Though he's better known for his work in dramatic movies such as The Stool Pigeon nowadays, back in 2003, producers were still trying to smash Nick Cheung into Stephen Chow's "nonsense comedy" mold, often with dubious results. While Fate Fighter still has a feeling that Cheung doesn't quite fit into the proceedings, it's overall an okay comedy picture with gambling overtones.

The story revolves around two half-brothers, Lo (Cheung) and Tin (Alex To), who were born on the same day and both turn out to be gifted gamblers. But while Tin is able to turn his skills into a fortune, Lo seems to be jinxed and is regulated to living in a tenement. On the eve of the brothers' 30th birthday, Tin is informed that only one of the duo will be able to keep their gambling ability, which should be decided in a gambling duel. Trouble is, Lo has sworn off of gambling due to his bad luck negatively affecting the people in his life, including his would-be girlfriend, Fa (Kristy Yeung).

While Fate Fighter can't really be classified as being hilarious and up to the level of upper-tier comedy/gambling movies like God of Gamblers II, it's not bottom of the barrel groan-inducing dreck, either. Nick Cheung gives an affable enough performance and is backed up with a solid supporting cast, in particular Sam Lee, who plays a character named Dark Hole Angel (aka Asshole Angel) that has a powerful (and more than a bit homoerotic) obsession with Lo that results in some of the film's funnier gags.

Unfortunately, the gambling scenes don't fare nearly as well, as they depend on weak-looking and extremely dated CGI effects and a nebulous tweaking of traditional game rules in order to attempt to generate excitement for the audience. As this is the case, Fate Fighter limps to its' disappointing finish, as the final gambling duel results in being little more than a glorified session of 52 pick-up that would be more suited for a couple of kids messing around on the playground instead of a showdown between two of the world's most talented gamblers.

RATING: 5