This is an extremely conventional Hong Kong gangster film. While competently made, it adds nothing to the wide spectrum of much more creative and innovative films.
The story takes on soap opera overtones, as do so many Hong Kong films, but it never rises above long-established conventions of its genre. We meet the long-suffering molls, stone killers, evil gang bosses, and usual cast of murdering thugs found in other films of its like. The film’s “gimmick” is that in nod to realism, everybody uses machetes and clubs instead of guns to commit their mayhem, and no one is a kung-fu expert. The film is supposedly based upon a true story, but quickly loses any link to reality with its presentation of comic-book bad guys and hyperviolent situations.
Director Wong Jing is noted for such seminal works of the Hong Kong gangster genre as “God of Gamblers,” but with this film he does nothing to further his reputation
