Francis Ng and Louis Koo star as two cops who are on the trail of a vicious robbery suspect. Like many crime pictures, the partners seem to be mis-matched, with Ng being the "straight" cop and Koo occupying most of his time chasing skirts instead of solving crimes. Eventually, they trail the suspect to an apartment building, and so they set up in another flat to do survelliance. Things become more complicated as the pair have to deal with the senile tenant (Helena Law Lan, in a rare role where there are no ghosts of any kind involved) and some new girlfriends (Michelle Mok and Lam Mei Jing).

After a fairly vicious opening where Ng and Lai bring down a group of robbers, the film settles down and nothing of importance happens -- at least on first glance. Bullets Over Summer is most definitely a multi-layered movie; those viewers wanting to see tons of Woo-style bloodshed will most likely be disappointed, even though the action featured here is done well. What the film is really about is watching the characters develop, rather than shoot each other up. Both Ng and Koo (as well as most of the supporting cast) do an excellent job, and make this film well worth watching.

After the high octane opening the film changes gear as the two cops set up surveillance on an arms dealer, Dragon, they suspect of being linked to the gang. Taking over a flat in the block opposite to Dragon's, Brian and Mike face distractions in the form of the flat owner, a senile old woman, and the god-daughter of their informant who turns up uninvited. The focus moves away from the investigation as the film flies off at various tangents. The senile flat owner forgets that Brian and Mike are police officers and imagines them to be her sons. Brian becomes infatuated with the informants god-daughter who, it transpires, is only a schoolgirl and Mike becomes involved with a pregnant girl who works at the local dry cleaners. With all this going on it is only by luck that they manage to make any headway at all in their investigation.

Just when you are completely distracted by all of the sub-plots the film cleverly brings it all back together again with some truly suspense filled moments. The most memorable of these being when the senile woman unwittingly invites the killers to dinner, Brian and Mike being unable to do anything without endangering innocent lives.

This is definitely not your standard Hong Kong action flick. It certainly delivers on the action but also provides a multitude of interesting characters, some quite quirky at times, and engaging sub-plots. Much time is taken in developing the central characters and the parts are played well by Louis Koo and especially Francis Ng.

The film seems to be made up of a mix of styles. It opens like a Wong Kar-wai film with Francis Ng running frantically while his character narrates. There are also moments that borrow from John Woo with freeze frame and slow motion. There's even times when the prolonged close ups on the character's faces reminded me of Takeshi Kitano's films. This mix manages helps to keep the film interesting throughout.

In all this is a well constructed movie with good characterisations and inventive story telling, and the action, when it comes, is classic stuff.

Francis Ng plays a detective with Huntington's Disease, an incurable, hereditary neurological disorder that gradually eats away a person's voluntary neuromuscular control. Now, however, he is not showing any signs in his hunt for the "Poisonous Dragon," a dangerous criminal who has robbed banks and killed numerous people in cold blood. His partner, Brian (played by Louis Koo), is a young man who cares more about girls and fun than about his job. The odd couple stake out in a small apartment in an old residential building in the summer, waiting for the chance to capture the bank-robbers.

Just when we expect more intense action after the intro and with threatened danger, the movie turns around and plunges into the lives of the characters, including the detectives' landlady who has dementia, a girl who refuses to go home or to use her brain, a pregnant woman and owner of a dry-cleaning store, and an obnoxious neighbor who bullies the old lady (played by the script-writer Matt Chow). In the mean time, Brian develops a romantic relationship with the girl. Francis Ng's character, who grew up an orphan, finds family in the landlady and the pregnant woman. Explosive actions only resume near the end of the film. Similar structure has been used before, such as Johnnie To's "Loving You."

Bullets Over Summer is filled with pearls of original and effective comic moments. The first shootout inside the supermarket, the use of tropical fruits in the interrogation of their informant, "Same shoes! I can't wear the same shoes as Prince. It's a matter of principles!" and "I... I forgot to cook the rice." The dead-pan manner in which the filmmakers approach these wonderful materials works particularly well.

The movie contains several extremely cinematic scenes. The sequence with Francis Ng on the rooftop is reminiscent of Hitchcock's Rear Window. The dinner scene where the landlady invites the bank-robbers to dinner is full of hair-raising suspense. The filmmakers are confident and comfortable in mixing comedy, romance, and action. They do it with precision. Many many exceptionally precious moments.

Yet somewhat disappointingly, the movie does quite not add up to the sum of all the brilliant bits in it. The ending is not well thought out and seems to be patched together. The emotional aspects are not dealt with in the end and no closure is provided. From the short documentary about the making of this movie, I have the impression that Wilson Yip did want to express something specific through the ending. I suppose it could be done, but the movie didn't do it successfully. Besides the clear lack of character's motivation and build-up, the ending is also disjointed, illogical, and unconvincing.

I have a speculation about the ending. It would be very difficult to deal with the issues of incurable illness, budding romance, unfulfilled promises, etc. to bring the movie to a satisfying end. It is much easier to stage an action scene than resolve the issues quietly. Death is often a cop-out choice, because it's much harder to solve problems of the living.

The performances are all very impressive in this movie. Law Lan has the most catchy role of the demented old lady. But it's Francis Ng's beautifully restrained and layered acting here that stands out as the best performance in 1999.