A couple of sleek, fast-paced action sequences are all that can be culled from this movie, for the characters are mostly flat and pasty.
The story deals with the underworld. Trish’s father is the head of a mob of African-Americans who happen to be in business with their Chinese counterparts. The son of the head Chinese businessman is found brutally murdered. News of his death reaches his brother, a convicted ex-police officer named Hang Sing, who is serving time for helping his father and brother escape the country. He now comes to America to avenge his brother’s death.
Two plots run side by side, and it is a lot of intrigues, betrayals, fights and chases later that we discover the craftiness of an old man who kills his own son for money, and we learn of the two-timing right-hand man who works for Isaak O’Day, played by Delroy Lindo.
Jet Li makes a tolerable, no-nonsense, let’s-kill-‘em-all angry, young action hero and his romantic interest, Trish O’Day (played by Aaliyah Haughton), lends the feminine touch to this otherwise male-dominated fiasco.
Director Andrzej Bartkowiak has made an action-packed flick, spending little time on emotions or melodrama and so keeping true to the cult of American xction films. The editor Derek G. Brechin’s cut-and-slam style during the fight scenes of martial arts champion, Jet Li, keeps the audience hanging on to their seats.
This article was first published on 03 Jul 2000.