I have seen this film quite a few times now. One thing that has always puzzled me is the scene where Ti Lung and Waise Lee are cornered after the deal has gone bad. Ti Lung tells Lee to escape, and he manages to get away. Was this a set-up from the start? Did Waise Lee sell out Lung, or did he just let power corrupt him and eventually turn bad?

Love to hear your thoughts on this one!

In my mind, it was pretty clearly a set-up. I haven't seen the film for a long time, but I seem to remember the exchange of facial expressions as Ti and Lee are driving to their meeting. Ti looks wary, as if he suspects that something is about to go wrong, and Lee's face conveys an unmistakeable air of guilt.

I guess I agree with you. The only weird thing is that Waise Lee sure put himself in a dangerous situation! Bullets were going everywhere. He could have easily been killed or arrested by the cops...

You are certainly right about the (possibly unanticipated) bullets. And yet at that point in the movie he is portrayed as an inexperienced young triad who may not have fully understood that the result of his betrayal would be an all-out gun fight.

At any rate, subsequent events in the film showed him to be willing to risk almost anything in his quest for power, to the point of personally assassinating his own boss.

Thanks, Chinoco, for giving me the opportunity to think about the motivations of the characters in this near-perfect film. I will have to revisit it sometime in the near future.

NO Problem Taijikid! Thanks for the thoughtful replies! I love to analyze different motivations for characters in movies like this. You can spot well-written plots easily when characters have independent thoughts and actions, and don't just appear to be "advancing the story-line".

Good point about the Waise Lee character being un-experienced. That last argument sold me. He was attempting to gain power for himself but was too young and foolish to think about the risks! Excellent point.