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Taking a break from his heavier Heroic Bloodshed titles of lead characters dying (The Killer, Bullet in the Head, A Better Tomorrow Trilogy) , John Woo returns back to genre which he branded his own with a more playful subject:

Two brothers and their sister (raised under a strict art thief father) clear the debt they owe their father by engaging in high-risk heists. A High Valued French painting is believed to be cursed , whomever attempts to steal the painting dies. This Super-Valued Painting , along with a hidden triangle of love between the three con-artist , are the main themes of the movie

And of course , it features some high class gun-fu featuring Leslie Cheng doing Tom Cruise stunt flips before Tom Cruise was even a thing

John Woo's "Once a Thief" is a pretty entertaining movie which is original and clever like most other Woo films. It's mostly a suspense thief picture with lots of comedy mixed in with a romantic love-triangle and a little bit of Chow Yun-Fat/John Woo gunplay action of course. There is never any blood -let in this rather light film. I think John Woo wanted to tone down the violence and put more suspense/comedy in his well-known balance scale. It's pretty obvious when the usually trigger-happy Chow Yun Fat spares the life of a threatening gangster and kicks him out of a window instead. That might be along the "Die Hard" Hollywood terms, but for loyal Chow and Woo fans, it's very surprising. The storyline is one of Woo's most simple and innocent, but it set the film up for a couple of robberies which will grip you until the end. Leslie Cheung is dead serious and good as always, Chow Yun Fat is in his "Better Tomorrow II" mood: his lighter, more comedic mode which is somewhat more likeable. This mode is usually used for Woo's lighter, less serious films which don't need much acting. Chow's "Killer" serious mood is what made him famous for, but he doesn't suit that mood as well as this movie's character does.

Chow Yun Fat, Leslie Cheung and Cherie Chung make an attractive trio of art thieves who are double-crossed by gangsters after pulling off a job. Naturally they plot revenge. The story emphasis here is on elaborate and suspenseful heists being played out, and on charming banter amongst the main trio of characters, with the violent gun action largely reserved for the finale. The tone is lighter than most of Woo's film of this period, and the characters are more enjoyable. The glossy look reminds the viewer of the elaborate heist movies in vogue in the middle 60s, such as The Pink Panther or Topkapi and this one is similarly enjoyable time-passer.

The penultimate HK picture of action-tastemaker John Woo before he was signed up to conquer Hollywood-land in 1993, ONCE A THIEF reunites Chow and Cheung from Woo's most esteemed A BETTER TOMORROW franchise, teams up with Cherie Chung (who would soon get married and retire entirely from the screen) in this ultra-breezy ménage-à-trois caper, which, at the start, sets its adventurous background in an exotic France, then after the midstream, routinely retreats back to Woo's turf to anticipate its bullets-flying homestretch.

The film is super fun to watch, on account of the charming facade of those three Hong Kong screen icons. Joe (Chow), Jim (Cheung) and Cherie (Chung) are three orphans raised and trained by a sinister crime boss Chow (Tsang) as professional thieves, meanwhile they also befriend with another father figure, the kind-hearted cop Chu (Chu). Joe and Cherie become an item when they grow up, and Jim holds back his affection to Cherie. In France, they successfully steal a Modigliani's painting, but their next mission goes amiss, resulting in a heavily-armed skirmish and Joe is presumably dead. Jim and Cherie return to Hong Kong in despondence, and their romance blossoms, then a wheelchair-bound Joe shows up unexpectedly and reticently gives them his blessing. The trio reconcile like old-times, only now Joe is the third wheel in their good rapport. More urgently, they have to settle the old scores with Chow, and Woo leaves a very wayward twist to temper the picture's trigger-happy excess, as if he tellingly tips off audience that don't take the story seriously, it is a jolly ride, just enjoy the experience.

The emotion tangle of the triangular relationship could have been developed into a more complex and heart-tugging structure since they are all able players, although a cordially comic gaiety seeps thoroughly into the narrative thanks to Chow's chameleon-like swagger (including his wheelchair dance routine) and Cheung's wet-behind-the-ears ardor, which leaves Chung most of the time like a pretty foil. Also the good dad/bad father trope doesn't really register under such black-or-white and cartoonish impetuosity.

The action set pieces are flashy at their best, churning-out at their worst. They may look dashing at first glance, but soon plummet into passable effects borne out of a shambolic manufacture, a sign of the times of HK film production. One particularly WTF scene materializes when Jim sawing a wooden plank under the bottom of a barreling lorry, which is transporting precious artworks of Musée du Louvre, on which planet, the lorry would have a wooden bottom? Which instantly snatches audience out of the credentials of the trio's teamwork. Moreover Violet Lam's synthetic score doesn't help, it is sheer obtrusively objectionable to one's ears.

ONCE A THIEF is a jaunty divergence from John Woo's more polished, bullet-ridden and heroic fraternity bravura, but shackled by the incoherent attribute between a heads-in-the-clouds lark and a dead-serious survival strategy at gunpoint, the entire experience is a mixed-bag of thrill, embarrassment and frivolousness, often in a cyclical fashion, before one's investment runs dry.

This film is in a different vein to John Woo's other films, the body count is lower than in any other of his heroic bloodshed movies. He uses martial arts more than in any other, and the infinitely charismatic Chow Yun Fat, played his role more like Benny Hill than clint Eastwood(Although Mr Chow, versatile as he is can play comedy just as well as his silent assassin, or the take no prisoners cop.) The departure from the standard Woo, high bodycount, 2 hour long shoot out type of film come from the fact that he had just made his two darkest films "The Killer" and "Bullet in the head". "At that time the world thought I was a very pessimistic guy" said Woo "but I just wanted to show to the world that I was actually an optimisic guy. I always think there's hope and beauty in the world" hence this light hearted film, in the style of an old heist movie. The plot centers around three highly skilled are thieves played by Chow Yun Fat, Cherie Chung and Leslie Cheung, involved in a love triangle. Although not as developed as "a better tomorrow", as beautifully cinematic as "The Killer" or as "brutally high octane as "a better tomorrow 2" and the fantastic "Hard boiled". This piece delivers, and is still miles better than anything that could come out of Hollywood. (with the possible exception of John Woo's american projects) If you know you would like this film go and buy it. I did, and although I paid a ridiculouly high price for it, I knew that Woo and Chow would not dissapoint, so it was money well spent.