

A friendship is formed between an ex-gangster, and two groups of hitmen - those who want to protect him and those who were sent to kill him.
Direction
Johnnie To's geometric staging turns every room into a chessboard.
Cinematography
Golden hour gunfights that would make Leone weep.
Acting
Francis Ng's thousand-yard stare communicates entire backstories.

Director
Johnnie To
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
To originally conceived this as a sequel to The Mission, but rewrote it when original cast scheduling collapsed—explaining the spiritual rather than literal continuation.
The film was shot in seventeen days during the SARS outbreak, forcing To to improvise locations when Macau casinos shut down—hence the intimate, apartment-bound second half.