Contemporary martial arts remake of "the good, the bad and the ugly", although with a wooden, unlikeably incompotent hero, and little morality of any kind. A gold shipment is hidden, the requisite map detailing its' location split into three pieces, and the cast spend the film scrambling about looking for it. Hwang Jang Lee portrays an immoral card-sharp with a strong sense of self preservation, and kicks his way through a few dullish fight sequences. Unremarkable, but reasonably high energy film with more emphasis on betrayals and double crosses than on conventional kung-fu action.
PROS; -Hwang Jang Lee's fight scenes are the best in the film -Plot borrows heavily from "Good, the bad and the Ugly" – finding parallels is amusing, but it's also a sound basic storyline. -Good music throughout -Pre-credit fight scene, featuring Phillip Ko is superb
CONS; -Generally unlikeable characters -Most fights are poorly choreographed and speeded up -The hero is a terrible actor, with only one expression, no character and few good moves -Jumpy plot line in places -Hwang Jang Lee seems miscast as a cardsharp who is beaten up early on -Very serious effort for a Korean movie, with virtually no humour of any kind
