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The film comes with a theme of one's situational role in different circumstances and that whether or not one does right things is subject to the perspective and difficult to be judged. The protagonists, cop's team led by Inspector Chan (Simon Yam), and the key antagonist, Wong Po (Sammo Hung), all come with both hard and soft personalities. The portrayal on the polarized personalities of each character is not intense but suffices to convey to the audience what is meant. The characters are tough and brutal to their enemies but responsible members of their respective family.

It is a fast paced movie rich in filmic properties and heavily loaded with stylistic elements. Director Wilson Yip uses cross editing to create a narrative parallelism in pursuing the 2 plots of Inspector Chan and Wong Po, in the first third of the film. The use of parallelism is meant to highlight the situational similarity between the two. Yip does not use any concentrated preliminary sequence at the opening to portray the characters or background of the protagonists but rather uses the leverage of Inspector Ma (Donnie Yen)'s perspective to present their past in the middle of the story. This is a distinction from the classical Hollywood narrative.

Yip tactfully builds a Hitchcockian suspense in story progression by disseminating information in an unrestricted manner: the audience know that the 3 members of Chan's team will be killed by Jack (Jing Wu) and hence tension is created in waiting to witness when and how each of them is killed. Since there are 3 members in Chan's team, these hermeneutic mysteries repeat 3 times and thus effectively prolong the tension. The tension is further strengthened by (1) the sparse mise-en-scenes that most of the scenes (except for those of the teddy followers of Wong Po outside the nightclub) are with the key characters only and (2) having the killing committed at midnight. This shares similarity with "Collateral" (Dir: Michael Mann, 2004). Yip also manages to create unnerved sequences and calm / sober sequences in an alternate order, thereby successfully manipulating the mood of the audience in cycles of up and down throughout the screen time of 94 minutes. This manipulation eventually leads to a double climax beyond the expectation of the audience at the epilogue.

Stylistic features of split screen (twin and multiple), back shots and repeated scenes are cinematographic characteristics of the film. Meditation and flashbacks assist to reveal the goal of the protagonists and close some gaps in the story. Music does play a crucial role in being part of the narrative in the story. The various tones of music are in full compatibility with the respective sequence in terms of diegesis.

The advertised appeal of the film is the 2 martial arts sequences between (1) Inspector Ma and Jack and (2) Inspector Ma and Wong Po. The down to earth (non-acrobatic) martial arts of swift actions are well choreographed by Donnie Yen. Its being categorized as Cat. III arises from the intensive scenes of violence of using bayonet in stabbing victims at their throat. The film is a readable one not purely because of its excellent visuals of martial arts. Its narrative structure in establishing a hermeneutic code, its artistic aspects and the theme are equally readable. Though not an outstanding production, it is a movie not to be missed.

註：本評論純屬影評作者個人意見，並不代表本網立場。
Note: This views presented in this review is solely the views of the critic who wrote it and do not represent the stance of our website.

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