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Judo fighter Tony (Aaron Kwok) wants to challenge Sze-To (Louis Koo), once a
master of martial arts, but now a disillusioned & alcoholic barowner with a
knack for small-time thievery & gambling. Mona (Cherrie Ying), a singer
& actress wants to become famous, but so far her only claim to fame has
been some porn movies, & now she wants to get a singing job at Sze-To's
bar.
Instead of giving Tony his fight & Mona the job, Sze-To uses them as
(unwilling) accomplices in robbing Triad boss Savage in a video arcade. The
robbery even works out, but unluckily Savage, himself a judo fighter, has
recognized Sze-To as an opponent from years ago, so the same night, when Mona
is to perform with Sze-To on guitar & Tony on saxophone, Savage steps in to
get his money back, & it all ends in a big brawl, with Sze-To somehow
managing to stay out of the fight ...
For some reason though, Tony & Mona stay on board with Sze-To on his
sinking ship, Tony because he wants to get him to accept his challenge, &
Mony because she still hopes for her big chance - even if that means to become
his partner in crime, as they soon try to rob Savage again (in animal costumes
!!!), but are caught red-handed ... & against all odds, they are given the
money anyway - of course, Sze-To loses it all at gambling, but Mona, refusing
to let such a large sum go just like that, grabs the money & makes a
getaway. In an almost absurd chase sequence, she almost gets cuaght though,
wouldn't it be for Sze-To, who covers her back but is badly beaten up because
he still refuses to fight.
It is not until his mentor & teacher Cheng dies, & Tony, mocking
Sze-To by inventing an eye disease that will eventually turn him blind before
which he has to challenge all his peers, that Sze-To actually explodes &
starts a fight with Tony ... but loses.
From now on though the two startz training together & soon Sze-To starts
challenging other fighters ... as it turns out Sze-To really has the eye
condition Tony was pretending to have, & he wants to become top Judo
fighter before he goes blind.
His last fight though, against Kong, reigning top Judo fighter, Sze-To has
to fight blind against a blindfolded Kong ... who has to realize though that
even with the blindfold removed, Sze-To is too tough to crack ...
Mona meanwhile has moved to Japan & waits for her big break there.
As is often the case with Johnnie To, he takes a completely familiar concept
that has been the model for many other (more often than not bad) action movies
- this time it's about a terminally ill man wanting to become king of the
martial arts world -, but takes an unfamiliar twist or turn each step of the
way, going even so far as to resolving action-scenes in a way nobody has done
before (best example is the chase scene after Sze-To & Mona have raided the
gambling den), & giving his clichéd characters character traits one
wouldn't expect (e.g. the Triad boss who's more obsessed with video games than
running his business, or Tony being a saxophone player as well as a fighter
& once entering the scene delivering a saxophone solo).
All this results in a highly entertaining genre movie that mocks every ruloe
of the genre, but without insulting it but take it a step beyond ...
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