Royal Tramp

Royal Tramp is a 1992 Hong Kong film based on Louis Cha's novel The Deer and the Cauldron. The film was one of the five top grossing Hong Kong films in 1992; Stephen Chow, who played the protagonist Wai Siu-bo, also starred in the other four of those films. The film was followed by a sequel, Royal Tramp II, in the same year.

This article is about the 1992 film. For the 2008 TV series, see Royal Tramp (TV series).

Royal Tramp
Film poster
Traditional鹿鼎記
Simplified鹿鼎记
MandarinLù Dǐng Jì
Directed byWong Jing
Produced byStephen Shiu
Jimmy Heung
Screenplay byWong Jing
Story byLouis Cha
StarringStephen Chow
Sharla Cheung
Ng Man-tat
Natalis Chan
Sandra Ng
Chingmy Yau
Damian Lau
Brigitte Lin
Deric Wan
Music byWilliam Hu
CinematographyDavid Chung
Joe Chan
Edited byChuen Chi
Production
company
Distributed byGolden Harvest
Release date
  • 30 July 1992 (1992-07-30)
Running time
110 minutes[1]
CountryHong Kong
LanguageCantonese
Box officeHK$40,862,831.00

Plot

Wai Siu-bo is a bard known for his quick wit and tall stories. One day, the police ambush Chan Kan-nam, the leader of the revolutionary Heaven and Earth Society, at the brothel where Siu-bo and his sister work, and also where the Emperor happens to be having a secret meeting with his advisors. Siu-bo saves Chan Kan-nam and asks him to teach him kung-fu in return. Chan Kan-nam accepts and inducts Siu-bo into the Heaven and Earth Society as his apprentice, with his first assignment being to infiltrate the palace as a laborer and steal some secret materials. Members of the society's identities are marked by the four characters of the organization on their feet, but Chan Kan-nam only manages to write down two on Siu-bo's left foot before he flinches from ticklishness.

On the day of the palace recruitment, Siu-bo accidentally stumbles into the eunuch room before being saved by Hoi Tai-fu, the palace's head eunuch, to secretly work for him as well, and retrieve from the Empress Dowager's chambers her copy of the Sutra of Forty-two Chapter. All of his previous lackeys have died mysteriously, and he uses a technique to force Siu-bo into compliance by tapping him with a move that normally dissolves the victim's bones instantly, but gives Siu-bo about a month and can be reversed, if he is successful in his mission. Hoi Tai-fu needs to use a proxy due to his loyalty to the Emperor, because he does not trust the Empress Dowager, whom he believes is not who she says she is, and fights her in disguise to rescue Siu-bo after he makes a mistake during his attempt to steal the Sutra, revealing that the Empress Dowager is indeed not who she claims to be, outmaching Tai-fu with her combat prowess.

Amidst the conflict, Siu-bo inadvertently befriends the Princess whom he at first assumes is another eunuch, and the Emperor, who after he amuses them both with his tales and struggles to put up a decent fight, offers to give Siu-bo both his copy and the Empress' copies of the Sutra if he can defeat the Emperor in a fight, even giving Siu-bo an edict to deliver to Tai-fu that says he cannot be mean to Siu-bo and must teach him any fighting style he wants to learn. Settling on a chest-grabbing move, Siu-bo does defeat the Emperor after grabbing his crotch, which results in him learning that the two he believed were eunuchs are in fact the Emperor and Princess. Before anything can be done about the situation, one of the Emperor's seditious Generals, Oboi, bursts in to make demands. When Siu-bo successfully maneuvers the Emperor around a political confrontation with Oboi, and the Princess uncovers that Siu-bo is not a eunuch himself, he is promoted to the position of spy for the Emperor, told to keep an eye on Hoi Tai-fu and Oboi.

The Princess, enamored with Sui-bo, has her way with him that evening. When the Empress Dowager finds them in the bedroom afterward, she threatens to kill him before Hoi Tai-fu once again interferes. They deliver critical wounds to each other, bringing the fight to a standstill. Siu-bo then accidentally injures Hoi Tai-fu, mentally damaging him. Now, Hoi Tai-fu is incredibly obedient and mimics everything Siu-bo does. And with Hoi Tai-fu incapacitated, Siu-bo is promoted once more to an official.

After Oboi killed another courtier, the Emperor assigns Siu-bo and To-lung, a royal guard, to devise a plan to deal with him, which includes everything from hidden daggers and poison to using Hoi Tai-fu's immense strength to chop off Oboi's head. But Oboi proved too strong for their plans. Provoked, Oboi fights back and easily tears down the Emperor's defenses. When he repelled Hoi Tai-fu's strike, the impact reverted him to his former self but even he is no match for Oboi, though he reveals that Oboi's weak point is his crotch. Siu-bo, remembering the Empress Dowager's prowess, rushes to her chambers, where she quickly subdues Oboi. Unable to reveal her fighting capabilities to the Emperor, the Empress credits Siu-bo for everything, who is then promoted once more and given Oboi's assets, including his copy of the Sutra.

With Oboi imprisoned, Chan Kan-nam intends to stage an assault on the palace to kill both him and the Emperor before Oboi's lackeys break him out. He bequeaths twin female bodyguards to Siu-bo and orders him to coordinate for the attack from the inside. Unable to disobey his master, Siu-bo reluctantly returns, but not before his master removes Tai-fu's bone-dissolving effect. Distracted by the Princess' obsession with him, his bodyguards are forced to chase her away, where they all discover a hiding place where the real Empress Dowager is imprisoned.

The phony Empress Dowager interrogates him on what he has learned from the Sutras. When Siu-bo, illiterate, fails to deliver or bluff his way out, she throws him into Oboi's prison where her previous attack left him weakened due to numerous dragon hairpins being jammed into various parts of his body, and Siu-bo just out of reach of Oboi's chains. When Oboi's lackeys arrive to break him out, Siu-bo is taken hostage and carried into the woods. There, they meet the Heaven and Earth Society on their way to infiltrate the palace. Oboi and his brothers decimate Chan Kan-nam's forces before Kan-nam does the same to Oboi's lackeys, but with the surprise arrival of Ho Tai-fu, who sacrifices himself in battle, they manage to expose Oboi's weak point thanks to a technique Siu-bo learned from his sister and defeat him. Suffering from injuries, Kan-nam is advised by Siu-bo to retreat for now, as the palace guards are arriving to ascertain the disturbance outside the palace walls.

The false Empress Dowager arrives to finish Siu-bo but not before the palace guards surround them. The false Empress tries to pin the blame on Sui-bo and expose his ties to Kan-nam, but Siu-bo's feet bear different symbols than are supposed to be on the feet of members of the Heaven and Earth Society, discrediting her. Unable to keep the farce up when the Princess brings out the real Empress Dowager, she leaps high into the air to escape. And with all the fighters either dead or missing from the scene, Siu-bo takes credit for the death of Oboi and uncovering the true identity of the Empress and is promoted to a duke. Elsewhere, the false Empress transforms back to her true form and vows to come back for Siu-bo, who will not recognize her next time.

Cast

References
  1. HD 鹿鼎記(HD Royal Tramp)-上映場次-線上看-預告-Hong Kong Movie-香港電影 (in Chinese), retrieved 7 December 2020
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