How many times do you think Joyce Godenzi shoots straight in this movie?
The gun purchase scene alone is more than enough reason to watch this thing. Watch as our Vietnamese friends get screwed by prospective business partners, and choose to escalate the situation even to horrific levels of violence rather than accept a bum deal. But the action tends toward a pretty high standard whenever it crops up, including some pretty awesome stunts from both Joyce Godenzi and Carina Lau. In the final act, Godenzi gets an awesome revolver to blast bad guys with. Carina Lau, meanwhile, attacks a bunch of dudes with two sick cleavers. The battle on the boat is awesome and features plenty of cool maneuvers, blocking, etc. Both Carina Lau and Joyce Godenzi get to shine here. Even Sammo Hung gets a few moments of action.
There's actually something interesting in how the gun purchase scene contrasts with the rest of the film. It's essentially there to show us how absolutely cold-blooded this guy is, so there's no room for theatrics or anything unrealistic.
Final fight is insanely good.
Another reason that I think is fully valid for watching this movie is seeing a mob of cops dressed like they're Jackie Chan in Police Story burst onto the scene for half a second.
The number one best reason to watch this, though, is to see Joyce Godenzi pick up a gun and shoot a bunch of dudes. God, she rules.
I actually did watch this movie because of Carina Lau, though. Ling is such a brat in this movie. Maybe the biggest brat ever, to be honest. And a loose cannon, at that.
I love soap opera type melodrama, so the dramatic part of this film worked for me, too. There's not much to say, because the standard for acting here is not incredibly high, but I think there's some neat little dramatic situations that crop up, like Mina and Ling trying to avoid telling Mother Huang about Bo's death in the middle of her birthday party, but can't keep it together well enough to avoid suspicion. Also, in a total soap opera villain type beat, the bad guys blow up Bo's coffin. This leads to the discovery of Mina's pregnancy, and a surgery she undertakes without anesthetics to protect her child (she does not recover before jumping back into action, which is a classic soap opera badass thing to do). Absolutely insane.
Of course, best of all, the pair of Bo and Ling have a natural mirror in the Vietnamese siblings Hua and Ying. Ling's desire for advancement and reckless behavior gets Bo killed. Likewise, Hua's desire for revenge leads him into some severely reckless behavior, leading to warrants going out for the arrest of his gang.
The setup for the final act is pretty cool, with Ling intercepting Mina on her way out to get revenge for Bo's death. She does this, of course, because they share the burden of having seen him die.
This rating is probably higher than most people would say the film warrants. I can't help it, it fits my tastes too much.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but all the hairstyling in this movie is great.
"Welcome, what's your name?" "We are all called Chan."
How many times do you think Joyce Godenzi shoots straight in this movie?
The gun purchase scene alone is more than enough reason to watch this thing. Watch as our Vietnamese friends get screwed by prospective business partners, and choose to escalate the situation even to horrific levels of violence rather than accept a bum deal. But the action tends toward a pretty high standard whenever it crops up, including some pretty awesome stunts from both Joyce Godenzi and Carina Lau. In the final act, Godenzi gets an awesome revolver to blast bad guys with. Carina Lau, meanwhile, attacks a bunch of dudes with two sick cleavers. The battle on the boat is awesome and features plenty of cool maneuvers, blocking, etc. Both Carina Lau and Joyce Godenzi get to shine here. Even Sammo Hung gets a few moments of action.
There's actually something interesting in how the gun purchase scene contrasts with the rest of the film. It's essentially there to show us how absolutely cold-blooded this guy is, so there's no room for theatrics or anything unrealistic.
Final fight is insanely good.
Another reason that I think is fully valid for watching this movie is seeing a mob of cops dressed like they're Jackie Chan in Police Story burst onto the scene for half a second.
The number one best reason to watch this, though, is to see Joyce Godenzi pick up a gun and shoot a bunch of dudes. God, she rules.
I actually did watch this movie because of Carina Lau, though. Ling is such a brat in this movie. Maybe the biggest brat ever, to be honest. And a loose cannon, at that.
I love soap opera type melodrama, so the dramatic part of this film worked for me, too. There's not much to say, because the standard for acting here is not incredibly high, but I think there's some neat little dramatic situations that crop up, like Mina and Ling trying to avoid telling Mother Huang about Bo's death in the middle of her birthday party, but can't keep it together well enough to avoid suspicion. Also, in a total soap opera villain type beat, the bad guys blow up Bo's coffin. This leads to the discovery of Mina's pregnancy, and a surgery she undertakes without anesthetics to protect her child (she does not recover before jumping back into action, which is a classic soap opera badass thing to do). Absolutely insane.
Of course, best of all, the pair of Bo and Ling have a natural mirror in the Vietnamese siblings Hua and Ying. Ling's desire for advancement and reckless behavior gets Bo killed. Likewise, Hua's desire for revenge leads him into some severely reckless behavior, leading to warrants going out for the arrest of his gang.
The setup for the final act is pretty cool, with Ling intercepting Mina on her way out to get revenge for Bo's death. She does this, of course, because they share the burden of having seen him die.
This rating is probably higher than most people would say the film warrants. I can't help it, it fits my tastes too much.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but all the hairstyling in this movie is great.
"Welcome, what's your name?" "We are all called Chan."
