Yue doh laai yue ying hung

Cheap Killers was not quite what i was expecting when it comes to Hong Kong action movies.

The veiled hint of homo-eroticism that runs throughout makes a nice and surprising contrast to the machismo action, and is tackled tactfully and with feeling by the cast. Alex Fong gives a very strong and subtle performance as Sam Cool and Sunny Chan is good as the playboy Yat-tiu but even better as his later traumatised persona. The two actors work well together in showing their brotherly relationship, even though you are often left wondering at Sam Cool's emotions behind this partnership.

Cathy Chow manages to switch between innocent and femme fatale with ease even though a touch cliched, and Henry Fong manages to be sinister enough as Discipline King without hamming it up.

Stephen Fung and Lillian Ho are the weakest performances, but mainly because of their poor scripting and lack of appearances to be able to build a persona. Fung resorts to playing a version of 'Match' from Gen-X cops to compensate for this.

The film itself did seem a little fractured and would probably have fared better by starting at the middle and using dialogue and (dare i say it) flashback to fill in the backstory. Even so, i found it a good watch.