i must have seen a different film!!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Chiu is a Chinese agent that didn't obey orders and is sent to a former Soviet Republic (the made up Lavernia). In there, he fights with Mishima (who thinks he's the new Messiah) the leader of the Japanese Cult the Red Sun. The Lavernians start to hate all Asians. Chiu (Arthur Dong in this movie, although the cover says Yem Dong) is one of the Chinese Ambassadors bodyguards. He fights off all the token goons and bad guys and then goes head to head with Mishima, who's really a psychopath. The action itself is alright, although heavily wire aided and unrealistic, which is not really my favourite action style. The story though, is not all that bad, they actually seemed to have made a decent attempt, but it's just done quite poorly. The acting seems to be bad, but I can't be sure since it's dubbed (horrible, dubbing sucks). Tammy (Tammie) is dubbed really, really badly but she's an annoying character anyways so when she DIES (haha spoiler but you'll thank me later, cause you're gonna hate her for sure) you'll be glad, the woman just can't seem to stop screaming, moaning and yelling.

Overall I would have to say that this film is good, although it could have been excellent. Great fight scenes, wonderful camera work, a reasonable plot and decent performances all round. However, there are a few unfortunate failings which I feel could have been avoided with little trouble.My major complaint with the version I own on DVD is the dubbing. While I make a point of always watching foreign films with subtitles it is impossible to avoid the voiceovers on the one because all of the Russian-speaking characters have been dubbed into English with varying degrees of success. Obviously this is a criticism of my version, not the film itself, but unless I learn to speak Cantonese I will not be able to enjoy the original version. Another problem is with the action scenes: while they are spectacular to say the least (as a martial artist myself I particularly enjoyed them) I cannot help thinking that they could have been a little more realistic. In the final showdown Chiu Man Chuk and Andrew Lin practically fly around the screen. This would not be so bad, but everything they touch shatters to pieces, be they tables or stone busts. As for the gunplay, a veritable army of terrorists with automatic weapons are almost completely unable to hit four soldiers standing still on an exposed bridge with no cover. My final complaint is the music in the romance scenes, which makes them seem a little slushy. Oh, and one misplaced blind guitar player in a subway showdown.Obviously, I have been highlighting the bad points, rather than good - but this is simply because I want to illustrate that aside from these quibbles there is nothing wrong with this picture, which is why it is one of my favourite Chinese action movies.

This film's plotline may not be much but who cares when there's superb action going on? Zhao Wenzhuo delivers as usual as does Andrew Lin Hoi as the evil cult leader. The fights are an eyeful..checkout the subway fight. Also the final fight was indeed eye-popping..granted a little over-the-top due to wire-fu but still when Zhao Wenzhuo flashes his sabre..look out!!It's a must-see for action fans tired of poseurs like MI:2...!

A little bit like Die Hard/Executive Action, only much better because it's Hong Kong produced. Great fight scenes. Especially in the end, kung fu/sword fight sequence was just unforgettable. A must see for Hong Kong action fans.