One of the four directors on Heroes In Love, Stephen Fung (Gen-X Cops, 2002) debut as feature director with Enter The Phoenix is a surprisingly enjoyable but flawed deconstruction of the triad genre (bending the genre is never a bad thing to attempt). Fung works with top personnel to make his stylish attempts come to life (hit and miss excursions) while he simultaneously makes fun of conventions we've come to expect. While Eason Chan is at times a riot, mimicking movie Don Corleone's of the past, Fung's handling of the dives into said conventions (especially melodrama) never quite maintains a balance. We're simply at times not sure if he's doing it with a wink in his eye or being serious. Again, it's hit and miss and when hit, clever only to a minor degree. The film is also arguably quite homophobic so here we do know that Fung is up to no good. Still, the stars are photogenic and assured (especially Wu and the comedy double act between Chapman To and Law Kar-Ying) and action-director Ma Yuk-Sing provides sporadic, professional mayhem that we see very little of in Hong Kong cinema today. The choice to go complete wire-fu on us is mystifying however but Enter The Phoenix is signs of a filmmaker that can go further. There are worse commercial debuts out there, far, far worse and more cruddy looking. Also starring Stephen Fung himself, Karen Mok, Michael Chan with brief appearances by Nicholas Tse, Sam Lee, Sammi Cheng and Jackie Chan.