his ex-wife comes back to Shanghai with her new husband from France.
She is back to take her son back. When Do Yat Siu refuses to give
her their son's custody, she takes him to the court and wins.
But Ah Chan doesn't wish to go with his mom and knowing this,
Do Yat Siu willingly gives up everything and escapes with his
son. Unfortunately, they are caught by the police and afraid that
Do Yat Siu would go to jail, Ah Chan voluntarily leaves with his
mom. Unable to adapt to the new environment as well as his stepfather,
Ah Chan runs away. Chow Kong and Dau Tin see this as a great opportunity
and set out to find Ah Chan first to threaten Do Yat Siu. But
the plan fails because of Do Yat Siu and his trusted men including
Ah Lung. Ah Chan begs his dad not to let him go but Do Yat Siu
tells him that he has no other choice. Afterwards, Tse Ling marches
into Ah Chan's mom's house and preaches her about what is really
right for Ah Chan's happiness. Somehow convinced by Tse Ling's
words, she realizes that she is not a good mother and comes to
Do Yat Siu's house to tell him that she'd give Ah Chan up. On
her way out of the house, she is stabbed by Chow Kong's men and
killed. Naturally, Do Yat Siu is convicted of this murder and
jailed.
At first, Ah Lung and Chan Yim Bak plan to help Do Yat Siu escape
from the prison. Do Yat Siu, being a virtuous man, refuses and
tells them that he'd stay until the truth is uncovered. Ah Lung
then conjures up a plan and seeks help from Tse Ling's friend
Yee Mun who happens to be a city council's daughter, and her forbidden
lover, knowing that Yee Mun's father can influence the verdict.
Do Yat Siu is then released. He then swears to get rid of Chow
Kong for his sufferings, by embarrassing him in front of big people.
Ah Lung is less than happy with his birth mother who left him
when he was just a baby and his half brother, Ah Wu. Ah Lung treats
his mother very coldly although that's not how he really feels
in his heart. They somehow come to a point of reconciliation and
Ah Wu even gets a job at Ah Lung's casino (owned by Do Yat Siu)
as an errand boy. Ah Lung during this time proposes to Tse Ling,
as they have been going out for quite some time now. Tse Ling
says yes much to his happiness, and much to the displeasure of
Ah Lung's grandmother (who has been living with Ah Lung for a
while after Ah Lung became Do Yat Siu's subject). Ah Lung's grandma
had always wanted him to marry his cousin Ah Bo. Ah Bo persuades
her and says that she has no intentions of getting married to
Ah Lung, although she does love him in reality.
Wai Lan, since she hates both Chow Kong and Do Yat Siu, plans
to get rid of the two at the same time. She first convinces Dau
Tin, who has been treated like crap by his master Chow Kong, to
help her out. On the day Chow Kong was supposed to meet Do Yat
Siu to kill him, she notifies Do Yat Siu of what's going on. In
turn, Chow Kong is killed in place of Do Yat Siu. This upsets
Chow Dai Chin who grieved upon his son's death. This was exactly
the plan Wai Lan had in mind - to incur Chow Dai Chin's wrath
enough to have him step into the gambling world again. Chow Dai
Chin, although he knows that breaking an oath of retirement could
cause him trouble, announces that he would be gambling again for
the sake of his son's death. This alarms Do Yat Siu and Ah Lung
but Do Yat Siu is so confident in his divine right hand that he
accepts Chow Dai Chin's challenge, which happens to take place
on the very day of Ah Lung's engagement ceremony with Tse Ling.
There was no way Do Yat Siu could lose with the cards he had,
but Chow Dai Chin somehow uses tricks to have Do Yat Siu think
that he has lost. Since Chow Dai Chin has a rule that he chops
off the right hand of anyone who lost to him, the same goes for
Do Yat Siu as well. Ah Lung is crushed to see Do Yat Siu lose
his right hand. He has always thought of Do Yat Siu as his benefactor
so he thinks it's his duty to avenge for Do Yat Siu's ordeal.
Dau Tin tries to bring Do Yat Siu's business down by implementing
his spy and causing the fight between Ah Lung and the others.
But Ah Lung, who knew this would happen already, cleverly responses
to this by ambushing Dau Tin. Chow Dai Chin finds Ah Lung very
smart and a valuable asset so he offers Ah Lung to come work for
him, but Ah Lung refuses.
Chow Dai Chin continues to tarnish Do Yat Siu's already ruined
reputation by sending a 3rd class gambler to challenge him, making
him lose and owe money. This provides Chow Dai Chin a legitimate
way to take over Do Yat Siu's business due to the accumulated
debt. Do Yat Siu, hopeless and in despair, drinks himself to exhaustion
one night and accidentally confesses his unspoken love for Tse
Ling. Ah Lung happens to be listening to all this and he then
decides to dump Tse Ling so she'd go to Do Yat Siu, which would
hopefully restore his confidence. At first, Tse Ling is unwilling
to leave Ah Lung so easily but later she is totally convinced
that Ah Lung had turned his back on her. This makes her rely on
Do Yat Siu more and they promise marriage. Ah Lung purposely becomes
Chow Dai Chin's henchman upon Chan Yim Bak's advice, to seek easier
opportunity for the revenge. This upsets many of Do Yat Siu's
loyal men. To further convince Tse Ling that he has changed completely,
he even marries his cousin Ah Bo.
Do Yat Siu decides to retire permanently with Tse Ling and his
son. Their farewell party is held on the same day as Ah Lung's
marriage with Ah Bo. This was purposely done by Do Yat Siu's men
so no one would attend Ah Lung's wedding. But Tse Ling decides
to be nice and go to Ah Lung's wedding with Do Yat Siu and Ah
Chan. Just when they are out of the party scene, the people at
the party are attacked by Chow Dai Chin's men and almost everyone
is killed there.
As Do Yat Siu and his family comes to the wedding, they discover
what happened at the party while they were gone. Chow Dai Chin
orders to execute Do Yat Siu so his men are after the 3 people,
but Chan Yim Bak comes to save them just in time. While they are
hiding, Chan Yim Bak attempts to kill Chow Dai Chin but fails.
He is captured by Chow Dai Chin and is tortured to reveal the
place where Do Yat Siu is hiding. He later has a chance to speak
with Ah Lung and he tells Ah Lung to not give up on what he's
doing. He then commits suicide. Do Yat Siu manages to get out
of Shanghai with his family and on the train, he marries Tse Ling.
Ah Wu who resented Ah Lung for being a traitor spots Do Yat Siu
later and leaves with his family to a new city.
Ah Lung's grandmother is disgusted by how Ah Lung turned so evil
in her eyes. Ah Lung is extremely depressed about this and one
day gets so drunk that he mistakes his wife Ah Bo for Tse Ling,
the woman he truly loved. This incident impregnates Ah Bo but
Ah Lung still pretends to be a traitor and even has an affair
with Wai Lan. Because of all the heartache, Ah Lung's grandma
eventually dies.
Putting his sadness and pain behind, Ah Lung collaborates with
Wai Lan and successfully brings Chow Dai Chin down, even making
him go one-eye blind. (They also got rid of Dau Tin prior to this).
Ah Lung gives Chow Dai Chin an opportunity to kill himself and
leaves him alone in the room but Chow Dai Chin escapes. Now Shanghai
is in the hands of Wai Lan and Ah Lung. Ah Lung then goes to Do
Yat Siu, who is living a not so happy life out of the gambling
spotlight. Ah Lung convinces Do Yat Siu to come back to Shanghai
and start anew, which makes Tse Ling unhappy because she wanted
to settle down with Do Yat Siu and Ah Chan out of the gambling
business. But once a gambling man would always be a gambling man
- so Do Yat Siu and his family come back to Shanghai.
Yet the new life in Shanghai isn't easy for Do Yat Siu who was
once at the top. Wai Lan is also disapproving of Do Yat Siu and
gives him a hard time. Ah Lung goes to confront her about this
and tells her that he is going to split his business with her.
Knowing that nothing could get to Ah Lung, Wai Lan captures his
brother Ah Wu. As Ah Lung rescues him, they get into an intensive
gun fighting with Wai Lan's men and Ah Wu is shot and killed,
which breaks Ah Lung's heart. Wai Lan then attempts to kill Ah
Lung but Ah Lung threatens her life instead. He decides to be
generous and lets her go, but on her way out of escape, she is
met by Chow Dai Chin and his hitmen and killed.
Do Yat Siu who has lost his confidence again because of his lost
status and fame takes his son Ah Chan and leaves Tse Ling to live
in a shack again. One night, he gets in an argument with Ah Chan
and storms out of the house to drink. Ah Chan runs after him but
is captured by Chow Dai Chin on his way. This forces Ah Lung to
have a man-to-man gamble with Chow Dai Chin. Chow Dai Chin promises
to let Ah Chan go regardless of the result. Ah Lung, since he
already knows that Chow Dai Chin can't use his cheating tactics
anymore, bets on his life. Much to his horror, Ah Lung loses when
Chow Dai Chin didn't even cheat. Chow Dai Chin, after all, had
strong foundation in his gambling skills. Ah Lung, as he promised,
gives up his life by jumping off the 9-story building. Just when
Ah Lung's life is put out, Ah Bo is in labor and gives birth to
his son.
The corpse is delivered to Do Yat Siu, along with Ah Chan. This
certainly motivates Do Yat Siu to seek revenge but with his right
hand gone, he doesn't know how. Then Tam Sing, who has retired,
reappears. Tam Sing instills confidence in Do Yat Siu and shows
him ways to train his 'left' hand to fight against Chow Dai Chin.
Tse Ling is very worried and displeased that Do Yat Siu wants
to start gambling again for the sake of Ah Lung. Do Yat Siu even
risks his health upon practicing so vigorously, and Tse Ling receives
a warning from the doctor that Do Yat Siu has a weak heart. But
nothing seems to stop Do Yat Siu from achieving what he wants
and he does eventually become very adroit with his left hand.
He then summons all the people who owe him favors from the past
in order to gather enough money to challenge Chow Dai Chin in
a gamble.
At the grand match of Do Yat Siu vs. Chow Dai Chin, everyone
is so sure that Chow Dai Chin would win. Just when the game is
at its peak, Do Yat Siu faints of a heart attack. At the hospital,
he tells his wife Tse Ling to finish the game for him because
he has the 'winning' card. Tse Ling wholeheartedly believes him
and goes back to the gambling scene full of confidence. Chow Dai
Chin at first does not believe that she has a winning card, but
given the fact that she is totally clueless in gambling, he concludes
that she must have a winning card to be so confident. So
he gives up the game. But when Tse Ling flips the card thought
to be a winning card, it turns out that it really isn't. Do Yat
Siu then walks in and says that he had planned everything for
4 months just to get rid of Chow Dai Chin. His heart attack, in
fact, was fake and he knew that Chow Dai Chin would give up the
game when he saw Tse Ling being so sure. Shocked by the fact that
he lost to a 'woman,' Chow Dai Chin jumped off the 9-story building
just like Ah Lung did, putting an end to all this mess.
Despite the fact that Do Yat Siu won, Tse Ling cannot believe
that her husband put her life at stake in a way he did. Do Yat
Siu persuades her that he was very sure of the results. He promises
her that he'd never step into the gambling business again. But
when he is offered a president position of a gamblers association,
he is tempted to accept that offer which makes Tse Ling very unhappy.
She tells him that she is going to leave Shanghai and is taking
Ah Chan with her. On the night they are supposed to leave, Do
Yat Siu has a party with the gamblers and is unable to say his
goodbye to them. Half way into the party, Do Yat Siu and the others
are met by a mass shooting instructed by an ambitious man who
sought to become the King of Gambling Kings himself. Do Yat Siu
too is shot in his heart but maintains enough strength to kill
the man. In the end, he rushes himself to the train station where
Tse Ling and Ah Chan just took off, but doesn't make it as his
life drains out of his body.
Whew! This was one damn long summary wasn't it?
|
By
far my most favorite character ever played by CYF, as well as
in this series. He is the witty and suave conman from a country
who's trying to make it in a big bad city called Shanghai. A fearless
individual at first, he challenges the best gambler in the city
only to be stripped naked and charcoaled out in the open street
to people's mockery. But being a smart guy he is, he shapes up
and vows loyalty to Do Yat Siu. With his smooth tongue, he almost
marries a cute little Miss Fa, but the downfall in the series
won't permit this... 
An
inexperienced accident-prone reporter in the beginning, her first
encounter with Ah Lung isn't all too charming. He unintentionally
steals her precious camera when they first meet, but that becomes
an excuse for him to pursue her. After she quits her job of being
a reporter, she is hired as Do Yat Siu's little son's private
tutor. Her motherly nature and affection towards both Do Yat Siu
and his son are revealed but halfway through the series, she gives
into Ah Lung's determined love for her and becomes engaged to
him. 
A
very successful gambler + businessman in the city of Shanghai.
He is one of the two top gamblers (the other one being Simon Yam)
and because of this, he is challenged and hated by many. During
his earlier days of poverty and suffering, his wife left him when
their son was just a baby. His son, Ah Chan, is very precious
to him and he'll do anything to keep him safe. He adopts Ah Lung
as his brother and sets his plans to become the ruler of the city
but his biggest obstacle is Chow Dai Chin, a legendary gambler.
All hell breaks loose when he is involved in the killing of Chow
Kong, Chow Dai Chin's only son. 
