King of Beggars

Su Can, a highly-skilled martial artist, is the lazy, spoiled and illiterate son of a wealthy general in Guangzhou. While visiting a brothel, he meets and gets romantically attracted to Rushuang, a Beggar Clan member who has disguised herself as a prostitute to take revenge against Zhao Wuji, a high-ranking official who killed her father. Rushuang agrees to marry Su if he gets the top position in the imperial military examination.

Accepting the challenge, Su takes the examination and beats the other candidates in the physical tests, while his father helps him cheat in the written test. Just as Su is about to receive the honour of the top position from the emperor, Zhao accuses Su of cheating and exposes the fact that Su is illiterate. As punishment, Su and his father are condemned by the emperor to live as beggars. While enforcing the emperor's decree, Zhao breaks Su's legs, rendering him unable to practise martial arts again.

Su sinks into despair and spends most of his time sleeping. He and his father join the Beggar Clan, but he is too ashamed to face Rushuang. By chance, he encounters an elderly beggar who helps him recover and teaches him the "Sleeping Arhat" fighting style. Later, he tricks the Beggar Clan into naming him their new chief by pretending to be possessed by Hong Qigong's spirit. Thereafter, he learns the clan's legendary skill "Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms".

In the meantime, Rushuang has been captured by Zhao, who hypnotises her and attempts to use her to assassinate the emperor. Su leads the beggars to rescue Rushuang, crossing the Great Wall. He confronts Zhao and eventually defeats him, saving both Rushuang and the emperor.

In the end, the grateful emperor asks Su what reward he wants, to which Su replies that he prefers to remain a beggar. Su and Rushuang are married and they wander the streets with their children, using a tablet from the emperor to force rich people to give them money.

^{[1][better source needed] [2][unreliable source?]}

The film's theme song, "The Long Road Accompanies You on Your Adventures" (長路漫漫伴你闖), was sung by George Lam in Cantonese.^{[citation needed]}

King of Beggars was released in Taiwan in December 1992. The film was among the highest grossing Chinese-language films of 1993 in Taiwan, earning NT$41.88 million.^[3]

King of Beggars was the third highest grossing film in Hong Kong for 1993, where it grossed HK$38.62 million. It was topped by Flirting Scholar and Jurassic Park at the 1993 Hong Kong box office.^[4]