Two men lie in wait for another to return home to kill him under orders of a gang boss. Two more wish to protect him. It becomes clear soon that all were friends in the past. And almost immediately the film loses its solid start when the quintet start to drop bullets to the floor before beginning their match, as if this is some type of ridiculous honor code. And from there, you have really good moments that get stuck in these plot devices or styles that take you out of the movie and question what just happened.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy the film to a reasonable degree. If you've seen HK action films it follows the earlier trend just like Hollywood sometimes makes them with far too much attention to style, which often feels wrong. People just don't act the way they do in parts of this film. The acting is good and, for the most part, what saves this film. While this film is rated less than Vengeance, I find the latter much better than this one and even that was more realistic.
I didn't think that Wo's wife was an effective actress and as the film moves on, a plot twist develops which took a pretty good film into a wrong turn and ended up in typical HK style and a poor, lazy resolution. The high ratings are clearly fans who just love this overstyled genre but, if you're not one of them, don't expect the masterpiece they are selling. A fairly enjoyable thriller that you'll soon forget after viewing.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy the film to a reasonable degree. If you've seen HK action films it follows the earlier trend just like Hollywood sometimes makes them with far too much attention to style, which often feels wrong. People just don't act the way they do in parts of this film. The acting is good and, for the most part, what saves this film. While this film is rated less than Vengeance, I find the latter much better than this one and even that was more realistic.
I didn't think that Wo's wife was an effective actress and as the film moves on, a plot twist develops which took a pretty good film into a wrong turn and ended up in typical HK style and a poor, lazy resolution. The high ratings are clearly fans who just love this overstyled genre but, if you're not one of them, don't expect the masterpiece they are selling. A fairly enjoyable thriller that you'll soon forget after viewing.