A Hero Never Dies (1998)

Leon Lai and Ching Wan Lau work well within their respective characters, however their actions don't seem to consistently make sense in the progression of the plot. Opposite hired guns for the mob, they fluctuate in being friends and foe after a rendezvous gone awry. At some points their resulting behavior contradicts what your led to believe, which feels unintentional and confusing. The story is painfully simple, and the visuals eventually become pretentious and overused with too many angles, filters, and slow-mo moments. Not a bad movie, but Johnnie To has directed much better gritty-melodramas and unfortunately this one fails to achieve it's blend with America's Western genre. My biggest complaint is that Ching Wan Lau's character becomes plagued with a handicap, then while much screen time is devoted to portraying his hardship and fight for retribution, his character remains weak and pushed aside in the third act of the film. Lau was built up to such a high degree only to inexplicably crumble, which doesn't feel right being the movie's centerpiece. Overall, a convoluted not-so-satisfying revenge tale. Personally I was disappointed but other Johnnie To fans may enjoy. -6/10

Some reviewers compare this movie to John Woo's A Better Tomorrow. I think that is very misleading. Because the action is nothing like the great shootouts in that film. Only the ending came close to a shootout we are used to seeing in the majority of heroic bloodshed titles. I think this a more a drama about these hit men who have a special kind of relationship. They are rivals who respect each other nothing more nothing less. The girlfriends add some good emotional context to their personalities. If you hear about a title like Hero Never Dies you expect some mayhem, or at least a lot of bloodshed. But it simply isn't there. Except for the ending which was a bit short. I do get that this film is paying tribute to the old genre and at the same time is trying to do something unique and different. In this case you could call it the Johnnie To touch. Most of his movies share the same themes but in all honestly only a few of them I liked. Exiled is an example of that. Actually that title comes closer to being a true heroic bloodshed title than this one. Another title you should be looking out for is The Mission.After seeing many of these so called heroic bloodshed titles / gun fu like Hero Never Dies I realize that John Woo really is the God of Heroic Bloodshed. No other directors have come close to making bloodshed titles like he did (A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Hard Boiled). And I really wished he would go back or at least make a new one to show them how it is done. Johnnie To clearly has another vision. But what? I don't know what he is trying to tell us but often his minimalistic approach to characterization and storytelling get in the way of whatever he is trying to convey. Consequence is that I lose interest and then automatically focus on the stuff that is compelling. Like the action. In Exiled this worked marvelously. Unfortunately this is not the case with this title. It failed to involve me story wise and action wise. I did not care about any of the characters. That is never good.So is this title worth your time? No, I don't think so. It was never compelling or engaging and the little action that was present certainly wasn't enough to redeem itself.

Other than his good looks and swagger, Leon Lai doesn't have much going for him in this movie. The guy who plays the Wayne Newton/Clark Gable-like character is a better actor.The movie starts out with a fortune-teller and his altar getting shot. Is it supposed to say something about man determining his own destiny? The female characters are very strong even though they're the gangsters' girlfriends who sacrifice themselves for their men. Fiona did the best acting of anyone in this movie.I don't understand the plot details and judging from what I've read, other people don't understand it either. The ending's pretty funny.7/10

This movie was kind of ridiculous. It's about two gangs that fight each other. Each of the gang's best members got kicked out (in a shoot-out, of course). One gets shot a lot of times, the other loses his legs. This teaches us a valuable lesson, don't get shot. They both survive. One vows for revenge on his boss, the other for his boss. There are many violent gun fights, they're a little ridiculous (get shot? no problem, just keep shooting back!).7/10