From Riches to Rags

From Riches to Rags (Chinese: 錢作怪) is a 1980 Hong Kong action comedy film. It was written and directed by John Woo, starring Ricky Hui and Johnny Koo.^[1]

From Riches to Rags
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	錢作怪
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin qián zuò guài Yue: Cantonese Jyutping cin2 zok3 gwaai3
Directed by	John Woo
Written by	John Woo
Produced by	Raymond Chow
Starring	Ricky Hui
Music by	Sam Hui
Production company	Golden Harvest
Release date	7 October 1980 (1980-10-07)
Running time	101 minutes
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese

In the film, a nouveau riche millionaire is convinced that he is dying from cancer. Getting suicidal, he hires contract killers to kill him. He soon realizes that he is healthy, but he is unable to call off his own assassination. He survives the assassination attempts, but becomes unhinged during his stay in a mental hospital.

Plot

After buying a winning lottery ticket, factory workers Ah Ying and Fatso become millionaires overnight. However, a prediction by a fortune teller and a mix-up with a doctor leads Ah Ying to believe he is going to die from cancer. Not wanting to suffer, Ah Ying decides to commit suicide, but is afraid of it being painful.

While on a rooftop, he meets a poor suicidal man, who gives all his money to Ah Ying, under the condition that he hires a hitman to kill him. When Ah Ying realizes he is not going to die after all, he and Fatso tries their best to call off the assassination, and has to tackle not one, but 3 hitmen. The ensuing chase leads all of them to a mental hospital, where they got mixed up with various mental patients in the chaos.

In the end, all the hitmen are killed and the police has arrived to deal with the chaos, but Ah Ying and Fatso have become slightly crazy as a result, with both of them starting to befriend the mental patients in the hospital.

Cast

• Ricky Hui as Ah Ying
• Johnny Koo as Fatso
• JoJo Chan Kei-Kei as JoJo
• Lam Ching-ying as knife killer