Don't Believe the Hype

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Chicken Feet (Andy Lau) assists in running an honorable gambling den owned by the crippled Uncle Fan (Siu-Ming Lau) and his son Kit (Wong Kit). Having previously tried to shut down the gambling den and take over by paralyzing Fan and framing Kit for another man's murder, ruthless local Triad boss, James (Kelvin Wong) goes a step further by murdering Fan. Driven only by money and the pursuit of two valuable 'Jade stones', James kidnaps Kit's daughter so he will surrender gambling in order for James to win the upcoming Championship. Despite Kit's wish to live a life of peace, Chicken Feet finds the Jade Stones and along with his partner, Lin (Wu Chien-Lien) plots his own revenge against James. The sequel to the 1989 Hong Kong Modern Classic "Casino Raiders" was never going to be as well received as it's predecessor, yet, despite the criticism that this merely cashed in on Lau's fast on-screen success, this is nevertheless an interesting film to look at.Foremost, director, Johnny To takes a somewhat more 'poetic' perspective than Wong Jing did on the original, focusing more on drawn out character emotions which can, however, sometimes fall backwards on style. There are some exceptional scenes though, such as the lynching on the cruise boat, the fight on the docks at nighttime, and, of course, the final showdown between Lau and Wong. These emphasize To's ability to maintain consistency of plot without relying on visual spectacle, but still including subdued rich imagery.The always impressive Andy Lau is brilliant yet again, and the entire support cast, particularly Wong Kit and Wu Chien-Lien give strong performances. Kelvin Wong, it must be said, is also thoroughly convincing as the cold-blooded James and gives, quite possibly, one of his best-ever performances.In terms of fallbacks, the film does, at times, rely slightly too heavily on assumed prior knowledge, particularly on playing cards. Therefore, while an uninformed HK film fan might wait it out and try and keep up, the half-interested modest might give up completely.Although not a criticism of the film itself, this (as well as "Casino Raiders") are LONG overdue for a DVD Re-Release. Particularly in the UK, I'd hope the Hong Kong Legends label will show interest; re-master the film, re-dub and re-subtitle (the Laser Universe label subtitles are pretty bad) and of course throw in a handful of interesting special features. So, Mr. Bey Logan, if you're reading this, put in a good word! And, hey, you can do the commentary track, too!