Big (Andy Lau) leaves the life as a monk behind him when he receives the ability to see into people's karma, revealing their past life sins and therefore he knows who's soon to die. Meeting up with Yee (Cecilia Cheung), a rookie CID officer, at the strip club he works in, he decides to assist her in tracking down an Indian killer. At the same time, unknown to her, Big sees visions around Yee of Japanese soldiers slaughtering innocent civilians. After saving her from death twice and thinking her destiny may be changed, the visions around her turn up again...

Johnnie To & Wai Ka-Fai are quite brave in them somewhat knowing what the audiences are thinking beforehand and making them see Running On Karma instead. To just release a few promotional stills with Lau all beefed up and make sure they know Cecilia Cheung is in there as well, you might have yourself a chunk of box-office already. However not all viewers may be receptive for what the directing duo actually delivers. I have to admit that I never liked Wai Ka-Fai directing together with Johnnie To. Oh no, I think he's a good director on his own but the movies he's directed with To have been lesser efforts. Primarily because those were the works more leaning towards commercialism but Running On Karma in the end is far from that. With that in mind, it's certainly their best collaboration as dual directors so far.

Be ready for quite the content in terms of mood and genres with Running On Karma. What starts in the strip club scene is very lighthearted but quickly the piece turns into a thriller with burst of gory violence, mixed in with comedy, a decent romance, wire enhanced kung fu and a philosophical nature to the narrative involving karma, or rather the the laws of karma. It's no surprise that you got all that in a Hong Kong movie seeing as they've never been afraid to include everything (except knowledge, to quote Anthony Wong). Rarely have I seen it merged so well though and it really shouldn't have worked, especially the comedy. I smiled in the beginning because this preconceived notion of mine, after watching the production stills, really seemed to go out of the window, fast. Maybe Johnnie To can be part of a worthwhile project nowadays that isn't in the style of films like The Mission? Personally I enjoy To's work the most when that style is on display and while Running On Karma shares some of the quirkiness, it's actually very far from it but with one positive point. It isn't a breezy, easily digested romantic comedy. Thank god.

To and Wai injects Running On Karma with a lighting-fast pace that still remains very accessible even for the viewer expecting something else. The 4 man strong writing team also makes sure that an interest is sparked right from the beginning, even if the true intentions for this story takes a little bit longer to reveal itself. One of the issues regarding this film was Andy Lau's muscle suit and while it doesn't feel totally convincing in all its glory, it doesn't draw that much attention to itself believe it or not. The viewers are instead asked to listen in and through some nifty karma visuals if you will, they should be locked in for this very different ride. The storyline will takes us much farther than the 93 minutes suggest and by the end I feel the directors may have lost a few viewers in a bit of a muddled 20 minute finale to the film. It's almost purely on the philosophical side and I'm sure ain't no scholar on the subject of karma but I think I understood it. There's enough exposition thrown in but you are left alone in your interpretation of the end. This will make or break Running On Karma for some but I found it refreshing, thoughtful and, for once, original Hong Kong cinema.

It's obvious that Johnnie To likes to do his slow, quirky style on his own so him teaming with Wai Ka-Fai for this movie produces stylish filmmaking but a lot more straightforward than anything seen in the recent PTU for example. It's a choice for Running On Karma and that works very well. It's in tune with the hard boiled nature of the film, the romance and of course the comedy. Andy Lau who is the main focus of the latter manages to sell it, in particular during in the motorcycle scene where he's such a goofball you really should've been taken out of the movie. At other times, that goofiness is actually playing to character as he acts rather silly to hide his true self. To's regular action director Yuen Bun also choreographs a fair bit of action that is quick cut but quite creative. The wire work has been done better in the past but the execution of the different concepts are pretty neat.

Some of the regular troupe of Milkyway crew are present including the writer Yau Nai-Hoi and cinematographer Cheng Siu-Keung but very few of the regular acting troupe. No Lam Suet, Lau Ching Wan, Raymond Wong or Ruby Wong, ''only'' Andy Lau and Cecilia Cheung. Lau actually logs a pretty good performance as the once monk with his, what you can call, a curse of seeing karma. It calls upon performing stuff Lau is pretty confident at doing, using his superb on screen charisma, but the deeper parts of the character are pulled off well above average by Lau. Someone said to me that Lau will probably never be a great actor but he's a bonafide moviestar and bringing that gets you a long way. In Running On Karma he does bring good traits to the actual acting bit as well, which won me over. Cecilia Cheung has never struck me as a great actress on a regular basis but have made most parts she's taken work to a decent extent through her presence. Her performance here also works but without impressing as such. I'd turn to the Korean movie Failan, Stephen Chow's King Of Comedy or Lost In Time for a real taste of what Cheung is capable of.

I'll mention it again, I think Johnnie To himself does better films when concentrating on the style we've been blessed to see through movies like The Mission. However, with Running On Karma he finally makes a standout collaboration with Wai Ka-Fai while at the same time not catering to the general moviegoing audience. The final section of the film will be a tester for many but I felt little disorientation and in the end, Running On Karma surprises despite packing more genres than normally one movie can handle.

The plot has Andy Lau as a former monk (simply named Big or Biggie in the subtitles) who is now making his living at a stripper at an undergroud club. Cecilia Cheung plays a rookie cop called Yee who busts the club Big is working at. Big has the power to see a person's karma, and thus know when and how they are going to die. While being booked, Big sees a vision of Yee's death, and (due to lingering pain over the loss of his one true love) decides to help her crack a case involving a mysterious yoga master who is implicated in a murder. As the two draw closer together, Big realizes his own impact on Yee's karma, and tries to pull away from their relationship, until a tragic event once again brings them back to each other -- though in a way you might not expect.

This is one of the few films that I really don't have much in the way of negative things to say about it. From beginning to end, Running on Karma kept me entertained. It is kind of a schizophrenic movie, but the good Hong Kong directors (such as Johnnie To and his partner Wai Ka-Fai) can pull this type of film out. Matters are helped immensely by the performances of the leads. Though Cecilia Cheung is really not a "great" actor, she does add in a lot of personality into what could have very well been just a generic "cute cop" role. And I must give Andy Lau his due. I was really not a fan of his until a few years ago, but now he seems to realize that he is one of HK film's "old veterans" and seems to be taking his work much more seriously now. Even though Big frankly looks a bit ridiculous at times due to the muscle suit, Andy (similar to what Andy Serkis did with Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy) always manages to keep the humanity of the character intact, and that is what ultimately makes or breaks a film such as this.

Running on Karma is To's best work in years, and I will go so far as to say that it is without a doubt the best picture of the year, from both the US and Hong Kong. That might not be saying much considering 2003's dismal output -- which gave us heaping piles of dung like Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and Lethal Cop, films which get my vote as the worst of the year from their respective countries. But Running on Karma is so good, it stacks up well against most every other movie, even those produced during Hong Kong's much-ballyhooed "golden age". Yes, Hong Kong cinema might very well never again reach the level of output and quality attained by the industry during those years, but Running on Karma proves that the area can still create great movies that would not be produced in any other part of the world, and it's a fine reminder to fans as to why we became enamored with them in the first place.