Leon Lai plays a policeman who's fiancé Anne, the prosecuting lawyer in a triad boss's trial (Terence Yin), is murdered by an assassin. Leon himself was the arresting officer and goes into hiding leaving the police force and returning to a more sedate life with his uncles on the south side of Hong Kong island. The story moves on a few years and Sam has managed to rebuild his life but memories of his past are re-awakened when he meets You; an exact double for Anne except that she is Japanese. After a couple of awkward encounters the pair become friends and eventually romance blooms. Unfortunately just as it looks as if Sam might find happiness again the triad boss is released from prison and comes looking for Sam to clear up unfinished business.

The film seems divided into clear chapters; the first half hour deals with Sam's life as a cop and the case that causes him to lose so much, the middle section (which is the largest) deals with Sam's new life and new found love and the final 20 minutes or so are where the past catches up. Not surprisingly all of the action is confined to the first and last sections but there is more than I was expecting. Andrew Lau is not my favourite director but his films always have a very polished look and this is no exception, especially around the gunplay sequences.

The plot features an interesting premise, which I don't want to give away, although it is rather predictable and expects a lot from the viewer in terms of acceptance. The acting is all well handled, Leon Lai gives a restrained performance, barely displaying any emotion, which seemed in keeping with the character and what he has gone through. English lines, of which there are quite a few, are also reasonably well handled and given that neither of the main characters is supposed to speak English particularly well, those scenes work ok. The best performance probably comes from Terence Yin as the villain of the piece, certainly someone to watch out for in the future. It was also great to see Chan Wai Man in a substantial role again and even get to see him in some action, albeit too brief.

Although the title does allude to romance its never really developed far enough to deliver any emotional punch in the final climax and this is probably the film's biggest failing.

The story has Leon Lai as a cop who is pursuing two drug dealers (Terence Yin and Richard Sun). After he finally catches Terence, Leon's girlfriend (Asaka Seto) manages to put him behind bars after a grueling trial. In retaliation, Terence sends a female assassin to kill the couple. However, the assassin begins developing feelings for Leon and only kills the girlfriend. Distraught, Leon heads to a remote village, where he helps to run his uncle's (Michael Chan) bar. Things seem to be going normally until a woman who looks exactly like Leon's girlfriend shows up.

Of course, this leads to some twists and turns, which most viewers will see coming. This is one of Bullets of Love's main problems -- there's nothing really new here. There is an attempt to make things more dramatic and different with a subplot involving Leon's retarded uncle (Frankie Ng) getting married, but this mostly serves to slow the film down during a point where things should be moving faster, especially after the movie gets off to a good start in its' first half-hour or so. Many film-makers from both the US and HK seem to be neglecting the second act nowadays, and Bullets of Love is another example of this. The whole middle of the picture just seems flat.

Thankfully, things really pick up near the end, with a couple of solid action sequences -- which would have been even better if it wasn't for director/cinematographer Andrew Lau's sometimes too-flashy camerawork. There's also a more traditional HK "downbeat" ending, at least when compared to the "happy" Hollywood-style stuff which seems to be favored lately. These things do come too little and too late to totally save the movie, but overall, Bullets of Love is a good, if unspectacular, action/romance film. It's nothing close to the classics from years past, but at least it doesn't make you want to tear your hair out like a lot of recent half-ass attempts at the genre.

REVIEW:
Bullets of Love follows along the lines of a number of other Andrew Lau films in that it is overall quite enoyable and has lots of good things to it, but is also hindered by a number of problems. Bullets of Love has an interesting story that mixes some action and thriller with a lot of romance, with solid performances from its leads, but also seems to lose its mood at times.

Bullets of Love is a mix of action/thriller and romance, but moreso the latter than the former. We have the initial police raid sequence, lots of romance development, then more action at the end. As such, it kind of switches gears and doesn't actually mix the two elements together much. Luckily, it is worked into the plot fairly well, so it doesn't seem terribly discontinuous. Action sequences are stylish, but not amazingly choreographed and performed. The main attraction here is going to be the romance. If you aren't in it for that, you shouldn't be in this film at all.

The initial scenes showing the arrest and prosecution of the criminals is fairly exciting (at least the raid scene) and generally solid stuff. Then the movie switches into romance gear. It takes some time to set up the relationship between Sam and Ann, but this segment is a little uninteresting and didn't do too well to sell their love. The following segment, after Ann's murder, is where Sam meets and develops a relationship with Ann-lookalike, You. This part of the romance was significantly more convincing. Bringing in the family elements and showing how Sam's family relationships helped build their own relationship added a lot. This time, the love is well-convincing. The main problem during this segment, though, is that the film throws in too much unnecessary goofiness at times. Had the film presented itself more as a comedy, this would be fine. But, at times, it only serves to take away from the mood of the romance. Once the romance has been fully built, the film takes some twists that bring some action and an intersting twist. It's a good twist (that, unfortunately, is given away in the trailer and on the box for the film) and makes for a tense dilemma at the climax.

Both the leads in the film put in solid performances. Leon carries over the blank stare that we saw a lot in Comrades, Almost A Love Story, so that may be a Leon thing - but luckily it works well for his character here. He also manages to put on the more assertive, straightforward look when his character needs to. There is a lot of somewhat hard-to-understand English from both characters, but it does come off more naturally than some of the english dialogue we've heard from at times in HK films and sounds like how two such characters would talk. Many of the side characters, though, are quite a bit over-the-top. This plays into the unecessary goofiness that I mentioned earlier - so this may be intentional, but it is still distracting at times.

Stylistically, the film is very Andrew Lau. While he is well known these days for his CG-filled movies, his cinematography shows through here and looks pretty nice, though he's not rivaling his Man Called Hero cinematography any time soon. He also sparingly uses extra stylized effects to highlight key moments in the movie, particularly those moments that coincide with the time Sam's fiance is killed. This adds a little extra something to a few key moments in the film and works as it is used sparingly.

Bullets of Love is an enjoyable film with some noticeable flaws. It doesn't have quite enough to fulfill both the action and the romance 100%, and has some over-the-top scenes that can affect the mood. But, in the end, it's enjoyable and the climax really brings it to a point. It shouldn't be at the top of your list. But you could do far worse than Bullets of Love.