tung (anthony wong) and lee (sam lee) are two cops, who share an apartment and work a couple of triad dominated streets in hong kong. the two operate slightly outside of police regualations (and the law, in general), but within a moral framework that is closer to that of the triads. big brother (roy cheung), the boss who covers this area, has a close relationship with tung that extends beyond mutual respect; he runs a nightclub, where tung and lee are frequent attendees and his girlfriend, yoyo (kathy chow), is the mammasan (looking after the girls who work there).

somehow, this strange relationship preserves the peace and everyone is pretty happy with the situation. that is, until a botched assassination means that big brother has to flee hong kong, leaving his territory and yoyo behind. this coincides with the appointing of tung and lee's new boss, a decorated, ex-sdu officer, cheung (michael fitzgerald wong; yep, i was suprised that the 'f', doesn't stand for 'fucking'...)

cheung has a very different view of the world, and the role of the police, to tung and lee; to him, things are blank and white. as cheung spends more time with his new colleagues, he finds his perspective altering, especially as his relationship with yoyo develops. unfortunately, trouble is on the horizon; pushy pin (patrick tam) has stepped into the void left by big brother's departure and his ambitions are about to destroy the peaceful status quo that existed before.

gordan chan and dante lam, sharing the director's chair(s), have created a fine film, packed with interesting, well rounded characters and an original, fresh look at a genre that has been extensively covered (and still continues to be) by hong kong film makers. more than that, they manage to make michael wong look good...

if you talk to anyone who knows, even a little, about hong kong cinema, you'll get very few people questioning the fact that anthony wong is one its greatest actors and michael wong is one of its worst. its no suprise that anthony wong puts in a great performance here; he conveys the depth of his character in a fine naturalistic and understated style, which won him three seperate 'best actor' awards. this is not really a suprise: what is a suprise, is michael wong's performance. one could argue that gordan chan created a role that was ideal for michael wong but, regardless of this, this is one of the very few cases, where michael wong isn't terrible; in fact, he's more than just watchable, he's pretty good! yes, i never thought i'd write that. somehow, michael won's clunkiness meshes perfectly with cheung's straight-man persona and he even manages to be good when cheung realises that the world isn't black and white. wow!

beyond the excellent work of the two wongs, the entire cast is solid and pack the film's extensive cast of characters with fine performances that bring chan and lam's world to life. i have to mention sam lee here, despite the great work of the two main leads it is lee's lee, who is my favourite character: he's just great.

excellent and highly recommended...