Reviewed by: ororama Date: 08/13/2011 Organized Crime and Triad Bureau stars Danny Lee as the bureau chief, leading his unit in a relentless search for the leader of a robbery gang, played by Anthony Wong (Chau Sang). Lee matches the ruthlessness of his quarry, ignores the civil rights of prisoners, the protests of local residents and the political concerns of his superiors. He is loyal to his subordinates and his primary concern is doing his duty. The brutality of Wong's gangster illuminates the reason for his pursuer's determination, but he conversely displays unwavering loyalty to his mistress and son. Danny Lees gives his usual strong performance as a tough cop who has nothing to live for but his job. Anthony Wong gives a nuanced performance as a wily criminal who can be merciless, caring, savage or self-sacrificing from moment to moment as circumstances change. He never becomes sympathetic, but he is never entirely predictable. Cecilia Yip is covincing as the gangster's mistress, matching his loyalty to her and ready to assume leadership of the gang when necessary. Director Kirk Wong keeps the action hot, creating an energetic, stylish cops and robbers story. Organized Crime and Triad Bureau is a first rate example of the Hong Kong cop movie, with strong performances and direction advancing a compelling story.

Reviewed by: ekisha Date: 07/12/2010 Summary: My favourite movie! Simply the best film for me. Can't describe it in better words. Last Gun battle is just an amazing piece of work. Reviewer Score: 10

Reviewed by: Chungking_Cash Date: 03/19/2010 "Organized Crime & Triad Bureau," the second installment of director Kirk Wong's trilogy of crime films inspired by actual events, is as underwritten as a chop sockey but then again true crime is almost never as complicated as an episode of "Law and Order: Whatever." Danny Lee and Anthony Wong both appear in roles that they could deliver in their sleep in the same way John Wayne and Clint Eastwood made themselves stars not as great actors but as great characters. James Ha directs the cost efficient ultra-violent gun battles beautifully choreographed on the overcrowded streets of Hong Kong as detectives unrelentingly pursue a gang of criminals (when they're not bickering with their superiors) in this underrated cops-n-robbers flick. Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: dandan Date: 09/19/2007 Summary: violent cops and robbers... when inspector lee (danny lee) and his o.c.t.b. team catch up with a violent gang of robbers, the gang's leader, ho (anthony wong), and his girlfriend, cindy (cecilia yip), go on the run. it's time for lee to get his man... well, this is a strange little film. it would be gritty, if it didn't have such a cartoon like quality. inspector lee is a hard boiled, bad ass cop, who just doesn't play by the rules, he's happy to beat information from suspects, has no respect for his bumbling superiors and the independent police auditors, who he constantly makes look stupid. meanwhile, anthony wong leads his gang, who have murdered and mutilated themselves through several robberies, but has a heart, as his strange relationship with cecilia yip goes to show, even if he is an unhinged, violent thief and murderer. a strange and morally ambiguous set up. there are no sides to cheer for, just watch it play out and enjoy the shoot-out at the end.

Reviewed by: ewaffle Date: 03/04/2007 If I were a wanted criminal fleeing the police and were given a choice among the Keystone Cops, Leslie Neilson’s Police Squad or the intrepid band of anti-crime warriors led by Inspector Lee (Danny Lee) in “Organized Crime & Triad Bureau” I feel I would have a better chance of escaping if Lee were after me. Lee mobilizes the PTU and maritime divisions of the Hong Kong police force to hunt Anthony Wong and Cecilia Yip. The police have all the advantages. The suspects are on a small island so there is no place for them to go. They have no supplies, no weapons and are reduced to smearing themselves with animal dung to confuse tracking dogs. Lee himself directs the search from a helicopter. But the fugitives elude the manhunt long enough for other officers—either saner or more corrupt than Lee—to call off the search. Lee wasn’t exactly looking for a needle in a haystack—he showed he probably couldn’t find a needle in a needle factory. Once they have suspects in custody Lee’s officers—both male and female--act with savage cruelty. They are not in the same league as Tomas de Torquemada’s Spanish helpers but could have fit in easily with the U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. The theme of the “thin blue line”, that it is only a few brave cops standing between society and hordes of criminals comes up often in the dialog as Lee’s cops beat, smother, choke and threaten to mutilate suspects. Variations of “They don’t have rights, they are criminals” and “We are the only ones who know how to deal with them” are voiced often. Ho Kin Tung (Anthony Wong) has a strange relationship with his female counterpart Cindy, played by Cecilia Yip. He inadvertently saved her from a mad rapist when his car collided with the rapist while the rapist was chasing Yip to kill her. Yip escaped and ran home but her parents were unsympathetic—they wanted her to forget the whole incident—so she hunted down the rapist and stuck a broken bottle into his throat. Suitably impressed Wong finished the job by crushing the guy against an abutment with his car and love was born. But that is not the strange part—that is more of the way that characters played by Anthony Wong “meet cute” with their intended. The sickest (or most interesting) thing about the relationship is that the audience discovers this and other background through flashback’s that Yip’s character has while she listens outside the bedroom to Ho Kin Tung have sex with his wife or with prostitutes. It works structurally although seems a very lazy way of telling the story but does give the relationship a really insane edge. Ho Kin Tung’s wife is a very accomplished crime boss herself. In order to raise money to buy guns so that the gang can get her husband out of jail (Lee’s men finally tripped over him and got him in custody) she plans and leads a daylight robbery of a jewelry store—not a quick smash and grab but an operation timed to the second with all the robbers getting their orders from her and escaping just as the SWAT team finally makes it to the scene. She is tough and resourceful, facing down a room full of thuggish Mainland gun dealers who are outraged that she wants to inspect the merchandise before handing over the cash. Ho Kin Tung has women lining up to shoot it out with the cops for him and Cindy looks great when she accessorizes her outfit with a sawed-off pump shotgun. Cecilia Yip was most convincing as a tough gun moll. The ravishing Ching Man-Cheung was terrific as a tough Triad wife. There have been a lot of films that centered on a couple on the run, some of them classics. Arthur Penn created a film that spoke for a generation with “Bonnie and Clyde” and John Lewis all but defined film noir in “Gun Crazy”. Other movies, not quite in that exalted company but still notable are “Thelma and Louise”, “Badlands” and “Perriot le Fou”. The desperation, determination and bravado that fuels the chase combined with the charisma of the outlaws and the seemingly natural audience appeal of the hunted is an extremely powerful combination. While Wong and Yip weren’t about to replace Beatty and Dunaway in the consciousness of moviegoers their characters had a lot of potential. Ho Kin Tung was a tough Triad leader targeted by an obsessed cop while Cindy was a nice girl who decided to take the law into her own hands not after being raped but after her middle-class parents were more concerned about their social status than the well being of their daughter. But even though they were the most energetic and enticing characters in the movie it wasn’t about them. It was about Danny Lee and his squad of trigger happy cops. Inspector Lee was as interested in turf battles with the anticorruption squad as he was with arresting criminals. Unfortunately, Lee’s bureaucratic adversaries, led by the extremely straight laced Inspector Lam (Ricky Yi Faan-Wai at his most irritating) were the ones actually upholding the law. The real problem with Inspector Lee, though, was his incompetence. He couldn’t find Ho and Cindy although he commanded land, sea and air forces to do so. He didn’t realize that there was an informer at the very heart of his department until much too late and he let the egregious Inspector Lam outmaneuver him at almost every turn. Recommended, althugh not highly and more for the parts than their sum. Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: mrblue Date: 11/01/2005 Another of Kirk Wong's "true crime" trilogy (the others being Crime Story and Rock N' Roll Cop). This one has hot-headed cop Lee pursuing jewel thief Wong. Eventually, the lines between cop and criminal blur as the chase draws to an end. The plot is bare-bones and has been many times before (most memorably in Michael Mann's Heat), but director Wong has a talent for making the ordinary seem extraordinary. There's really fairly little going on (the cop bickers with his superiors, the thief tries to hold his gang together, etc.), but the movie is so tightly made that not one scene seems wasted. Even the mandatory romantic subplot (between Wong and his mistress Yip) doesn't detract much from the film. OCTB's main strength comes from the performance of the two leads. Even though they have done similar roles many times before and since, these are among Wong and Lee's best work. They have stock characters, but manage to breathe life into them, which makes the film much more enjoyable to watch. Those expecting Woo-style gunplay may be disappointed (even though there is a great shootout near the end of the movie), but, at any rate, Organized Crime & Triad Bureau is a rock-solid cop drama that fans of the genre should enjoy. [review from www.hkfilm.net]

Reviewed by: Inner Strength Date: 05/06/2002 Summary: AVERAGE Yes, it's Danny Lee the cop, chasing gangsters around Hong Kong. Played out years before this, but I have to admit to liking this, though it's nothing compared to some of his earlier work. If you're a fan of 80's action films, especially with Danny Lee, then you will probably enjoy this as much as me, otherwise it's a miss. Rating: 3.5/5

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy Date: 05/08/2001 Summary: Ok-ish A pretty standard cops and robbers movie, which somehow reminded me of the movie HEAT for some reason. Nothing new here!! 6/10

Reviewed by: resdog781 Date: 07/31/2000 Summary: Underrated Cop Movie You know, I don't know why this movie hasn't gotten the respect it deserves. Danny Lee doing his best Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry thing, Cicilia Yip doing her best gangster gun moll thing, and my boy Anthony Wong doing what he does best: playing a homicidal psychopathic criminal mastermind. You gotta love how Anthony evades the cops at the end....so to speak =) And one look at the last gunfight in this flick, and you'll know where Michael Mann got his idea for the robbery/shootout in "Heat". Great stuff.

Reviewed by: TequilaYuen Date: 06/11/2000 Summary: Standard HK Cop Far, But An Amazing Climax! This film is Part 2 in Kirk Wongs Police Trilogy (1-Police Story, 3-Rock N Roll Cop). Forthe most part this film was standard action fare, nothing spectacular, untill the end, which pulled out all the stops in a shootout across a crowded HK shopping district, a pulse pounding soundtrack makes this scene all the more exciting. Intriguing performances from Danny Lee, Cecelia Yip and Anthony Wong(unusually restrained). I'll buy this one just for the climax.

Reviewed by: hkcinema Date: 12/21/1999 The Bureau headed by unconventional cop Danny Lee is pittedagainst a highly sophisticated organized crime ring who reek havoc on the streets of Hong Kong. Co-stars Anthony Wong as the sleazy gangleader and Cecilia Yip as his street-smart mistress. [Reviewed by Tai Seng Catalog]

Reviewed by: hkcinema Date: 12/21/1999 a real dissapointment... no plot what-so-ever, just a bunch of cops going after some guy, for no particular reason. The characterization is also very muddled in that the audience doesn't know who to cheer for... the cops are the good guys but then they torture unimportant suspects in gruesome ways... and the bad guy looks mean but then he helps a (girl) who was raped. Then the movie builds up to this huge climax which just turns out to be a crappy little gunfight. (4/10) [Reviewed by Andrej Blazeka]

Reviewed by: spinali Date: 12/08/1999 Summary: NULL Danny Lee leads a crack (and overpumped) police/swat squad, employs desperate (and rather sneaky) measures against street toughs (but then, they deserve it, right?), while dodging a pesky interdepartmental audit squad. The set-pieces are exciting, the plot a little creaky. (2.5/4) [Reviewed by Steve Spinali] Reviewer Score: 6