Set in the sepia-toned Shanghai of the 1920s, with great production values, this bloody drama stars Andy Lau (who also produced) as Cheng Ye-Peng, sent by the Nanking government to fight the opium trade. Bravely, and maybe a little naively, he actually tries to do his job. To gether with a recovering addict and a nationalist spitfire, they case out the smugglers' mountain headquarters and hijack a huge shipment of drugs; I have never seen so many machine-gun bullets stray so willfully from their mark as they do for Cheng Ye-Peng. The climax in a Shanghai theater is almost as clever and exciting as it is dubious.

(2.5/4)



[Reviewed by Steve Spinali]