Bill (Lau Ching-wan, aka Sean Lau - Running Out of Time 1 and 2, Too Many Ways to Be No. 1) was a special crimes unit investigator in Hong Kong until he assaulted his superior. Because of his recklessness he was demoted to the EU (emergency unit), a glorified, multi-person street patrol. Now he's got to overcome his loner tendency and be a leader to his new team.

The team is comprised of a gun expert, a computer expert, a by-the-book cop, and an wiser, older officer who's always kept a low profile. They are typically a support unit, assigned to crowd or traffic control, and not to pursue violent criminals, which Bill is used to. While on patrol they happen upon a gang conducting a violent crime. During the ensuing shootout several of their fellow officers are injured. Bill, true to his nature, takes this personally and vows to track down the criminals. Using his old methods he gathers information from the investigation department, a bumbling group more concerned with getting recognition than stopping criminals, and discover the gang is led by a well-known criminal nicknamed 'the Professor.' Bill and his action-hungry crew follow a trail of clues, in spite of orders from their superiors to the contrary, and finally work out the criminal's plan and determine how to stop it.

Lau Ching-wan's Bill is no different from many American characters portrayed by stellar action stars like Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, or Mel Gibson. Like those popular actors, Lau Ching-wan brings a certain style and grace to his characters, endearing you to their predicaments and earning your interest in their futures. He has a definite talent which seems to grow more with each successive film. Jordan Chan, as the straightlaced team member whose base instincts mirror Bill's, is another rising star in Hong Kong cinema. His performances also seem to improve with every film he is in. Their internal conflict is a nice subtext to the rather mundane plot, and enlivened by the presence of actors with first-rate ability.

The main supporting cast includes Francis Ng (Bullets Over Summer, The Mission), cast here as Bill's former partner in the special investigations unit who does his best to help Bill's current investigation. When Ng and Lau are on screen together, they look like they've worked closely together on some difficult cases; their acting is that good. Perennial madman Anthony Wong (Hard-Boiled, Time and Tide, The Medallion) is cast here as one of the main bad guys who, along with partner and recurrent baddie Yu Rongguang, wipe out Interpol headquarters in a rather balletic style, thanks to director Benny Chan, who seamlessly fuses action and drama into one intensely energetic package. Consider this the sleeper of the genre for 1996.

Big Bullet is a cop film that focuses not on serial gunfights and actions or confusing plot twists, but on ensemble acting and characterization, and relies on its talents to make the mundane intriguing..

Hard boiled cop Bill Zhu (Lau Ching Wan - Victim) gets transferred to the Emergency Unit in the Hong Kong police after an incident with his superior during a previous case. Bill rarely does things according to the book and that attitude creates conflicts within his new group. Meanwhile time is running short to catch a ruthless gang of thieves who plan to smuggle a huge amount of money out of Hong Kong...

Director Benny Chan's most famous film before and still today remains A Moment Of Romance but after that one things got kind of quiet around him until Big Bullet came along. This movie opened a lot of doors and he landed a co-directing job on the Jackie Chan vehicle Who Am I? Jackie also produced the entertaining Gen-X Cops which Benny directed alone. He didn't show signs of the effective storyteller from A Moment Of Romance on Gen-X Cops but in the end made quite a fun and entertaining film for the masses.

Big Bullet starts out a little talky but soon opens up and becomes great Hong Kong action entertainment, even though we initially have a more serious tone underneath it all. It's not a movie with much depth in the content or within the characters but who says we need that kind of film every time action is involved? To be honest, I expected a lot more flashy directing in terms of camera movement but Benny holds back quite a lot and concentrates more on telling this simple story, a fact that a viewer like me really appreciates. It's not sophisticated storytelling but Benny has good flow in his directing and introduces our main characters nicely without disrupting the need to thrive forward.

A bit into the film, Anthony Wong and his henchmen makes their entrance at a restaurant and this is the set up for the absolute best action set piece in the film. After Anthony brutally murders a woman we're into a high octane gun battle that even goes out on the streets of Hong Kong where Lau Ching Wan and crew are doing their best to stop the bad guys. The action choreography doesn't feel like the work of John Woo in the execution but definitely in scale. Cars blow up, there's bloodshed and the thieves surround themselves with some heavy duty weapons.

Composer Peter Kam (Purple Storm) builds up terrific tension before the action bits but at other times the music feels a bit slick and hip for the movie's own good. For the remainder, Peter's music takes a step back which is good at times when you don't want music to dominate the main intention of a scene. The same can be said for the cinematography by Arthur Wong. He uses colours like blue to enhance certain scenes and settings but now when I look back I feel that his strongest work also occurs during the above mentioned action scene. This leads us into the main problem with Big Bullet. The tone changes and the action scenes gets slightly worse as the movie goes by.

The technical aspects remain fine but the tone changes into a very light and almost humerous one. For example, there is quite a big amount of brutal violence during the first half of the film but the meaning and the consequences of this are barely touched upon subsequently, something that should've been done considering that it was a serious movie once. The filmmakers had a good thing going with the darker tone so I found it strange that they almost abandoned it. The comedy within Lau Ching Wan's police unit (mainly from Cheung Tat Ming) is at non-intrusive but the closer we get to the end the more tiring and frankly silly it gets. All this could've been forgiven or even forgotten if Benny and his action choreographer would've blown us away in the final reel. Sadly all ideas seemed to have run out by the time the two fights on the moving plane begins. The ingredients for a bloody good action climax was there but the editing and camera work is so all over the place so you can barely follow the action. Disappointing.

A solid group of actors occupy the movie and in the starring role we see the always charismatic Lau Ching Wan. He elevates this movie through his screen presence and charisma and turns what could've been a very cliché ridden part into a very solid performance. In other actor's hands it could've been boring but Lau Ching Wan is an actor you want to watch even if it in the end turns out to be lesser than good. Lau has after Big Bullet played a cop more than once but never really the same part so to speak. He has also shown a terrific comedic side through his role in La Brassiere.

Jordan Chan is the best of the bunch here though and beforehand I'd kind of put him in the bad actor's pile after seeing him in thrash like Skyline Cruisers and Bio Zombie. In the latter he did however show strength in the action moments but fell totally flat in the comedic scenes. His face just isn't suitable for comedy in my opinion. He got a well deserved nomination for his performance in Big Bullet and from his first scene he embodies everything the character of Jeff is. He's disciplined and a by the books cop, which creates the contrast and the conflict with Lau Ching Wan's character. Despite the age difference, Jordan's character is never someone we look down upon and that also goes for Jordan's performance itself. He also brings an inner humanity to the role and we see that especially when he encounter his brother who's a triad. That side story is actually well done and Benny avoids the sentimental side to it. This is by far the best I've seen Jordan Chan do in a Hong Kong movie so far.

Teresa Lee got herself a nomination but feels totally miscast in her police role. In her first scene we see a kind of girlish and childish nature to her character but I hoped she would bring out her toughness in the action scenes. No such thing. She is almost always spunky and that aspect is the worst during the big climax of the movie. It's painful to watch her trying to pull off some comedy which didn't need to be there in the first place and how she got a best supporting actress nomination is a mystery to me. No doubt a talented girl, just not this time.

The one dimensional bad guys primarily consists of Mr. Bunman himself, Anthony Wong and it seems like he always strives to have a certain odd trait to his psychopath characters. In Mongkok Story he was a b-movie actor/triad and in Big Bullet he swears in Italian for no reason whatsoever (although the subtitles always translates his cursing to 'Damn'). Only Anthony can pull something cheesy like this off and it's an entertaining but at times chilling part he has here.

Finally in a supporting part we see So Good's favourite Francis Ng as the ex-superior and closest friend of Bill Zhu. Francis reminds me of Chow Yun-Fat because he always manages to steal every scene he's in just by being there. If that's not screen presence I don't know what is. He also gets to participate in the big street shoot-out and even though he's not in the movie after this, he utilizes his time well. He and Lau Ching Wan would later become a great double act in Ringo Lam's Full Alert.

Big Bullet no doubt should be criticized for abandoning what could've turned into a serious and even mature piece of action cinema but don't take my criticism too hard. Watch it yourself and you'll see that this is still a very entertaining Hong Kong action movie. One of the better ones of the late 90s as a matter of fact.

Big Bullet could have been a big stinker; the plot is nothing special and all of the characters are stereotypes (the hotheaded cop, the overenthusiastic cop who turns out to be a coward, etc.). The action sequences, while good, are really nothing special (at least compared to many other HK action films). Big Bullet is saved from being just another cop/action movie by the performances of the actors. While there's no Oscar-caliber performances (most of the actors play within their given stereotypes) all of the actors work really well together which makes the story much more plausible and pleasant to watch. Lau and Chan provide the exception to the rule by operating outside of their usual roles at the time (Lau's romantic loser and Chan's young hooligan) and give the film's best performances as well as a credible relationship for the movie to build around. Apparently, many of the principal actors in Big Bullet are friends in real life and it shows; none of the relationships in the film seem forced, which is a major problem in many action movies where attention to characterization is often diverted to emphasis on bloodshed.

A good action movie that should satisfy fans of the genre.

Lau Ching Wan plays Bill, a hard boiled cop in the Serious Crime Unit who, after assaulting a fellow officer, is transferred to the Emergency Unit Group responsible for patrolling the streets and providing quick response to crime reports (basically the bobbies on the beat). However this puts him directly in the front line when an extremely violent gang, lead by Yu Rong Kwong and Anthony Wong, follow a bold plan to rob millions of dollars from Interpol.

When the gang begin their offensive with a hit on an Interpol police officer that turns into a frantic street battle Bill and his new team, (Jordan Chan, Spencer Lam, Cheung Tat Ming and Theresa Lee) stumble into the cross fire. Also in the thick of it is Bill's former superior played by Francis Ng. After this initial incident Bill, with a flagrant disregard for following orders, takes it upon himself to bring the gang to justice.

The intensity and violence of the action scenes in the first two thirds of the movie really live up to the reputation that Hong Kong cinema has for explosive over the top action. With high body counts, beautiful camera work and effective editing the scenes in this movie are a match for just about anything else that Hong Kong has to offer. The centre piece shoot out set in the Interpol headquarters is especially gripping not least because we also get to see Yu Rong Kwong let fly with a brief flurry of kicks amid the gunplay chaos going on around him. With such an incredible first hour the film flounders a little in the climax which, while still good, doesn't manage to come anywhere near as close in terms of action or tension.

The emphasis of the story is definitely from the perspective of Lau Ching Wan and his new team of officers. While the chemistry of the team is well handled its a shame that we never get to see or learn more of Yu Rong Kwong and Anthony Wong whose purpose in the film is really only to be the character less bad guys.

Lau Ching Wan is excellent in this early action role which paved the way for him to become one of Hong Kong's leading action stars and Francis Ng also provides solid support displaying potential that was to be realised in later classics such as Ringo Lam's 'Full Alert'. This is also probably the best of Benny Chan's recent efforts, easily surpassing the more Hollywood influenced 'Gen X Cops' and its disappointing sequel.

A welcome surprise from Hong Kong as this is a great looking and great sounding big budget action thriller with very high production values. Unfortunately, as Hong Kong productions become glossier and more professional looking, the stories become less interesting and more clichéd. The action pieces are exciting and well staged, but seem a little too sparse for me. There's all of ninety seconds of kung fu goodness dealt out by action veteran Yu Rong Guang, but it's quite rewarding. It's not a stretch to see Yu Rong Guang and Anthony Wong playing evil gang bosses - they look natural and confident in their roles, and fortunately they don't have to resort to psychotic antics to validate their bad-guy status. Lau Ching Wan is also in a typecast role, but he still comes off as being genuine and fresh. Cute and perky Theresa Lee is a welcome sight, but she doesn't get enough opportunities to be tough. In the funny subtitles department, we see that "Don't fuck it up this time" is translated as "No more games." Very amusing. Overall I'd say it's a good police thriller and a good way to satisfy a Hong Kong action fix.