Huang jia shi jie zhi III: Ci xiong da dao

Hong Kong action films of the Eighties were so bloody tough and so beautifully made, especially films that had budgets (like this one).

Against the bland, CGI-driven Hollywood action flicks of the Noughties, a film like IN THE LINE OF DUTY 3 looks like an artifact from another planet.

Everything you see was done for real. Every sequence was staged by stunties who risked their lives.

There is an amazing relationship between two Japanese lovers (Michiko Nishiwaki and Stuart Ong) in this mind-blowing film. Ong is dying of leukeamia, and in one scene, they make love while Ong's hair comes off in Nishiwaki's hand. Later, after Ong is killed, Nishiwaki vows a brutal revenge that we clearly understand because we've been intimate with them.

It is this kind of attention to nuance that lifts this Arthur Wong-Brandy Yuen-directed pic to classic status.

Cynthia Khan, debuting as D & B Films' replacement for Michaelle Khan, does a terrific job as a cop assaulted at ever juncture by the murderous villains.

A sequence involving a jewellery heist is one of the best of its kind and possesses a kineticism rarely seen in any films these days.

Ditto an incredibly violent and realistic fight sequence between genre stalwart Dick Wei and Hiroshi Fujioka's hardcore cop.

Relentless, operatic and explosive.