Film

My Lucky Stars

Name: My Lucky Stars
Genre: Action, Comedy
Released: 1985
Cast: Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, Eric Tsang Chi-wai, Richard Ng Yiu-hon

A gloriously silly action-comedy where Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung's mismatched cops recruit a gang of lovable misfits to chase a rogue detective and ninja assassins across Tokyo. It's fast, funny, and stuffed with inventive fight choreography that treats the whole thing like a playground. For anyone who wants their action movies to crack jokes and their jokes to have stunt work behind them.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love slapstick ensemble comedy where a gang of scruffy old pals bickers, bluffs and bungles its way through a chase with a Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung sort of physical wit, the kind that leaves you grinning at a stunt you didn't see coming.

Skip it if you want a tight, serious crime thriller or find broad, mugging humour wearing thin, since much of the fun rests on loud gags and a plot that mostly serves as a clothesline for the fights.

What it asks of you: It runs about ninety-six minutes and moves at a brisk clip, asking you to stay loose and let the chaotic set pieces and cheerful squabbling carry you rather than track any careful plotting.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Police Story1985

Jackie Chan's signature blend of death-defying stunts and comedy perfected. He plays a cop fighting corruption with fists, feet, and improvised props—every scene is a mini-masterpiece of physical timing.

But The plot is thinner than tissue paper, and some jokes land harder than others. It demands you care more about the stunts than the story.

Wheels on Meals1984

Sammo Hung's masterpiece. Three friends run a food truck while getting tangled with gangsters. The fight scenes are so creative they feel like dance numbers, and the chemistry between the leads is electric.

But The tone whiplashes between slapstick and genuine peril. Some viewers find that jarring rather than fun.

Winners & Sinners1983

The first Sammo-Jackie pairing after their orphanage days. Five ex-cons bumble through heists with heart and humor. It's where this whole gang-of-misfits formula started, and it's infectious.

But The pacing is chaotic, and Hong Kong cinema of this era has a *specific* sense of humor that doesn't always translate. Some jokes feel broad now.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from My Lucky Stars

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Hard Boiled1992

Both are Hong Kong action films of the same era, but Hard Boiled takes the violence seriously while Lucky Stars treats it as a playground. Watching both shows you the full range of what the industry was doing.

John Woo's operatic gunslinger film. Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung as cops in a bloodbath. It's stylized violence as art—every bullet means something, every scene is composed like a painting. It showed the world what Hong Kong action could be.

But It's intensely violent and emotionally bleak. There's no comedy here, just beautiful, devastating mayhem. It's the serious answer to Lucky Stars' playfulness.

Project A1983

Jackie Chan as a coast guard fighting pirates. The stunts are genuinely breathtaking—he rides motorcycles, falls from buildings, and makes every gag feel dangerous. It's pure action cinema joy.

But The plot exists mainly to string scenes together. If you need narrative coherence, this will frustrate you.

Eastern Condors1987

Sammo Hung directs a team of misfits on a Vietnam War rescue mission. It blends action, comedy, and actual emotional stakes. The fight scenes are inventive, the humor is genuine, and everyone commits completely.

But It's longer than it needs to be, and the tonal shifts can feel uneven. The war setting gives it heavier moments that don't always mesh with the jokes.

The Magnificent Butcher1979

Sammo Hung plays a kung fu master's student seeking revenge. The fight choreography is extraordinary—balletic and brutal at once. It's a showcase for what Sammo could do when the story mattered to him.

But It's slower-paced than his comedies, and the revenge plot is fairly standard. If you're here for laughs, this tilts too far toward serious.

Drunken Master1978

Jackie Chan's breakthrough: a young martial artist trained in a ridiculous but devastatingly effective drunken fighting style. The finale is a clinic in improvisation and pain tolerance. Pure cinema adrenaline.

But It's choppy in places, and the comedy can feel slapstick-heavy. The plot is basically a framework for training montages and fights.

Dragons Forever1988

Three heroes—Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, and Cynthia Rothrock—investigate a chemical plant while fighting kung fu masters. It's a late-80s action time capsule with genuine chemistry between the leads and inventive sequences.

But By this point, the formula is wearing thin. The environmental plot feels halfhearted, and some of the comedy hasn't aged gracefully.

Police Story 3: Super Cop1992

Same star, same era, same basic mission structure, but utterly different in tone and ambition. Supercop is what Lucky Stars could grow up to become.

Jackie Chan as an undercover cop infiltrating a drug cartel. It's Hong Kong action cinema grown up—smarter, faster, more dangerous. The stunts are still death-defying, but the stakes feel real and the script crackles.

But It's significantly darker and more plot-heavy than Lucky Stars. If you want goofy gang-of-misfits fun, this is too serious and too fast.

City Hunter1993

Like Lucky Stars, it prioritizes gags and stunts over narrative logic, but City Hunter pushes that logic to breaking point—it's what happens when you stop pretending the plot matters at all and just make it funny instead.

Jackie Chan as a private detective on a luxury cruise ship. Directed by Wong Jing, it's pure chaos: action, slapstick, video game references, a Street Fighter costume bit. It's absurdist and delirious and somehow works because everyone's committed to the bit.

But It's messy and weird and the plot dissolves into nonsense. The humor is broad and specific to Hong Kong cinema of the era. Some of it feels like inside jokes you're not in on.