Wits of the Brats (Chinese: 南斗官三鬥北少爺, or simply 南斗官北少爺) is a 1984 Hong Kong action comedy film directed by Wong Jing and Alexander Fu Sheng in his directorial debut, who also stars in the movie.
He tries to convince his sister that her son is not worthy of inheriting her wealth but ultimately fails when Tou Kuan and his friend and servant Mai Song quickly clean up the mess, threaten his teacher and pretend to be studying, which impress his mom.
Shih Chun reluctantly agrees to split Tou Kuan's wealth in half as a payment after the assassin threatens to kill him.
They manage to find one of the northern "Young Masters" named Che Zai, who is actually con artist, in a restaurant.
Che Zai has massive wealth including collections of western luxurious good and a flintlock pistol that Tou Kuan purchases.
Barely escaping, Tou Kuan is given a yellow magua vest as a gift by Che Zai for supposed immunity from the law, though it is actually fake.
Upon arriving at the thief's home, an English-speaking elderly maid named Mary warns them not to meet "3 Hands" or they'll regret it.
Impressed by the thief's abilities, Tou Kuan challenges him to steal his valuable jade locket before sunrise in the Russian consulate.
Mai Song and the other two "Young Masters" later arrived at the room, thinking Tou Kuan is having fun with the Russian woman, until they enter and engage in a fight against the assassin.
After a long battle, "3 Eyes" is finally defeated when the assassin is incapacitated on a spike torture device and killed by the combined weight of the four men with Zhen-hao wearing heavy knight armor.
[9] Fu died in a car accident in July 1983, leaving the film unfinished, along with two other Shaw Brothers Studio projects.
[12] The film was theatrically released on 25 May 1984 in Hong Kong,[13] and the Kung Sheung Evening News described the audience response as positive.
[14] The film "reveals a tart parodic wit and a flair for humorous staging", according to Gary Bettinson in the Directory of World Cinema.
"[16] The review website onderhond.com gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5 starts, writing, "Jing Wong learned the tricks of the trade under the watching eye of the Shaw Brothers.
Wits of the Brats is a pretty typical Shaw Bros production, at the same time it's interesting to see how Wong starts to introduce his own touches, both in front of the camera and from his comfy director's chair.
The plot about a trickster who likes to make a fool of others is something Wong would recycle (quite a lot) in his later work, only this time it's done in a more Shaw Bros-appropriate setting.
It's a rather strange mix of two worlds colliding, an intermediary film that helps connect two distinct eras of Hong Kong cinema.