It is set in 1930s Hong Kong and is an adaptation of Frank Capra's Lady for a Day (1933) and Pocketful of Miracles (1961), which in turn were based on "Madame La Gimp", a 1929 short story by Damon Runyon.
Miracles features many well-known Hong Kong actors, including Anita Mui and Wu Ma, and is considered one of Jackie Chan's most sophisticated directorial efforts.
Kuo Cheng-Wah is a kind-hearted country boy who is quickly cheated out of all his money by Tung when he arrives in Hong Kong.
Depressed and destitute, he encounters Madame Kao, a poor woman selling flowers on the street; she urges him to buy a red rose, saying it will bring him luck.
When singer Yang Luming comes to him with money to pay off a debt the previous boss had loaned to her dad, Uncle Hoi comes up with the idea to open a nightclub.
The letter is from her daughter, Belle, a student in Shanghai whom Madame Kao has been supporting, all the time while concealing her sufferings and leading her to believe that she is a rich society woman in Hong Kong.
Through Luming's persuasion, Kuo offers to help, buying Madame Kao expensive new clothes and arranging a lavish party for her, to which he invites some of his disreputable friends, including Tung as her husband (that he almost did not remember), on the condition that they impersonate the local dignitaries.
Madame Kao is about to confess to Belle's fiance and her father the truth when the real dignitaries come in for the party, Kuo having convinced them that he could not do this without them.
In the interview with Chan on the Hong Kong Legends DVD, he talks about the notable differences between how US directors shoot their films in comparison to his own methods.
Kuo glances at Tiger and then the camera sweeps left to a top view shot of Yang Luming singing in front of her dancers.
[3] The film's production was beset with problems, including a reported typhoon that destroyed many of the film sets and forced a rebuild in order to finish the production;[citation needed] and Chan sustained an injury, a deep cut over his left eye, while performing a stunt in which he flipped backwards onto a rickshaw.