Synopsis
半斤八兩
“Asia's top international comedy star creates the world's funniest private-eye.”
The film revolves around the exploits of a detective agency in Hong Kong called Mannix Private Detective Agency. It is headed by private detective Wong Yeuk Sze (Michael Hui) with his emotionally drained assistant Puffy (Ricky Hui). Meanwhile, Lee Kwok Kit (Samuel Hui), a kung fu expert, who works at a Vitasoy plant factory and spends most of the time doing kung fu tricks to impress a girl, ultimately loses his job. Seeking to find another line of work, Lee attempts to joins Wong's detective agency. Despite Lee's impression with his kung fu talent which involves his snatching trick, Wong was not impressed. Then, as it appears that Lee would not get the job, Wong discovers that his wallet was missing and was presumed stolen by one bystander who bumped into them. Lee intercepts him and recovers the wallet, thus impressed Wong to hire him for the job.
The 1975–1977 Hong Kong Window
38 Hong Kong films released in this three-year window, ranked here by audience rating. The Private Eyes sits at position #12.
The 1970s Hong Kong Landscape
Catalog density by release year in the 1970s. Highlighted year (yellow) is when The Private Eyes premiered. 122 total titles in this decade from Hong Kong.
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #428 of 836 Hong Kong films indexed here (49th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Among Hong Kong Comedy productions specifically: #136 of 266 (top 51%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Hong Kong |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Cantonese |
| Production Companies | Hui's Film Production Co., Ltd., Orange Sky Golden Harvest |
| Runtime | 1h 34m |
| Release Date | December 16, 1976 |
| IMDb | tt0074179 |