Stephen Chow gives slapstick a whole other meaning. Like many of his movies he provides a humor that is very visual and easy to understand. So very accessible for a large (international) audience. In "Fighting back to school" there are some jokes that require knowledge of the Cantonese language. But because these jokes are accompanied by some visual sketch you do get what it all is about. While "Fighting Back to School" is a pure comedy there is just enough action to keep those fans happy. It is well know fact that Stephen Chow is a huge fan of Bruce Lee. He also tries to show it in many of his movies. In "Fighting back..." there are some scenes which are a obvious tribute to the Master. I couldn't discover any direct parodies on certain movies. But it is my guess that "Fightin back..." is some sort of take on teen high school movies produced in Hollywood. But who cares ,it doesn't matter because Stephen Chow movies are fun. Just watch it!
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chrichtonsworld25 February 2008
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harryasimov21 January 2020Another wacky film by Stephen Chow, had a great time watching this.
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crossbow010630 June 2008A successful comedy which spawned two sequels, essentially this story is about a Hong Kong policeman who poses as a student at Edinburgh College to find out who from that school stole the favorite gun of his boss. Star Chow (thats his name in the film) always hated school and he is taunted by other students and teachers, save for the pretty Miss Ho. It seems he spends a lot less time trying to find the gun and more time trying to save himself from getting in trouble at school. This film is a pretty good slapstick comedy with some action. Its not surprising that it was popular, it flows well, and Stephen Chow is good in the role. I don't know about the sequels (yet), but I think you'll enjoy this.
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paul_haakonsen13 January 2021I had the chance to sit down to watch the 1991 Hong Kong action comedy "Fight Back to School" (aka "To hok wai lung") here in 2021. I hadn't even heard about the movie prior to now, although I am quite familiar with Stephen Chow.
I will say that "Fight Back to School" was indeed an entertaining movie, albeit a little bit on the generic side as for the storyline. But it was a watchable and enjoyable movie, nonetheless.
The storyline told in "Fight Back to School" is about an adult police officer having to go undercover at a local high school in order to retrieve his boss's lost pistol. But life in high school is not as easy as one would think.
There are a good amount of laughs in the movie, and this is definitely an archetypical Stephen Chow movie. So if you enjoy his movies, then you know what you are in for here, and he doesn't disappoint with this 1991 movie.
While this movie had a cast of mostly unfamiliar faces for me, and I am a big fan of the Hong Kong cinema, I will say that the cast for the movie were doing good jobs with their given roles and characters.
"Fight Back to School" is actually an archetypical Hong Kong action comedy, of which they spewed out similar movies by the dozens back in the early 1991, so there is a good sense of familiarity if you enjoy those particular movies from that era.
This was a wholesome movie, entertaining and enjoyable. My rating for "Fight Back to School" is a six out of ten stars. -
boblipton28 December 2022Stephen Chow is a gung ho SWAT member who always saves the captives.... although his team members don't always survive in the training exercise. Now, however, he has a chance for a big promotion: recover the retiring Police commissioner Barry Wong's gun from whichever high school student stole it by going undercover with the help of already undercover Man-Tat Ng; his cover is he's the janitor with Parkinson. There's also pretty teacher Man Cheung, who wants to help the new, wayward student, fellow pupil Gabriel Wong, who organizzes a gang around Chow, and a gun-smuggling operation for him to sort out.
There's a 22 Jump Street vibe her,e with Chow finding it rather difficult to fit in, and not just because he can't do trigonometry. While the story develops in an efficient fashion, there are plenty of comedy set-pieces, ending up in a burlesque of all those hall-of-mirror sequences that have infested the movies since Orson Welles first brought them to the movies' notice. -
kyrat3 July 2006The usual amusing Hong Kong martial arts/comedy from Stephen Chow. As with many of his other films (All for the Winner, God of Gamblers 2)- his "uncle tat" is also present. I don't find him that amusing, but I guess Stephen needs a straight man.
The usual amusing antics, fight scenes and physical comedy ensue.
One of the funniest moments I've seen in a film (and I don't usually like crass humor) was when Stephen is forced to chew the "gum" (actually a condom) and manages to blow a bubble! Don't miss the outtakes from this scene in the closing credits.
P.S. This seems to have been filmed during the Gulf War and I found it interesting that Stephen Chow would be wearing a Saddam Hussein tshirt in the film. Was this to express solidarity with Iraq against the (first) US invasion? Was this supposed to be an ironic comment the way some kids think it's funny to wear a Charles Manson shirt? -
GIB 016 October 2000Fight Back to School is a sometimes childish, but very funny movie that all ages can enjoy. Perhaps it can be compared to the Naked Gun, but less silly and more focused. The story concerns an officer named Star Chow who must go undercover as a student to recover a stolen gun. Not the brightest of people in terms of math and science, you can probably guess the type of comedy that follows. Much of the comedy looks like it belongs in a cartoon show, but it is all very well done and never seems out of place. In one scene, while taking a history exam, Star tries to cheat by using his cell phone to call his partner outside for answers. His partner calls the department and the comedy begins. The most "capable" of officers are called into a room in the department and frantically seach for the exam answers as Star's partner outside throws a banana up behind the class window to inform him that the answer is "b". This is the type of comedy that basically runs throughout the film, so if it's the kind that makes you laugh, perhaps you should give it a look. I saw this film many years ago on a small screen TV during a trip, so I had forgotten most of it. Recently I watch the DVD, and recommend it to Hong Kong movie fans looking for some comedy. There's a bit of everything, even some kung fu action.
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funkyfry12 February 2009I liked this film, but I have to say that something about it is lost in the translation. Or so I have to assume because it's a very popular movie in China, with several sequels I believe, while watching it with subtitles it was only occasionally amusing. But there were some laugh out loud moments, and I assume that it has a lot more humor that I just can't access because of the language barrier.
Chow plays Star Chow, a rookie cop who's sent to a school undercover to find a cop's missing handgun -- sort of like "Stray Dog" meets "21 Jump Street." He's an excellent fighter, but not a natural leader, so his school experiences basically serve to make him understand the value of working together with others to accomplish a common goal. He also falls in love with a pretty schoolteacher who takes an interest in him (Sharla Cheung), and befriends an eccentric janitor/spy (Man Tat Ng -- Chow's coach in his more famous later film "Shaolin Soccer").
The chemistry between all the leads is excellent. The school fight scenes have some of the same flavour as Chow's later film "CJ7." Chow himself is very funny with his deadpan expressions and so forth. But this film lacks some of the visual nuance of his own directorial efforts, or of some of his later films with Vincent Kok. It lacks resonance and becomes just a diversion. But not a bad one at that. -
kwongers7 January 2007One of the best Stephen Chow movies. Although it lacks the polish and CGI of his latest efforts, "Shaolin Soccer" and "Kung Fu Hustle," this movie is still hugely entertaining and essential viewing, especially if you like Chow's special brand of "moleitau" (nonsense humor).
Chow plays Star Chow, a cop who goes undercover as a student in order to find a missing gun. He is understandably annoyed, shouting at his senior, "I wanted to be a cop so I didn't have to go to school anymore!" He gets to display a huge range of hilarious, ticked-off expressions. Plot is thin, but who cares: after all, this movie is just a stage for Chow to show off his impeccable comic timing, slapstick, and nonsense humor. The familiar supporting cast is also strong.
Chow has to deal with a myriad of things as an undercover at school: professors that throw chalkboard erasers at him, student gangs and cliques, homework, tests, girls, etc. This is great comic material and Chow rises to the occasion admirably. There's a hilarious scene where he cheats on his Chinese history test by calling up the police station and asking the chief to give him the answers. Other hilarious scenes include him failing to turn in his homework and being subject to public humiliation, fitting in with his classmates, dealing with an absent-minded science professor, and developing a crush on one of his teachers.
Compared the "Kung Fu Hustle" and "Shaolin Soccer," this movie is less accessible to Western audiences because of the abundance of verbal comedy. It is still a very funny movie with tons of slapstick, but it's even funnier if you understand Cantonese because a lot of the comedy comes from Cantonese slang and Chow's intonation. However, I've shown this movie to friends who don't understand Cantonese at all and they have all loved it.
Bottom line: One of Chow's best. This movie is a good example of why audiences love Chow and why he was one of the biggest HK box-office draws in the 90s (he still is a big box office draw). He oozes winning charisma and charm. Laugh-out-loud funny. Highly recommended. -
coltras3517 January 2023Star Chow is about to be kicked out of the Royal Hong Kong Police's elite Special Duties Unit (SDU). But a senior officer decides to give him one last chance: Star must go undercover as a student at the Edinburgh High School in Hong Kong to recover the senior officer's missing revolver.
Another Quality HK comedy starring Stephen Chow, who has to go back to school undercover as a student so he can find his senior officer's "kind" pistol - kind because he uses its nozzle to scratch his back - and ends up having a difficult time in school as he soon becomes known as an awful student, but as predicted he wins his fellow students over with his charm. The jokes are quite funny, Chow and Tat make a formidable comic team, and Man Cheung gets the temperatures soaring. There's some action, mainly in the beginning and the end. Chow is quite a nifty fighter. Things, however, can get tiring towards the end, but overall a very good comedy with a killer gag scene where Chow calls Tat for answers to his exam and the whole police team help him out. -
Captain_Couth27 August 2005Fight Back To School (1991) was a hilarious comedy that starred Stephen Chow as a cop who goes undercover at a local high school. His assignment? Find the Captain's (Barry Wong) favorite hand gun. He lost it and believes that someone in the high school might know the whereabouts of it. Being a man in his late twenties, he has to convince the head master (Dennis Chan) that he's a seventeen year old kid. Whilst at school, he develops a rush on a teach (the ever hot Cheung Man) an befriends a lovable nerd (Gabriel Wong) and his crew of misfits.
Will Star Chow fend of the strict Miss Leung (Yuen King-Tan)? Confront the shady Brother Teddy (Roy Cheung) about the missing gun? Does he discover something more than a simple robbery case? To find out you have to watch FIGHT BACK TO SCHOOL. A highly enjoyable comedy that'll tickle your funny bone!
Highly recommended. -
Leofwine_draca26 July 2022FIGHT BACK TO SCHOOL is the first in a Stephen Chow trilogy and very familiar if you know the works of the comedy star. He plays an undercover cop who bizarrely enrols as a high school student in order to retrieve a stolen gun from a gang leader who's using the school as a base for gun smuggling. Campy stuff indeed, and as usual for Chow it's an excuse for random slapstick comedy, surrealistc humour, romance and extremely broad characters and situations. As ever, how much you enjoy it depends on your liking of Chinese humour, but there's a bit of action here too and Chow certainly looks good doing it.
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madbird-612437 March 2021One of the best comedy by Stephen Chow in coperation with Ng. Cannot hold the laughter watching it thirty years after its production. An everlasting classic that last through generation to generation. Ng will not be forgotten....a for apple, b for banana.........
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OllieSuave-00727 January 2016In this action comedy, Stephen Chow stars as SWAT team leader Detective Sing Chow, who goes undercover at a high school to retrieve a stolen gun for the Commissioner.
As with many of Stephen Chow's films, this one has no shortage of slapstick humor and ridiculous action-comedy. Chow proves he could do action as well when he tries to deal with the ammunition smugglers when they raid the school and hold a group of students hostage. In the mist of all the mayhem is a touch of romantic humor courtesy of Sing's affection with school official Miss Ho (Sharla Cheung).
A little goofy here and there, but this is a pretty good film and is rather entertaining.
Grade B -
coconutkungfu-3070416 February 2020This great Stephen Chow comedy is very entertaining and features his usual great chemistry with Ng Man Tat. The story is fun and the supporting cast does a great job. A usual, Cheung man is a great female lead for a Chow film. Gordon Chan + Stephen Chow is a great recipe and this film proves it. If you liked this you have to check out the even funnier sequel.