An ultra-violent and ultra-gritty tale of desperate Chinese would-be jewel thieves hoping to make a quick, effortless score in Hong Kong. Naturally, things go afoul, and the gang must hide out until the heat dies down, besmirched with the blood of an undercover cop. A progenitor of sorts of both "City on Fire" and "Reservoir Dogs," but lacking the romantic melodrama of the former and the hipster staginess of the latter. Winner of Hong Kong Film Awards for both Best Film and Best Director. Spawned a franchise with three sequels.
Most of the violence is gun violence, but the effects are bloody. Some scenes show characters hit by dozens of bullets. A corpse is hit by multiple bullets. A man is shot in the eye. Another is shot in the nose. A man is shot multiple times and falls from high causing a big blood splatter.
The main characters perform an assassination, the following scene portrays the target's mourning wife and kids. The main characters hide from the police in a mother and son's apartment and one of them shoots the mother when he learns that they reported them to the police.