Long Arm of the Law

It's a Hong Kong action flick. Nothing astounding but a compelling story told from the side of a criminal gang with some great action scenes.

Progenitor for the huge explosion of HK crime and heroic bloodshed flicks that would sweep the popular imagination just a couple short years later. Mak is far less flashy than his successors, but no less imaginative or muscular. The ending chase and shootout in Kowloon Walled City is possibly everything I've ever wanted from a film.

Released a few year before the "Heroic Bloodshed" genre really kicked off, this clearly been highly influential. It features some good action sequences, especially the final shoot-out in Kowloon's Walled City is memorable. With the protagonists being a bunch of ruthless bastards, this is a bleak and gritty take on the action-crime movie. Painful is that Mak undercuts this hard-nosed depiction with some horrible comedy. An extra layer of interest is to see the huge appeal HK had on mainlanders.

This movie is brutal & gritty but it also has severe pacing issues. The film drags in between the action scenes and the acting is mediocre at best. There is a lot of guerrilla film making throughout which adds to the realism and grittiness. The ending for which this is most well known for is one long crazy chase through the maze like slums that amounts to almost 15-20 minutes of tension & carnage.