At times I was not sure whether this movie was a parody of a number of well-known and well-worn genres, or it was just a subtle message about public relations, or both, or just a fairly mediocre movie. Although in general I enjoy his work, given Johnnie To's mixed history, one has to wonder a bit...although I left this movie thinking the sum of its parts were much better than the whole.

Although it is hard to generalize about a director as prolific as Johnnie To, what I tend to enjoy about some of his work is a clear style he imparts, rather than the plot or the message (which may simply indicate bad scripts and good direction). Some of his films are something like a cinematic comic book or graphical novel (and I mean this in a good way). So in this fashion, I think this film delivers similarly.

To a certain extent this is lightweight film noir. There seems very little difference between good and bad and frequently we see they resort to the same measures. We also are led to like the "bad" guys more than the "good" guys. And here that is done in a not so subtle fashion.

This is also a movie about characters--all of whom are cool and heroic charicatures. You really want to see who they are, and what happens to them. It irresistably draws you in to an unrealistic yet fascinating world--a unique characteristic of old school HK cinema.

Nicky Cheung's character is one dimensional and completely and literally indefatigable. Terminator-like in fact, and to a certin extent he was homage or even parody thereof.

Nice to see Lam Suet again take a key role. He is really a highly used yet under appreciated actor. Although this role here nowhere near approaches that of his incredible role in "One Night in Mongkok" it is nonetheless enjoyable.

Unfortunately one glaring problem with the movie is Kelly. This is just not a good role for her. She plays a Hua-Ping role yet again, for which she has been rightly criticised. If she wants to be taken seriously as an actress, which I think she is truly capable of being, then she needs more dynamic roles which focus on her and her emotions rather than her icy beauty. I am afraid this movie has taken her stock down a few points.

Without a doubt the star here is Richie Ren. Although you never know much about his character, through cinematic effect he appears to be a deeply complicated, highly principled and likeable character. "The likeable bad guy." His character is the most human and believeable and one enjoys every moment he is on the screen.

Richie is a rising star and has become a potentially great actor. I look forward to seeing him in more serious roles.

Lastly, regarding stylistic trend setting, the bullet-ballet-like gunplay here was quite comical, a la the "American Old West" mythos depicted by Hollywood cinema for many years: literally thousands of bullets exchanged and expended at heroically close range. To a certain extent I see such depictions as the modern HK equavalent to the old school gongfu confrontations. In other words highly stylized, graceful, and drawn out, yet not particularly violent. I like that, although I am not always used to it. The exploding heads and extreme depiction of violence of Hollywood (and even the John Woo style) stands in stark contrast to this stylized and impressionistic method.

With a good in-depth screenplay this had the potential to be a very significant movie. Unfortunately, at the surface it appears to be a less than stellar actioner, one level below maybe a parody or what it appears to be, and one level below that, an enjoyable and stylistic film noir character-based movie. In than sense there is a bit more here than meets the eye and I think this is a decent movie that demonstrates that Johnnie To is certainly accomplished at his particularly unique art.