well, back once again, after a slightly lacklustre, yet still prefectly watchable, fourth film, andrew lau brings us a fifth film about the hung hing boys. unfortunately, the series' best character is nowhere to be seen...

nam (ekin cheng) travels to malaysia with mr chiang (alex man) and is introduced to chan ka nam (paul chun) and uncle seven (wong tin-lam), although it is his female companion, mei ling (shu qi), who grabs his attention. still, as well as striking up some kind of strange relationship with mei ling, who keeps popping up in hong kong, nam joins forces with chan in a couple of questionable ventures; a casino ship and some malaysian real estate. things seem to take a turn for the worse, when szeto ho nam (mark cheng) turns up in causeway bay and starts making some ting sung style trouble...

this is poor. for a start, there's no chicken and, let's face it, jordan chan has been the jewel in the 'young and dangerous crown. then, there's the criminal under-use of both anthong wong's dai-fai and sandra ng's fantastic sister 13. still, with only a few scenes between them, sandra ng and her skint partner(?) provide the most interesting parts of the film. i suppose i should mention danny lee's appearance, which still doesn't do enough to elevate this above bog standard.

i hear there are still some good moments to come in the future installments and related spin-offs. things couldn't really get more average than this...