An attempt to establish a new Hong Kong action film standard.
A near retired inspector and his unit are willing to put down a crime boss at all costs while dealing with his replacement, who is getting in their way. Meanwhile, the crime boss sends his top henchmen to put an end to their dirty schemes.
-IMDB
So halfway through watching this, I realized that I’ve actually seen the film before. I don’t know where, but it was due to watching one of Donnie Yen’s fight scenes on YouTube.
The general vibe of the movie is that Dirty Harry style policing has a sharp karma ready to even the score. Think A Better Tomorrow, Police Story if Jackie Chan was a bad cop or… Lethal Weapon. The bad cops don’t get any redemption and ultimately get the good cops in trouble or even worse, killed.
The bigest problems are with character motivations and immersion. Sammo Hung at the time was in his 60s, and supposed to be a respected mob boss and a master martial artist capable of taking on Donnie Yen? Yea, right. Meanwhile Simon Yam does his job badly, adopts a kid and still dies from brain cancer instead of going home to be a family man? How did the Hong Kong police not force compulsory retirement?
Re-screened November 11, 2023 on Tubi.
