Running on Karma

Running on Karma
Movie poster
Traditional	大隻佬
Simplified	大只佬
Directed by	Johnnie To Wai Ka-fai
Produced by	Johnnie To Wai Ka-fai
Written by	Wai Ka-fai Yau Nai-hoi Au Kin-yee Yip Tin-shing
Starring	Andy Lau Cecilia Cheung
Music by	Cacine Wong
Cinematography	Cheng Siu-Keung
Edited by	Law Wing-cheung
Production company	One Hundred Years of Film Milkyway Image
Distributed by	China Star Entertainment Group
Release date	27 September 2003 (2003-09-27)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese English Hindi
Box office	HK$26,339,848

Running on Karma (simplified Chinese: 大只佬/大块头有大智慧; Literal Title: Big Guy/Big Guy has big wisdom; traditional Chinese: 大隻佬), also known as An Intelligent Muscle Man, is a 2003 Hong Kong action thriller film produced and directed by Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai. It is ultimately a Buddhist parable about the nature of karma. There were some cuts in the Mainland China edition to meet the requirements for release there.

This is the second film starring Andy Lau in which he wears a prosthetic suit. In his previous film, Love on a Diet, he wore a fat suit, while in this film, he wears a muscle suit.

Big (Andy Lau) was a Buddhist Monk, but he gave up this occupation when he realized he could see a person's past life, which would mean he would be able to predict what would happen to that person because of Karma. Big then became a bodybuilder and worked in a strip bar when he ran into Lee Fung-yee (Cecilia Cheung). Lee was working as an undercover cop in the CID which busted Big in his strip show, but Big became entangled in another police case to catch a murderer when he tried to escape.

While Big was running away from Lee's pursuit, he saw a police dog and has visions of the dog's previous life. The dog was previously a child who beat up dogs, and the dog was shot by a stray bullet meant for the criminal. This was the first time that Big showed his ability to see the past, and later saw the past life of Lee, a Japanese soldier killing civilians.