The film begins haphazardly, with the plot all over the place, the camera matching it and a soundtrack that belongs to a different film. Once it settles down and star Donnie Yen appears things improve. It’s not a patch on director Wilson Yip’s subsequent film with Donnie – the wonderful Dragon Tiger Gate, but it becomes increasingly watchable. Donnie gets to show off some of his martial arts moves and has climactic fights with a charismatic punk hit man (Wu Jing) and the legendary (though portly, ageing and injured) Sammo Yung. There’s also a surprisingly heavy ending you won’t see coming.
Overall, there’s nothing new here and it will make no new converts to Honk Kong crime thrillers, but it’s a visceral and watchable piece of cinema. The DVD also contains a good commentary as well as an analysis of the main fight scenes by Donnie himself.