Easy Money

A quite nicely assembled "international intrigue" heist picture from Hong Kong, Easy Money is a thinly disguised 1987 riff on The Thomas Crown Affair. It was one of the first films produced after martial arts star Michelle Yeoh (then Khan) became engaged to Dickson Poon, the tycoon who owned the D&B production company, and marked a conscious effort to soften her image. As a result, action-oriented Yeoh fanciers are likely to be disappointed: The kung fu goddess who had pounded whimpering males into goo in Yes, Madam and The Magnificent Warriors eschews kung fu and wears dazzling designer duds as an HK heiress who stages elaborate robberies for the sheer excitement of it. Narcoleptic George Lam, a matinee idol who was already on the wrong side of 40, plays an insurance investigator assigned to entrap the heiress and suppress any hint of scandal--only to become intoxicated by the dangerous thrills she arranges for them (auto racing, hang gliding, etc.). It's lightweight fun, with picturesque globetrotting locations from England to Greece, and a lot more erotic sophistication than most Hong Kong pictures ever dabble in. --David Chute