If people are in every way going to expect something out of the general story, be in for a big disappointment as the story is too cliched and won't work in the generic sense. What matters the most is HOW everything is shot, edited, scored, developed, symbolized and executed to a certain aspect. At this point the movie is no longer considered at an entertainment level or telling a story just for the sake of telling a story and it's characters but it highlights the movie language to tell the story in different ways to accomplish something refreshing and an overall original sense of understanding and appreciating the movie's content instead of overlooking the techs and just look at the surface (looking at what's presented in frame and not how it's presented, just to summon my words). So to me, THE MISSION is a non-ordinary piece of movie-making and not just a piece for entertainment and excitement (once you get the point you'll be appreciating and enjoying such movies more, but it's not always easy to get used to that).

The character development was very interesting and went on to flesh out most of the main characters in the most unique way I've seen so far. Curtis is someone who's cold-hearted, doesn't mind leading the teamwork once it's time for them to go into action and does what he's ordered to do with no much problems and knows the line of doing something moral and what he believes is right for himself and others and learns from his mistakes as well (particularly during scenes with Francis Ng). Roy is an overly hot-headed guy but fortunately not the typical one. He's someone with heart, with great experience and with the will to take care of others who are either weak and inexperienced while thinking both highly of others, who can handle themselves, as well as low of strangers or those he has a hard time getting to know better (Curtis) and doesn't seem to care what others say to him and only cares for his own actions and motives: you could say he's the lone wolf of the team. Shin, who is Roy's friend and "adopted" brother, is completely the opposite of Roy's characteristics; someone who has less experience, is impulsive, talks too much, shows off, and wants a free ride in an otherwise risky profession. While this character was the weakest in terms of performance, it was still good nonetheless as To gave it a few nice touches and so forth that was keeping the character alive. Mike is the sociable, friendly and the most patient individual of the team and depends on his own experiences as well as the others to get jobs done and have it too easy to make friends with them, even with those of different personalities and values. He also knows much about firearms and hot situations and won't hesitate to advice and listen to what the others say to him to gain new experience improve his skills in dealing with guns. And lastly, you have James as the quiet, very responsive and ambitious type who's also the most relaxed one of the team. When he's on duty he's spends too much time eating sunflower seeds (some kind of relaxation or deed to avoid boredom I guess) and when it's time to protect the boss, only cares of just protect and make sure no one gets hurt or killed. Outside that, he's doesn't seem to care too much about what others do (apart from Curtis who is his good friend) and can just stick to his own habits.

As you can already tell, not only are the characters studied very well and pulled off flawlessly to give a broader and relate-able aspect of understanding different personalities but so is the rest of the movie where different elements are thrown in to tell from a much extending perspective. Combine them and you'll experience a new sense of perceiving the character interactions and behavior in a bizarre yet common way, that only Johnnie To is great at that can't be matched nor topped by others.