A Hero Never Dies

Another quality Milkyway Image production, A Hero Never Dies tells of two killers, crippled and betrayed by those they loyally served and the system they worked in. With their disdain for each other initially hidden from their girlfriends behind a veneer of barroom friendship, Jack (Lai) and Martin (Lau) look out for their opposing bosses, eventually riddling each other with bullets in Thailand. After a subsequent meeting with a soothsayer, the bosses choose to unite, ditch the twosome and ensure they're dead. But, as the title suggests, these two are rather hard to put down... and vengeance is on the cards.

Johnnie To's direction again comes off nicely in an effectively grainy style, buoyed with a consistent score by Raymond Wong. Leon Lai is mainly restrained as Jack, which accelerates the scenes when he's in action. Lau Ching-wan's Martin is also an interesting survivalist character sporting a cool dress sense to boot. Their girlfriends, Fiona and YoYo (played by Leung and Mung) are well used in short, yet important and beautiful, roles. And Yuen Bun's at times fierce action direction complements the good cast and coherently off-kilter script. Following on from earlier To and Wai productions, most notably Expect the Unexpected, this is overtly bleak and contemporary. Certainly worth seeing, in the cinema if possible -- the subtitles are rather small.

Credits:

Directed by Johnnie To
Produced by Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai
Starring Leon Lai Ming, Lau Ching-wan, Fiona Leung and Yoyo Mung