Daniel Wu stars as the head of Hit Team, an elite force within the SDU hierarchy that investigates crimes committed with heavy, high calibur automatic weapons . His group is assigned to a robbery of an 'underground bank', a triad money 'clearinghouse'.

After seeing Dante Lam's Jiang Hu - The Triad Zone last year, I was really looking forward to this new work. Jiang Hu was well crafted and had great performances from Tony Leung and Sandra Ng. Lam's new film is a return to the subject matter of some of his earlier work with producer Gordan Chan [Option Zero].

The screenplay by Clarence Lee and Jack Ng from a story by the director is quite ambitious but is, sadly, flawed by trying to hard. The story is about two groups of cops, Hit Team and another group, best friends who compete as the the Royal HK Police rugby squad. This second group is splintered when one of them [Chin Kar Lok] is wounded and paralised on an undercover assignment. As a result of false information from a cowardly superior, he is fired from the force. The friends feel the injustice of his plight and determine to commit crimes to pay the millions of dollars needed for his recovery.

Meanwhile, the members of Hit Team are having some issues themselves, some on the job and some off of the job. The screenwriters include a lot of melodramtic scenes to define the characters and their motivations. The script cuts between the two groups, ultimately bringing them together for the final act.

The real strength of Hit Team is in the casting. All the performances are top notch. Special kudos go out to a couple of the supporting actors, Tony Ho and Joe Lee. Tony Ho is young, energetic actor who has been in a number of films [Erotic Nightmare, Sexy and Dangerous 2] recently. He is outstanding here as a troubled SDU member. Joe Lee who made a big impression as the coldblooded killer in Bullets Over Summer scores again as a nasty, double-crossing triad bodyguard.

Copyright 2001 John Crawford. All rights reserved.