I didn't write a review for this when it came out initially, so let me make up for that with this somewhat belated assessment: I rewatched the film last night because some friends wanted to see what HK action movies looked like these days, and they were blown away.

The movie is extremely powerful in its visual impact, and I continue to discover exciting new angles/ideas everytime I rewatch it. Most of the criticism directed at the film focuses on what is allegedly an inscrutable plot (which I don't find) while ignoring the inventiveness which Tsui Hark displays in a highly successful attempt to breath new life into the rather stale gunplay movie genre, just like he reinvigorated swordplay with The Blade and Martial Arts movies with OUATIC years before.

That inventiveness is evident in how he sets up familar genre cliches and then takes them in new directions (witness the brief John Woo moment when two assassins confront each other with guns, and how Tsui takes this to a far more realistic outcome), or how he deploys his camera (during the climactic apartment building sequence, the camera literally hurdles towards the ground in pursuit of the assassins jumping down the facade of the building). The fights are choreographed in a far more realistic manner, and while there is still plenty of stylized action, the whole thing feels just so much more real and involves the viewer on a much more intense level than most other recent action movies coming out of HK. There are no distinguishable action set pieces here - the whole movie is an action setpiece, or rather a cinematic improvisation on familiar action themes. Tsui takes his characters, their surroundings and then starts building and layering action sequences around them. This leads to a climactic and extended secquence that last for almost half of the movie, starting in an apartment complex, leading to Kowloon Station, and then ending in the Colloseum. Along the way, you have a view of what it would be like to be INSIDE an exploding apartment, you have tense sniper action, people flinging themselves along the outside of buildings, SDU-type assaults, and finally a gut-wrenching birth sequence that will have you on the edge of your seat.

Tsui uses some limited CG FX, some of which are merely fanciful (a caption title breaking up into pieces that morph into leaves blowing on the street), others truly attempt to show parts of action sequences we haven't seen before (such as the inside of an apartment blowing up). While some of the optical FX are poor (the outside shot of the burning apartment), others are extremely well done.

But all this is just surface layer for something much more ambitious - from Nic Tse's opening monologue (which is a cynical retelling of Creation, offering a bleak assessment of the human condition) to the final shot (two pairs of feet, one in slippers, one in boots, and yet unified by an - unseen - baby), Tsui paints a picture that says more about the hopes and deceptions of modern urban existence through little character quirks/scenes than by spelling anything out. Witness Nic Tse's character, who spends half the movie running around like a poor CYF imitation, pointing his fake toy gun at professional assassins as if it were real. The funniest moment of the movie comes when Wu Bai finally gives him a real gun, and instead of ditching the toy gun, he uses both because toting twin guns will make him look cooler...

There are plenty of memorable performances in the movie: Anthony Wong is understated yet convincing as Nic's boss, and Nic acquits himself well. But Wu Bai deserves special mention: his character remains somewhat enigmatic, yet could have easily been perceived as ludicrous. It is the charaisma that Wu Bai brings to this role that holds things together.

All in all, I believe this films points the way for reinvigorating the HK action movie genre. Highly recommended.