This 'small' movie from cinematographer/director Lau was quite enjoyable. After directing some huge CGI-filled action movies like The Duel, I think Lau had a good time shooting this film. The camera work is great and he got some real fun performances from his cast. The first 30 minutes of the film are fantastic, riveting. The screenplay tries some cool twists with the conventions of the Hong Kong "Hot as Ice" female assassin genre with varying degrees of success. While I understand the importance of the foriegn markets and the box office revenue generated, I think this might have been a better flick if they had cast any one of many Hong Kong actress's who could've done the role. This one has a real nasty, vicious bad guy [Yin], but the best performance comes from the always interesting, unique Ng Chi Hung.