Asian Film Review: Poker King (撲克王, 2009)

I bought the DVD for a few days ago in a somewhat spontaneous decision...  I have been playing a lot of Zynga Texas Hold'em on my iPad lately and then 'God of Gamblers Returns' was showing on TV the other day...    so when I saw this in the video store I decided to finally check it out.

Definitely not a classic gambling movie like God of Gamblers,  but for what it is,  entertaining enough.   Louis Koo plays the dorky estranged son of a late Macau casino mogul who ends up getting cheated out of his inheritance by the replacement business manager played by Lau Chingwan.   

Of course eventually he fights his way back and the two end up battling at the finals of the Poker King championships.

Josie Ho, Jo Kuk, Jacky Heung, Hiro Hayama and Cherrie Ying are among the supporting cast that make this film relatively entertaining for what it is...     as with all these types of movies, they try to tack on a date-friendly subplot with a girl, this time played by sugary sweet Stephy Teng...   (personally Cherrie's more my cup of tea,  but that's another story... )

Jo Kuk is under used as Lau's security / assistant... one strange thing... she apparently doesn't get paid very well,  in half of the movie she's wearing the same outfit.  It looks like this:

(yes, they even made her wear it at the press conference!)  The film also features some cameos by real life poker champions as a bit of fan-service...  I guess for those who care that's a bonus.   The poker itself is par for the course for movie poker... an inordinate amount of pocket K's and straight flushes.... it's to be expected.

I'll give it a barely 'fresh' 6/10.  If you're not a fan of the genre or cast, you probably won't enjoy it. ... either way you'll have to bear through the romance subplot. :-P