How 1982 Hong Kong action comedy Aces Go Places hit on the right formula for success

A happy-go-lucky hero was deemed the missing ingredient for an action comedy hit. Sam Hui was hired for Aces Go Places. 4 sequels followed

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(From left) Sam Hui Koon-kit, Sylvia Chang Ai-chia and Karl Maka in a still from Aces Go Places (1982). The action comedy produced by Cinema City spawned four sequels. Photo: Handout

Published: 4:15pm, 8 Jun 2025Updated: 8:55am, 16 Jun 2025

The five Aces Go Places action comedies shot by production company Cinema City in the 1980s represent one of Hong Kong’s most successful film series.

The first film, directed by Eric Tsang Chi-wai and starring Karl Maka, Sam Hui Koon-kit and Sylvia Chang Ai-chia, took a massive HK$27 million at the box office in 1982. A record number of people, equivalent to 40 per cent of Hong Kong’s population, bought tickets to see it.

The film’s contemporary milieu and mix of dangerous stunts, action, slapstick, James Bond-like gadgets and goofy sitcom humour were new, and viewers loved its exaggerated characterisations.

Maka’s fumbling but good-natured detective, Baldy, was especially popular, and he became a pop-culture icon as the series progressed.

“Set against the backdrop of Hong Kong’s then-economic boom, the abundance of exhilarating action scenes, in particular the deadly stunts by Ko Shou-liang in flying his motorbike through the windows of a skyscraper, thrilled movie-goers,” noted May Ng Kwan-yuk of the Hong Kong Film Archive.

The film was such a success that it catapulted the young Cinema City studio to the front rank, alongside the two established majors Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest.

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