While Lau often thoroughly spells out the main themes, such as what true loyalty actually means and the torment of being detached from your reality, the proceedings remain effective thanks to a very good central performance by Jacky Cheung as the undercover cop Lik. Equally of importance is sections talking about patching of family connections and it all comes with extremely little humour (considering Wong Jing is backing Andrew Lau yet again). The actual power struggle plot, with over the top characterizations for both the triad bosses and the cop superiors, is standard and holds no interest however. One silly element that also enters here is the portrayal of the very young and carefree triad punks but here Lau bounces back with some disturbing casual violence on their behalf, sealing a commentary that is memorable. Tony Leung Kar-Fai, Roy Cheung, Shing Fui-On and Wu Chien-Lien also offers up fine support.