Dicey Business

In 1996 in the Philippines, Hong Konger CHAI FOON-CHONG is leading a down and out life. He meets CHOW FOOK-WING, who is also from Hong Kong and who is also alone here, by chance. The kindhearted WING puts him up in his place. He even pays off CHONG’s gambling debts from time to time, hoping that he can one day regain his confidence. Six years have passed, but CHONG has not really changed. He gambles away ten thousand US dollars of WING’s. Just as CHONG wants to run away from WING’s questioning, he finds that someone has taken WING away. CHONG bumps into KIU CHING-CHO, his opponent in the International Poker Tournament ten years ago, when he is looking for WING. To his surprise, the ten thousand dollars actually belong to CHO. To save WING, CHONG gives his passport to CHO, who promises to give it back to him when his debt is cleared. It turns out that it is a ploy of WING and CHO to help CHONG pull himself together……

WING asks CHONG to return to Hong Kong to see his parents. CHO knows that CHONG is ashamed to see his parents because he had lost his younger brother twenty years ago. CHO comes up with the idea of betting on WAN with CHONG to motivate him to go back to Hong Kong. Luck has been on WAN’s side and she has won a lot of money. WING and MEI encourage her to go back to Hong Kong. CHO asks MEI to take WAN to the airport. WAN thinks CHO is a good boss, not knowing that he is actually using her to bet with CHONG. While CHO is sending WAN away, CHONG uses a trick to make WAN return to the casino. A man with the name of YUNG CHI-WAI has won a huge sum. Even CHONG fails to affect him with his bad luck. WAI is found cheating. CHONG finds a few men suspicious. He follows them but is attacked. He faints. WAN has lost all her money. She sells her mobile phone so that she will have the money to buy a ticket to go back to Hong Kong……

CHONG is saved by some police officers. CHONG buys WAN’s mobile phone so that she has the money to gamble again. CHONG decides to return to Hong Kong. WAN is in a blackout at the casino. WING takes her to the treatment room. As a matter of fact, WAN was exhausted and fell into sleep only. CHO sends WAN back to Hong Kong with CHONG. CHONG returns to where he lived, only to find that it has become a commercial building. Coveting the ten-odd thousand dollars that CHONG has bought along with him, WAN invites him to stay at her spare apartment, where reclusive young man CHEUNG LAI-FU also lives. On hearing WAN has lost her parents in an accident when she was small, CHONG determines to look for his. CHONG runs into an old neighbor of his. His neighbor tells him that his parents have already died. CHONG cries his heart out.

According to his neighbor, his parents had found out that their youngest son had returned to Hong Kong from the States with someone. CHONG stumbles over the bottle FU uses to store his urine. CHONG flies into a rage while FU seems to be paying no attention to him. Furious, CHONG throws away all of FU’s belongings. FU rushes to the rubbish dump to look for his things, among which is a deck of cards, on which is a photo of CHONG’s younger brother as a child. Living under the same roof, yet neither CHONG nor FU knows that they are brothers. FU revenges on CHONG by turning off the water when he is taking a shower. He also sticks the keyhole of the door with glue so that CHONG cannot enter the apartment. In anger, CHONG calls FU parasite. FU is missing. WAN looks for him with CHONG and tells him the pathetic life experience of FU. WAN takes some counterfeits to Mainland China for trading. CHONG and FU help her deliver the goods……

WING has also arrived in Hong Kong. He wants CHONG to stop CHO from a gambling duel with SUNG CHING, who has once killed his opponent. The first thing CHO does when he arrives in Hong Kong is to visit his mother, who has gone insane due to gambling and now lives in an old people’s home. CHONG visits CHO at his hotel. But instead of discouraging him, he discusses with CHO about how to beat CHING. WING can do nothing but to devise his own ploy. However, CHO sees through him and locks him up in the washroom of the hotel room. CHONG accompanies CHO to his duel with CHING, who defeated CHONG twenty years ago right after his brother had gone missing. Based on a photo of CHONG’s younger brother as a child, WAN’s uncle generates a photo of how he should look like today with computer software. WAN’s aunt asks her to go on a blind date. WAN finds out that her date does not turn out to be as good as she expected……

WAN has found FU a job at a restaurant. The captain of the restaurant does not value FU. FU uncovers the captain’s cheating in a card game. The captain complains to WAN. WAN, who does not know the whole story, gives FU a good dressing-down. FU runs away from home again. CHONG has done everything he can to help FU stand up again but his effort proves futile. CHONG vents his anger on FU’s belongings. He finds the deck of cards he had given to his younger brother as a child. CHONG wants to reunite with FU but FU is missing again. YING, a good friend of WAN’s, puts up in her place to hide from her creditor. YING lures WAN into going to Macau to gamble with her. CHONG has been looking everywhere for FU but FU is nowhere to be found. CHO finds FU at last. He takes FU to buy some new clothes. FU feels that CHO is the only person in the world that truly understands him. CHONG meets with his brother……