red bean pudding (chow yun-fat), james (leslie cheung) and red bean (cherie chung) are three orphans (?), who have been raised by their adopted dad, chow (kenneth tsang), and godfather, chu (paul chu); chow is an art collecting gangster, whilst chu is a cop. the three grow up to be art thieves, stealing paintings for, amonst others, chow.

after a heist in france goes wrong, the three return to hong kong, only to find themselves involved in their biggest ever job but, increasingly, on the wrong side of chow...

after 'bullet in the head' was universally panned by hong kong audiences and critics, jon woo decided that he'd change tact and direct a happy action-comedy. with a cast in place, but no script to speak of, woo et al travelled to france and began shooting 'once a thief'. paying homage to truffant's 'jules et jim' and hitchcock's 'to catch a thief', filming began. after a few weekes in france, the production moved back to hong kong: only ten weeks from the start of filming, the film was on screen for the new year festivities in hong kong.

so, what's it like? well, it's a bit of a mess really. the humour, on the whole, falls flat and the narrative isn't particularly engaging. what helps, though, are three pretty solid action sequences which, despite a little goofiness, are executed with the kind of flair that we expect from woo.

regardless of its faults, the film was a huge success and resulted in woo being able to get funding for 'hard boiled'. every cloud...

recommended to woo completists only.