''Crazy Stone'' () is a 2006 Chinese

black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

film directed by

Ning Hao Ning Hao (; born 9 September 1977) is a Chinese film director. Ning studied at the Taiyuan Film School, where he majored in scenic design. He later transferred to the Art Department of Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public ...

and produced by

Andy Lau Andy Lau Tak-wah ( zh, order=t,j, t=劉德華, j=Lau4 Dak1 Waa4; born Lau Fook-wing; 27 September 1961), is a Hong Kong actor, singer-songwriter and film producer. He was named the "Fourth Tiger" among the Five Tiger Generals of TVB in the 1 ...

. It was immensely popular, earning 6 million RMB in its first week and more than 23 million RMB (US$3 million) in total

box office A box office or ticket office is a place where ticket (admission), tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a Wicket gate, wicket. ...

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

, despite its low budget (3 million HKD/US$400,000) and cast of unknowns. The movie was shot digitally on HD cameras and produced as part of Andy Lau's "FOCUS: First Cuts" series.

Plot

When a precious jade stone is discovered in an old outhouse, the owner of said outhouse and the surrounding buildings suddenly finds himself with the financial clout to withstand the buy-out pressure of an unethical developer who wishes to build a large building on his plot. The owner, intending to display the stone to the public, puts his dedicated chief of security in charge of keeping it safe. But with the stakes running high, this is easier said than done. The developer hires a high-tech cat burglar from Hong Kong to steal the stone, the owner's wayward son sees the jewel as the perfect symbol of wealth and hatches a plan to use it to increase his chances at getting laid, and a gang of three con-men who hear about the jewel see it as their ticket to the big time. These three groups find themselves in direct competition and, finding their attempts foiled as often by the security guard as by each other, become more and more desperate as the film progresses.

Style

''Crazy Stone'' is uncommon in that the entire movie is spoken in a mishmash of

varieties of Chinese There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the m ...

, with

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

and

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

dialects, as well as various

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

ese (Cantonese) idioms used to great comedic effect. As is relatively common in Chinese humor, many jokes are

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

s or other plays on the language: for example, after one of the main characters crashes into a

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

, the angry owner shouts that his car is a "Bié Mō Wǒ" (别摸我, which means "Don't touch me"), a deliberate play on the actual

initialism An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial letter of each word in all caps wi ...

. The film also pays homage to or is influenced by a number of films, both foreign and domestic. The scene in which a black suited thief tries to steal the coveted jade stone by descending from the ceiling attached to a rope is a reference to the American television series '' Mission: Impossible'', for example. Similarly, one of the final scenes, which features a fight in an elevator, is a reference to the ending of the famous Hong Kong movie ''

Infernal Affairs ''Infernal Affairs'' () is a 2002 Hong Kong crime drama film directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak (director), Alan Mak from a screenplay written by Mak and Felix Chong. The film stars Andy Lau, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong ( ...

''.

Notes

External links

*
Danwei.org
article on ''Crazy Stone'' and Piracy {{Ning Hao 2006 films 2000s Mandarin-language films Sichuanese-language films Chinese black comedy films 2006 black comedy films Films set in Chongqing Films directed by Ning Hao