Hang kwai

1st watched 9/7/2002 - 4 out of 10 (Dir-Marco Mak): Ultra violent heist movie with heist gang doing jobs for a mafia-like leader. Lots of similarities to the Godfather-type of family doing dirty deeds for the big guy so he can make money. This movie is an example of a style over substance movie that does a lot of things visually, but the story doesn't lead us down too many directions and doesn't make us interested enough. Very similar to many of the recent action movies that the US has put out that carry the same `action' over `dialogue' mentality. This one didn't keep me on-the-edge of my seat enough to be considered a good action movie.

The formulaic "bullet ballet" genre made in Hong Kong in the 1980s and 1990s can wear out the viewer quite quickly, yet so many of them were made. This one does not follow the formula and I enjoyed it from start to finish.

Spoilers of course, to play by the rules, but this movie is almost 20 years old.

The formula is first broken by making the bad guys the lead characters and sympathetic to the viewer. The good guys would be the cops but the movie would play almost as well without any cops at all. Everyone starts killing each other so that turns the movie into a mystery. The mystery is "Who will be alive (if anyone) in the final scene?"

My money would not have been on Lam Suet. Here's my applause to this unsung actor. He has a face you will never forget but not in a good way. Despite the lack of good looks, the flabby body and total lack of any martial arts skills, this actor played in over 200 movies most of the action genre. He is usually killed off in the first fifteen minutes. In this movie – there's your spoiler along with a serving of fermented stinky tofu.

I rate it 7.0 and much more favorably than any of the other reviewers here.