Latest action movie from Corey Yuen Kwai, starring the most fetching trio of Shu Qi, Zhao Wei and Karen Mok, as well as Yasuaki Kurata as the villain and a Korean fella I didn't recognize as the romantic love interest.

Perhaps I was a little too enthusiastic about actually being able to see this film on the big screen in HK and hence favourably inclined to like this film come what may, but I have to say the film delivered both in terms of eye candy and innovative action choreography. Granted, the script is a mess, completely incoherent in parts and full of holes and logic flaws in others. But who cares about a coherent script when you get to watch Karen Mok manhandle a few bad guys in an elevator, or watch Shu Qi and Vicky Zhao Wei entangle their towels in a bathroom fight scene reminiscent of the legendary "disrobing fight" between Brigitte Lin and Maggie Cheung in Dragon Inn? The CGI effects are mostly ok, and the fighting is well done, with the final swordfight encounter between two of the girls and the villain being a particular standout. Corey Yuen doesn't fall into the trap of filming the fights in the Andrew Lau style but tries to focus on the actual human movement with only some wire enhancements and a few CGI flourishes, and this restraint pays off well.

In the end, I'd say this is certainly one of the better action flics to come out of HK recently, with great production values, a fantastic looking cast and had they managed to improve the script we would have had a truly great movie.

Two thumbs up!