Hail The Judge is a 1994 Hong Kong comedy film starring Stephen Chow, his co-star Ng Man Tat, Sharla Cheung Man and Lawrence Ng.
Upon making a wish on a night with a full moon as a child, Pao Lung Sing (Stephen Chow) aspires to be an official. However, he is widely despised by the public for his money-digging ways.
When a noble family is massacred and the sole survivor, Chi Siu Lin (Sharla Cheung), is raped and framed for the murder, Pao Lung Sing embarks on a journey to bring her proper justice and to take down the corrupt judges.
- All Men Are Perverts: Played for Laughs when three officials of increasing rank note visit the brothel to seek Yu Yin... and say exactly the same thing every time she threatens to scream for help.Yu Yin: Sir, don't do this. I'll scream for help!
Suitor 3: Scream all you want! It's useless!
Yu Yin: [exasperated] How come all men are like this? - All of the Other Reindeer: Pao at first is hated by everyone for being a lowly acting magistrate and taking comically small bribes to side with the wrongdoers. He is harassed, has traps set up around his home, and has a stinky bean curd dish named after him. His reputation would be rehabilitated a bit for capturing Panther and eventually he becomes a respected official for vowing to bring justice to Mrs. Chi.
- Amoral Attorney: Fong Tong Kan (Lawrence Ng) is a famous lawyer but instead of bringing proper justice in court, he resorts to bribery and evidence tampering to have things work out his way.
- Bittersweet Ending: Played for Laughs. Shang Wai is executed, the corrupt judges are fired and are subjected to public shame. Pao is Happily Married to his two wives, and has also stolen the Emperor's underwear. But the Emperor passed away... from syphillis, thus Pao and everyone immediately regret sniffing his underwear and throw it away in a panic.
- Break Them by Talking: Quite literally when Auntie San engages in quarrels, as Nifuo Lai Lai gets blown away and falls over by the impact of her words. Later done again when Pao quarrels with her and her prostitutes and this time blows away an entire brothel off their feet.
- Butt-Monkey: Fong Tong Kan in the final trial gets insulted by Pao, beaten up to point he gets a black eye, then gets his mouth slapped the same way as Mrs. Chi and then knocked out cold. Given his Jerkass nature, it's deserved.
- Chekhov's Skill: On his way to meet the Judicial Secretary, Pao briefly stays with an acrobatic troupe. There, he learns to throw knives and swallow swords. Skills that later come in handy during his audience with the Emperor and to defuse a situation with a Ming-era sword note during the retrial.
- Child by Rape: The child Mrs. Chi gives birth to is revealed to be fathered by Shang Wai... or so it seems, until Pao reveals he used Shang Wai's real son for the blood test in order to bait him into accidentally admitting to his crimes that night.
- Closet Shuffle: The result of successively higher ranking officials demanding to visit Yu Yin, which eventually forces Pao, Panther, and the Emperor to hide under her bed.Auntie San: There are enough people to play mahjong down there!
- Ethical Slut: Auntie San may be the head owner of a brothel and once bragged about seducing men while as young as 10, but supports Pao in becoming the Supreme Judge to bring justice to Mrs. Chi's case.
- Everyone Has Standards: Eunuch Li, upon Shang Wai blurting out he did rape Mrs. Chi on the night he murdered her family, disowns him and bails on the trial.
- Expy: Panther is played by Elvis Tsui, and shares the exact same appearance as Ao Bai in Stephen Chow's previous film Royal Tramp. Like Ao Bai, he is an official skilled in martial arts that antagonizes Pao, played by Stephen Chow. Though unlike Ao Bai, he has a Heel–Face Turn at the end of the movie.
- Failure Montage: Pao quite thoroughly botches his circus training, being a complete novice to it. He riddles an unfortunate performer with throwing knives while blindfolded, leaks water after lying on a bed of nails, and snaps the blade while learning to sword-swallow.
- Foreshadowing: Pao's father, a former corrupt official, tells Lung Sing his nickname used to be "anything can be straightened and even the dead can be revived". True to form, Pao does the same (but literally) once he perfects his quarrelling technique.
- Gosh Darn It to Heck!: Invoked in the final trial where the Magistrate doesn't allow any swearing but Pao requests to be granted special rights, and thus is only allowed to damn someone's mother.Pao Lung Sing: Damn your mum's mum!
- Guile Hero: Pao would even weaponize his own negative reputation to defeat Panther. At the retrial, he seemingly arranges a blood test to check the paternity of Siu Lin's newborn child but actually uses Shang Wai's own son to get a positive result and goad him into accidentally confessing.
- Hard-Work Montage: Pao has one where he trains his mouth and learns how to quarrel like Auntie San, eventually his insults are so effective it unbends a pole, revives someone from the dead, and makes rivers explode.
- Hate Sink: Shang Wai, Magistrate Chan Pak Cheung, and Fong Tong Kan are all characters designed to be despised by the audience, the former being a rapist and mass murderer, and the latter two being corrupt officials. Thankfully they all get their comeuppances at the end of the movie.
- Hope Spot: After a long journey, Pao reaches the Judicial Secretary to file an Imperial appeal and retry Siu Lin's case. Unfortunately, the secretary is allied with Shang Wai's father and they throw Pao out onto the capital's streets to live as a beggar and wanted criminal.
- Historical Domain Character: Fong Tong Kan (Fang Tang Jing in Hanyu Pinyin) and Li Lianying
note were historical characters. While the Emperor was not named, he was heavily alluded to be the Tongzhi Emperornote . - I Take Offense to That Last One: After being imprisoned for attempting to re-investigate the case, Pao is informed that he's being sentenced to death for the crimes of colluding with robbers, smuggling arms, pushing an old lady into the sea, and fornicating with a pig. Pao immediately retorts he's not guilty... of that last crime!
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Shang Wai had the case be turned so Mrs. Chi was the murderer and be backed up by Fong Tong Kan and Chan Pak Cheung. All seems well for them until Pao gets promoted to Supreme Judge by the Emperor, he reopens the case and was able to deduct the inconsistencies to the tampered evidence, revealing Shang Wai to be the real culprit who massacred the Chi family.
- Killed Offscreen: The Emperor passes away at the end of the movie from syphilis.
- Magic Potion: A medicine formula of the Chi family, which restored the reproductive abilities of Siu Lin's late husband. Following the retrial, Pao retires and opens a medicine shop with the formula.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": Played for Laughs in the very last scene where Pao steals the Emperor's underwear and shares it with others for them to smell the aroma. After the Prince announces that he died from syphillis, Pao and everyone around him throw the underwear in a panic.
- Motor Mouth: Auntie San when she quarrels, Pao takes after her example.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- When Loi Fook confesses that Tong Kan bribed him to take part in the framing of Mrs. Chi, Tong Kan shouts at him for outing him, which Loi Fook immediately takes the chance to use his breakdown as evidence.
- Shang Wai, when the blood test conducted on the child reveals for him to be the father, denounces the possibility of Mrs. Chi getting pregnant after he raped her. Which causes Eunuch Li and his wife to disown him and at that point there was nothing left for him but execution.
- Non-Action Guy: Pao, justified as he is an official and not a martial artist. When the Emperor makes him Supreme Judge, Panther is assigned as his bodyguard for life.
- Off with His Head!: Shang Wai gets executed via guillotine.
- Paper-Thin Disguise:
- Following two encounters with angry crowds outside the entrances, Pao finally manages to leave his home unnoticed by wearing a small moustache.
- After escaping from prison and noticing the "Wanted" posters with his face on them, Pao manages to evade detection again... by pulling a face when Yau Wai alerts the crowd.
- Produce Pelting: How the lower classes express their displeasure against corrupt officials.
- Punny Name: The names of the brother-sister duo note leading the acrobatic troupe are homophones for "I can't say" and "Don't mention it" in Cantonese. Unfortunately, the joke is Lost in Translation on Netflix, where they are called Stone Talk and Stone Mansion in the subtitles.Pao Lung Sing: May I know your name?
Stone Mansion: Ng Ho Tai (don't mention it).
Stone Talk: Ng Kwong Tak (I can't say).
Pao Lung Sing: How secretive. - Rape as Drama: Siu Lin on the night her in-laws were murdered.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The wealthy upper class families, who resort to corruption in order to win their court cases against the lower classes and evade justice.
- 13 Is Unlucky:
- Pao Lung Sing is his father's 13th son, his previous 12 brothers having all met untimely deaths that Pao's father considered divine punishment for his former corrupt ways.
- During his rampage, Shang Wai massacres 13 members of the Chi family... and their dog.
- Title Drop: Done with the film's Chinese title note , which Fong Tong Kan uses to mock Pao Lung Sing.Fong Tong Kan: [dismissive] He's just a junior official. Is he worthy of being insulted by me, Fong Tong Kan?
- Viewers Are Geniuses: The poem quoted by Loi Fook is part of a real poem written by Song poet Qin Guan.
- Villainous Breakdown: Shang Wai has one when he is sentenced guilty and physically resists execution.
