aah! breathe it in; can you smell it? yes, it's that slightly eneasy mixture of humour, melodrama, tragedy and violence that, even when it doesn't quite gel, often crops up in hong kong cinema. especially in the eighties...

ken (ti lung) is an older cop, who's never risen through the ranks, mainly as a result of his firey temperament. his good friend, dicky (chow yun-fat), is younger, but his calm demeanour has seen him elevated to the role of police negotiator. despite their differences, the two are good friends. their lives are going pretty well until yui (norman chu), a triad that ken arrested years ago (after his partner shot him in the "family jewels"), is released and comes looking for revenge...

now, the film does start off at a pretty slow pace, but it begins to build up and up for it's duration; ending with some all out high-king, gun-blazing action. ti lung is solid throughout, almost understated in his performance. although, this may just appear to be the case as, chow yun-fat is at his gurning, over-acting, yet at times, suprisingly cool and bad-assed best. there's a couple of disco scenes, where you will be embarassed for him, and some vintage running around with guns, that's pretty damn cool. norman chu relishes being the bad guy and seems to enjoy every ball-less moment of his revenge.

it's a shame that the disc is another 'joy sales' remaster, that doesn't appear to have been remastered and still has pretty daft subtitles; i'm sure that young shoplifter didn't say "naff off" or keep calling people "twits". likewise, it's disappointing to see that the text epilogue, that wasn't translated on the old disc, remains untranslated.

all in all, it's a film that starts off in a decidedly average fashion, but just gets better and better as it goes on.

not great, but pretty good.