An extremely skilled gambler accidentally falls into a trap laid by a small-time and his friend, hitting his head multiple times and losing his memory. The friends pick him up and soon find out that he can gamble well if they feed him a certain kind of chocolate that reawakens part of his memory. Gambling debts of the unskilled gambler, a bodyguard from the high level gamblers and a team of Triad assassins all converge in a parking garage and the skilled gambler is injured again, restoring his memory. He then goes to one final game before leaving the country.
2 hours of this was a little bit too much. The complex plot had too many sub-plots (as always). There were lots of characters and even more extras, but the few main characters stood out quite well. Their dialogue was written well enough to identify them and their acting was pretty good. Sets and costumes were slightly varied. There were rich people and places as well as poor, seedy ones. My favorite set was the bamboo scaffolding. Camera-work was done very well. Not only was there a variety of shot distances, but a good mix of shot lengths. It was a little heavier on short takes and close-ups, but there were enough medium and long takes and framings mixed in. I think there was something wrong with the version that I got because white items at night had halos around them. This may have been true of the original, but probably not. Special effects were pretty standard of the time and genre: a few shootings, a knifing, some falls and high altitude acrobatics. I watched a version dubbed into Thai with English subtitles, but everything sounded to be mixed correctly. IMDb lists a rating of 7.4/10 and Rotten Tomatoes lists 87% audience score for an average of 80.5%. I rate this o.k. It would have been better if it were shorter and fewer sub-plots.
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