I have been in a mood to watch Asian action movies for some reason. I had already seen John Woo's 1990 breakthrough hit The Killer, and I wanted to see more. His blend of superviolent action and genuine emphasis on character development was interesting, although I found myself thinking that it would have been a better movie had there been less shooting. Anyway, I rented this film, his first pairing with Chow Yun-Fat. I was impressed, more so than I had been with The Killer. Chow Yun-Fat showed that he has genuine ability as an actor, and I really think that the plot allowed Woo to better blend his action sequences with acting.

Lung Ti plays Ho, a member of a Hong Kong crime syndicate who is best friends with Mark, played by Chow Yun-Fat. He is sent to Taiwan to do some sort of a deal with Shing, a newcomer to the business. Shing is afraid of trouble, but Ho reassures him that he had been on dozens of these jobs. Unfortunately, someone has betrayed them, and Ho is caught after forcing Shing to flee. Ho is locked up for several years. Meanwhile, Mark suspects a fellow mobster of the betrayal, and exacts his revenge in one of the best action sequences I have seen. We follow him into a restaurant where he stashes guns in flowerpots, behind chairs, etc. As he runs out of bullets in one gun, he pulls another from a hiding place and blazes away. Unfortunately, he is crippled by a gunshot to the knee.

Eventually, Ho gets out of jail. His younger brother Kit, played by Asian star Leslie Cheung, is a police detective, and having a criminal for a brother restricts his upward movement in the ranks. Meanwhile, the mob syndicate, now run by Shing, who turns out to be the one who betrayed Ho, kills the two brothers' father. Kit cannot forgive his brother for what he sees as his role in the death, and he sets out to destroy the syndicate. Ho is trying to go straight, but the underworld won't let him. He reteams with Mark, who is reduced to running errands for Shing, which sets the stage for a John Woo finale.