A kind of hyper emotional John Woo gangster-witha-heart-of-gold-homage. Simon Yam, gang boss, turns himself in to the cops in order to spare his buddies. He spends ten long years in jail during which his no good wife gambles away all his money and raises his little daughter into an ungrateful slutty teen with an attitude. When he returns to his former life. He generously loans money to a high class gal, Cecilia Yip with financial troubles. His wife and daughter leave him. In despair over the mess he has made of his life, he proposes to Cecilia hoping to start over and go straight. In spite of their different class status, the two fall for each other and make a go of her failing factory. Up to this point, the movie is great. Excellent gun-fu mixed with scenes of loyalty, betrayal and romance. But, then things start to get really messy, plot wise and blood wise. The two are beset with a series of loan shark related difficulties. At each crisis, Simon Yam decides that the best solution is to maim himself in some way. Eventually, Cecilia's life and that of her unborn child apparently hang on Yam's acting ability. His joblike plea to God for mercy is worthy of any number of golden horses BUT can his command of the Stanislovsky Method actualy raise the dead?

[Reviewed by Cynthia Rhae Woodard Perry]