Rating: ***
Alternate Title: The Great Adventurer
Director: Ringo Lam
Cast: Andy Lau, Rosamund Kwan, Wu Chien Lin, David Chiang, Philip Ko, Victor Wong
A somewhat dark and depressing tale about a young man's (handsome Andy Lau) quest for vengeance against the man who killed his parents in Cambodia twenty years ago. After a bumbled assassination attempt, he joins the CIA who also wants to take the bad guy down. The poor bastard is coerced into kidnapping the bad guy's daughter (tragically pretty Wu Chien Lin) in San Francisco and then later marrying her in order to get close to her father. He also gets messed up with sexy Rosamund Kwan, who is one of the villain's pretty playthings. The whole thing gets resolved back in Cambodia where everyone double-crosses everyone else and Lau settles his score - kind of. Great looking and well made, but a little too dreary for me. I have no trouble with Andy Lau's tough guy act, but he seems a bit too cold and wooden this time around. The women are also severely mistreated which isn't all that entertaining. Excellent explosions and gun fights, but there's some weird artifacting from some of the effects shots. Bizarre.