Mobsters are smuggling guns into Hong Kong. The police orchestrate a raid at a teahouse where the ace detective loses his partner. Meanwhile, the two main gun smugglers are having a war over territoriality, and a young new gun is enlisted to wipe out informants and overcome barriers to growth. The detective, acting from inside sources gets closer to the ring leaders, and eventually must work directly with the inside man.
After three viewings, I'm convinced this is John Woo's masterpiece (well, one of them anyway). In my opinion, this has more action than THE KILLER, probably more than any of his other films that I've seen. Also, Chow Yun-Fat is actually a cop this time around, playing the good guy. As such, he's not as exquisite as he was as Jeffrey the assassin in THE KILLER, but it's Chow Yun-Fat in a John Woo film. You know it's going to be good. After watching all of these again, I'd rank them:
1) HARD BOILED 2) A BETTER TOMORROW II 3) THE KILLER 4) A BETTER TOMORROW
