The Private Eyes (1976): cast, story & where to watch

Released in 1976, The Private Eyes is a comedy and thriller film directed by Michael Hui, running about 94 minutes. “Asia's top international comedy star creates the world's funniest private-eye.” — that tagline sets the tone.

What it’s about. The film revolves around the exploits of a detective agency in Hong Kong called Mannix Private Detective Agency. It is headed by private detective Wong Yeuk Sze (Michael Hui) with his emotionally drained assistant Puffy (Ricky Hui). Meanwhile, Lee Kwok Kit (Samuel Hui), a kung fu expert, who works at a Vitasoy plant factory and spends most of the time doing kung fu tricks to impress a girl, ultimately loses his job. Seeking to find another line of work, Lee attempts to joins Wong's detective agency. Despite Lee's impression with his kung fu talent which involves his snatching trick, Wong was not impressed. Then, as it appears that Lee would not get the job, Wong discovers that his wallet was missing and was presumed stolen by one bystander who bumped into them. Lee intercepts him and recovers the wallet, thus impressed Wong to hire him for the job.

Who’s in it. The Private Eyes stars Michael Hui as Wong Yuk-see, Sam Hui Koon-Kit as Lee Kwok-kit, Ricky Hui as Pighead and Angie Chiu as Jacky, among others.

How it landed. With an audience score of 6.3/10, The Private Eyes has drawn a solid, mixed-to-positive response.

Where to watch. Streaming options change often. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch The Private Eyes page.

If you liked it. Fans of The Private Eyes tend to enjoy Forrest Gump, Parasite, Life Is Beautiful and Fight Club.