This is one of my favourite hit man movies of all time. Chow Yun Fat is too cool for school here. He is like Edward Fox in "Day Of The Jackal" mixed with Alain Delon in "Le Samourai". Suave, cool, professional, but also lonely and disconnected. This is however a two header, with Danny Lee clocking in equal screentime as the hellbent cop--how novel. But in Woo's hands, old Danny boy is able to go beyond his usual screen persona and deliver a more nuanced and emotional cop character, not really seen since "Law With Two Phases". And the chemistry between him and Chow is unmistakable.

One of my favourite characters in this movie is actually that of Chu Kong, as Chow's handler, mentor, and friend. He has a quiet dignity about him but can also go into the melodramatic style without coming off as uneven. And while I loved him as a bad guy in "The Big Heat", I like that he gets to show more range here. Sally Yeh is undoubtedly the weak link. As with every other female character in a John Woo movie, I could never figure out if Woo was just bad at picking leading ladies, or if the poor girls just never had that much to work with. Considering the movies' focus was usually on the male bonding of the leading men.

While John Woo had been making movies since the 70's--comedies, kung fu flicks, etc.--he really found his style with "A Better Tomorrow", but cemented it with this one. The double guns, the white doves, the slo-mo, the Christian imagery, and so on. All of this seems cliché today, due to heavy copying in countless movies. And yet, when you see the real thing in Woo's work, you realize how badly all these subsequent copycats did it. This is where it's at. And sadly, it will never be like this again.

Nonetheless, the film also explores themes of honor and loyalty. Jeff's old comrade Sidney attempts to betray him on orders from the big boss, but Jeff spares his life out of friendship, and Sidney later repays this act of mercy many times over, even to death.

Moreover, Jeff runs into two Hong Kong police officers who attempt to arrest him. One of them dies in the line of duty, but the other (played by Danny Lee) grows to respect and even admire Jeff for the sense of honor and compassion that lies beneath the facade of a cool, determined killer. In the final battle against hordes of minions sent by the crime boss, they are trapped in a church but stand side by side, even swapping guns to symbolically demonstrate their new bond of brotherhood and friendship.

I had the sense all along that Jeff was going to die, although I had hoped for a somewhat happy ending with Jenny finally recovering her sight, and this is my one quibble with the film.

Jeff made the cop promise him that if he were to die, he would like to arrange for his corneas to be given to Jenny for transplantation, to do one last decent thing, but sadly Jeff's own eyes get destroyed before he perishes in the final shootout.

The cop ultimately kills the crime boss AFTER the villain surrenders to a battalion of police who arrive on the scene, and the movie ends there.

We never know if Jenny ever makes a recovery, and I suppose the director wanted it that way. None the less, the incredible action sequences, and the interesting documentary in the special features on firearms and tactics, are worth getting this title anyway.