Two killers, two bosses, two molls, doubled fates. This is the end of the Hong Kong hero film, the genre made popular by John Woo in the 1980s. To deconstructs the genre with camera motion and abstracted color, turning the guy with a gun story into a classically symmetrical celebration of structure. When ice-cool Leon Lai and cowboy-tough Lau Ching-wan’s rival gangland bosses form an alliance, the two gunmen become superfluous. Their game playing turns to alliance and then tragedy, as they discover they are paired avatars of outmoded individual heroism. A textbook example of To’s ability to infuse formalist play with emotional effect: every betrayal and sacrifice packs a wallop. (S. Kraicer)
