Chicken and Duck Talk (Chinese: 雞同鴨講; Jyutping: Gai tung aap gong; literally "Chicken with Duck Talk") is an award-winning 1988 film co-written by Michael Hui, who also starred. It was directed and co-written by Clifton Ko. The film deals with the conflict that ensues between the proprietor of a BBQ duck restaurant that is in trouble for health violations and the fast food chicken restaurant that opens across the street. The film was the highest-grossing Hong Kong film released in 1988. Hui's screenplay and performance won him several awards, including a special award given by the American Film Institute in 1989.
The film also includes a celebrity cameo by Sam Hui (Michael's younger brother), as the master of ceremonies at the grand opening of Danny's Chicken, and the screen debut of Gloria Yip in a brief appearance as Hui's son's school friend. Sam Hui (playing himself) speaks the title phrase to cut his speech short.
The title is a Chinese idiom for people not understanding each other.
Famous quotes containing the words chicken and, chicken, duck and/or talk:
“Clogged and soft and sloppy eyes
Have lost the light that bites or terrifies.
There are no swans and swallows any more.
The people settled for chicken and shut the door.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“Unhappy, eagle wings and bleak, chicken brain.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“She shall get a duke, my dear,
As duck do get a drake;
And she shall have a young prince,
For her own fair sake.”
—Unknown. Green Grass (l. 9–12)
“They talk about their Pilgrim blood,
Their birthright high and holy!
A mountain-stream that ends in mud
Methinks is melancholy.”
—James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)