King of Beggars

The heir of a wealthy and powerful family falls for a young woman with a mind of her own, and she makes a demand before she will accept him: he must prove himself a master of kung fu. Unfit for anything physical, he enters a martial arts tournament anyway, and wins it, but the victory costs him everything. Stripped of his money and his standing, he ends up living on the streets, where he meets a beggar he had once helped. The film follows what he makes of himself from there, as he takes on the role of a people's hero caught up in a threat to the emperor.

Gordon Chan directed this 1992 Hong Kong production, his second film chronologically after Fight Back to School and ahead of Fight Back to School 2. He shares screenplay credit with John Chan Kin-Chung and Albert Mak Kai-Kwong, while Charles Heung and Tenky Tin Kai-Man produced. Stephen Chow stars as the fallen heir, with Sharla Cheung as the woman he pursues, Ng Man-tat as General Su of Guangzhou, Vindy Chan Wai-Yee as Tracy, and Norman Chui Siu-Keung as Chiu. The blend of action, comedy and drama runs 96 minutes.

Audience response has been moderately warm and consistent: on IMDb the film holds 6.9 out of 10 across roughly 4,600 votes, and on TMDB it sits at 7.1 out of 10 from around 159 votes.