With a Hong Kong viewing challenge coming up,I started keeping a look out for films from the country on DVD. Mesmerised by his performance in John Woo's The Killer,I was happy to find in a local DVD shop another Chow Yun Fat title from the era,which led to me going on a gambling spree.

View on the film:

Hitting the tables in the Heroic Bloodshed era, writer/director Jing Wong folds the stylisation of the genre into the most striking scenes of the film, via a weaving camera following the moving of cards around the tables building up tension towards Chun's next gamble, along with bursts of slow-motion in pans around Mexican stand-offs and short hits of Gun-Fu. Placing these elements to the side for a big chunk of the flick, Wong aims for zany Comedy that zips along Chun's screwed-up face,which becomes grating as glimpses of flashback show the thrilling part of the tale the film should be focusing on.

Picking up Chun's cards, the opening 30 minutes is given an enticing slickness in Jing Wong's screenplay, as the calculation Chun puts towards his card playing has the thrill of a heist movie,and swift setting up of ruthless gangsters (backed by the chimes of Lowell Lo's score.) Knocking Chun out and giving him memory loss, Wong attempts to play frantic slap-stick Comedy for the next hour,but unveils a bad hand as the repetitive "wacky" antics become increasingly grating, and undermine the build-up,which is just about saved by a return to the wheel of fortune gambles in the ending. Bringing a feeling of Heroic Bloodshed loyalty in his scenes with Andy Lau's Little Knife,Chow Yun-Fat gives a terrific performance as Chun,who retains a blazing charisma even when stuffing his mouth with chocolate, which melts as Yun- Fat gets Chun to reveal himself to be the god of gamblers.