Director Soi Cheang draws from the same well as "School on Fire" (1988) and drinks a tall glass of the same hopelessness that made Ringo Lam's final installment of his original crime trilogy nearly impossible to sit through.

Talented scribe Szeto Kam-yuen, who burst on the scene penning four consecutive Milkyway features ("Too Many Ways to be No. 1," "Expect the Unexpected," "A Hero Never Dies," "The Longest Nite") keeps things interesting for a while but watching a panty waist's day go from bad to worse after being kidnapped by violent mainland drug smugglers (one of which is bleeding to death from an off-screen gun battle) proves so depressing the protagonist's climatic redemption at the conclusion of "Love Battlefield" comes off like pure smaltz partly because it feels just that disjointed from the proceedings.

Eason Chan is the timid male nurse forced to play chauffer to Wang Zhi Wen and his associates; Niki Chow is the nurse's ex who dumps him minutes before being kidnapped; and Wong Ho-yin is great as Chow's expedient brother.