....... quite watchable anyway.

I was a little puzzled as to why this film was given Cat III rating. I'd have rated it IIb. Although it sails close, there is no full frontal nudity, and the sex scenes are not particularly strong by HK standards. I think it was the combination of gore and bodies being chopped up (horrid stuff, though pretty moderate by HK standards), combined with the sex scenes which just nudged it over the line.

Anthony Wong of course gives his usual very watchable performance. The half-dozen main female characters take quite a while to make sense and sort themselves out. It was half-way through the film before I was clear on who was related to and did what to whom, and I agree that these subplots confuse rather than help the story. This is why I wrote the attached plot summary in more detail than usual, as it will help to make more sense of things.

The script could have been better developed, but both the main strength and the main weakness is the direction.
The director shows flashes of talent. There are some lovely moments and some great shots, and the use of slow-motion is pretty good. However, much of the rest of the film seems to have been made with the director asleep, having told the crew to keep going without him.

The result is a somewhat mixed bag, sometimes confusing and dull, but overall is good enough for a warm recommendation.