This movie is about a bunch of narcotics officers working under the command of Captain Gao Gang to fight against Asian drug cartel and his homicidal henchmen.
Going in guns blazing and attempting to set pulses racing might not feel wholly appropriate given the facts at the heart of the film, but it does suit Lam's usual style.
If it makes for a breathlessly assaultive, vastly entertaining couple of hours, it can be discomfiting whenever there's a brief pause in the pelting gunfire and we glimpse the contours of the actual, flesh-and-blood tragedy.
