Reviewed by: STSH Date: 01/28/2007 Summary: G, G and G Guns, gore and gambling, in that order. The convoluted plot jumps around all over the place, is not helped by the large number of important characters, and doesn't even begin to make sense till close to the end. In fact, everything about this film either improves or increases as it goes on. The action scenes steadily get better, grading from pretty laughable to excellent. The acting improves, though only a little. The violence, starting at a high pitch, hits John Woo levels by the end. Loads of shootouts, and a few great girl-martial-arts fights. As the frequency and length of the fight scenes increase, the directing improves noticeably, from very dull to not bad. Also, there's a lot a silly and pointless slo-motion in the first half. It's virtually impossible to feel anything for any of these characters, as they are either entirely loathsome (Feng) or as warm as robots (Shila), and this makes the film hard to stick with in the first half, especially lacking the frequent fight scenes which distract you from this in the second half. Although gore'n'guns are an integral part of HK gambling pics, there is far too much gunfire and too little actual gambling. The blood-spattered climax drags this film to just above average. Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: spinali Date: 12/08/1999 Summary: NULL When triad boss Master Cho is murdered, and a series ofreprisals click one after another like dominoes. Conveniently for the plot, it takes a while for his daughter Sheila Cho (Sibelle Hu) to discover it's all a conspiracy to seize her casino and even up an old grudge between clans. The big fight scene at the end pits four bands of triads and a pair of mainlander swordgirls against one another. The big moment comes when the cast shifts for position in the darkened casino, when suddenly the lights go on and everybody starts shooting or fighting or swinging samurai swords at one another, bodies dropping everywhere. (2.5/4) [Reviewed by Steve Spinali] Reviewer Score: 6