AllMovie

One of Hong Kong's brightest young directors, Winston Yip, whose previous work, Mongkok Story, received a 1996 Hong Kong critics' prize, returns to the screen with this character-driven reworking of the gangster genre. Mike (Francis Ng) and his younger partner Brian (Louis Koo) are plainclothed policemen hot on the trail of a violent band of bank robbers. Their search leads them to a grotty old Hong Kong tenement. Expecting a long surveillance, the pair hole up in the apartment of the building's owner, an old woman called Granny (Helena Law), who is alternately gruff and kind toward them. While there, they get to know some of the locals and eventually fall in love -- Mike with a beautiful pregnant single mom who runs a laundromat (played by 1991 Miss Malaysia Stephanie Lin) and Brian with a teenaged slacker (Michelle Alicia Saram). Just as the two get comfortable in their new surroundings, the crooks make their inevitable return, resulting in gunplay and stylized over-the-top violence. This film was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival.