In the mist of a violent gang war, a series of unfortunate events threatens the fate of a powerful triad leader and his empire.

In the midst of a violent gang war one powerful triad leader is faced with losing a grip on his power. As his empire slowly crumbles and his trust of those closest to him dwindles violence escalates as the triad starts clashing with other triads among the Hong Kong community. Face with his only option he'll resort to violent ways to regain his status and reclaim the respect of his triad. Written byElizabeth Obermeier, Marketing Manager

User Review 0: Not a deadly mistake by a long shot

There's no guarantee in life that another day means another dollar, but you can pretty much count on a new Simon Yam movie coming along. And here he is again in a triad story, but don't let the fact bring you down or put you off: this is actually a cool movie, marrying as it does serious underworld scheming with fantasy violence. It's kind of like the Infernal Affairs trilogy condensed and on crack.

Fatal Move is a Category III for violence only – and it's indeed relatively bloody, even if much of the gore is cheap CGI. This is no Hostel, but nonetheless the body count is impressive and the range of physical outrages quite extensive, including one torture scene where Simon not only says it's pain time, but also does most of the inflicting in person.

The result of all this bears some similarity to last summer's Invisible Target, although Fatal Move isn't as compelling or refreshing, nor are its characters quite as appealing. It also has crooks masquerading as cops, a raid on a police station and a SWAT/SDU team being made fools of, and does possess considerable talent – in addition to Yam, we get Sammo Hung and Wu Jing, both very capable performers, albeit not in their strongest outings here. This is especially true for Wu Jing, whose looney-aggressive act appears lifted directly from SPL, only not as sincere. Sammo gets very little time to show off his moves, yet does well as clan leader Lin Ho Lung, a veteran criminal who for once bothers with differentiating between "triad" and "mafia", a point rarely noted on the big screen.

The story begins with Boss Lin celebrating the birth of his first son, and all's well – his deputies Ah Tung (Simon Yam) and Tin Hung (Wu Jing) seem to have things under control, while his female right hand person Soso (Tien Niu) maintains the books balanced and the money flowing in.

This being a triad actioner, calm isn't the primary directive, and quickly things go sour as internal conniving and treachery become the order of the day on top of pressure from ever-present cops, led by Danny Lee as Inspector Liu, and with Lam Suet throwing in a cameo for some tragic-comic relief.

Soon the choppings, sword slashings, bludgeoning and outright gunning down of cronies by the van load commence, accompanied by a rather convoluted string of double-dealing and treachery that affects all involved parties. Although this means the characters aren't totally flat and do have motivations, this facet of the story is left somewhat under-developed and thus results in mild confusion. As a consequence, the ending, which has a couple of supposed stunner-twists, fails to stuff the bucket, as they say, instead coming across as a bit of a red herring in fancy evening wear. This applies to many parts of Fatal Move – even at two hours it still feels cut in many instances, like they had to remove scenes at the last minute or something.

Overall, Director Law (who did Fatal Contact before, also with Wu Jing) supervised a competent project here. This is a worthy addition to an already heavily populated herd of jiang hu flicks, and Fatal Move is all-told a memorable and visceral release that's unlikely to go down as a classic despite being a solid viewing with a healthy dose of both Election-like gangland politics and comic book hyperbole. We'd say go for it, it's one move you'll live to not regret.

User Review 1: HK Neo Reviews: Fatal Move

Tagline: Almost as good as SPL… Review by Neo: Dennis Law have finally come of age and after 2 unfulfilled attempts, Law have strike third time luckily with Fatal Move. Fatal Move is not just a good movie, as saying that would be a clear understatement, but one that Neo can proudly claim as the best in 2008 HK cinema so far. Despite a few unnecessary parts in between and some moments of predictability, Fatal Move qualifies as an action movie with HK flair and almost matching the feat of 2005's SPL. It's been a while since Neo have witnessed a good HK movie and with it being so close to his 22nd birthday, Fatal Move comes just at the right timing.

Director Dennis Law have previously debuted in the teenage targeted Love @ First Note and have since then gone on to make his first shot at action cinema with the above average Fatal Contact. There is no doubt that Law's career lies in action cinema and if this flick is any indication, his direction is only heading one way and that is up and coming. It is always refreshing to witness a new generation director producing a good quality flick and it is all the more exciting when it comes to action cinema. Law smartly casts a trio from SPL, namely Sammo Hung, Simon Yam and Wu Jing and the result is some quality martial arts sequence and lots of fun to be had.

Also of special mention, it is probably the first time in years, where action flicks have succeeded without the involvement of Donnie Yen. Perhaps it is time to unleash Wu Jing on his first true starring in almost a decade since Tai Chi 2. Like his role in SPL, Wu Jing, the protégé of Jet Li is cool enough to rock the screen and likable enough to keep the audience attention. His fighting is slick and his youthfulness sets him apart from the rest of the aging cast. Still, these kinds of roles might make him look cooler than anyone deserves to be, but ultimately they are paper thin and not ones that allows Wu Jing to show his full potential. However, it is nonetheless a sigh of fresh air as the days of Sammo Hung is closer to retirement than debutant.

Also in the mix is Lee Sir, Danny Lee and without a second though there is no doubt that Lee have aged considerably since his The Killer days and the sight of him with a gun is about as believable as a pensioner robbing a bank. With that being said, it is always a pleasure to see him back on the big screen and once again reminding the audience exactly how movies are used to be made. Sammo Hung almost reprises his role of SPL but this time with a degree of remorseless and thus allowing the audience to maintain interest in his character. Unfortunately one of Law's weak points is that he is no Wilson Yip, which means that he is not a character director. Luckily, the fight sequences more than compensate and the result are some quietly entertaining long takes of these coolly filmed scenes.

Simon Yam also appears here and there, but is somewhat subdued and almost certainly a role more suited to the likes of Francis Ng. Veteran actress Tien Niu impresses the audience with a performance that is menacing yet understanding. Those final words of her are strong and her facial expression matched the strong dialogue given to her. As for Lam Suet, he is just himself, but for an actor that does so little, Lam is damn memorable and his acting is just priceless to laugh or cry for.

All in all, Fatal Move is easily the best movie of 2008 so far and it is safe to say that it is a movie that Neo actually liked. I understand that the current reviewer has been a little too strict in recent times, but there is no argument that the quality being delivered so far this year has largely been disappointing. With that being said, it always feel good and makes Neo's day a hell lot better whenever he witness good HK cinema. Firstly, it is surprising, secondly, it makes him feel like his effort and passion for this industry isn't just going straight to the garbage dump and finally, it allows the current review to sleep well at night. So what's wrong with Fatal Move, the answer is that there is nothing wrong, but the fact that Neo got sort of over-excited like a little kid receiving a balloon… (Neo 2008)

I rate it 9/10

- www.thehkneo.com

User Review 2: A Nutshell Review: Fatal Move

Written and directed by Dennis Law, Fatal Move was originally conceived as the prequel/sequel to 2005's SPL, which had Donnie Yen and Simon Yam pit their skills on the side of the law against triad members played by Sammo Hung and Wu Jing. SPL had an interesting concept to begin with, but I guess with the ending as it was (a cop out in my opinion), a successful sequel with an interlocking storyline with the surviving characters would prove challenging. A prequel on the other hand might not be as engaging, as if we were to see the rise of Sammo's character to triad boss status, it would ring too much a bell with Infernal Affairs 2.

So Fatal Move offers a completely new storyline, albeit with most of the SPL main cast coming back for another go. Donnie Yen is absent (I'll see him in action later with The Empress and The Warriors), and Simon Yam crosses over the fence to star as the brother of Sammo's triad boss character Lin Ho Lung. However, Yam's Lin Ho Tung seems to be having a walk in the park (and in fact he really did!), as is Lin Ho Lung, because those itching to see some serious butt-kicking action by Sammo Hung, will have to wait until the last 10 minutes of the movie. There are plenty of Milkyway regulars here, with Lam Suet, Cheung Siu-Fai and Maggie Siu on hand to lend their heavyweight support to appeal to Westerners here who are familiar with their works, and Danny Lee returns after a long hiatus to play, what else, a cop yet again.

The storyline is nothing to wow over, and most times seemed to be running on a railway track, completely fixed and one-way, chugging along almost endlessly, without a destination in sight. Character motivations were unclear, and Tien Niu as Lung's wife Soso really let it all rip in a melodramatic monologue that contains a lot more story in her words than all the dialogue put together in the movie. It's about the self-destruction of a triad gang from internal strife from the greed of man, but its central theme was touched upon in a rather haphazard, messy manner that you'd wonder if the sub-plots were just bookends for the action sequences.

However, despite its title, Fatal Move is severely lacking in compelling action scenes. You have the tired car chases, and it seems that there was little effort in trying to milk what Wu Jing and Sammo Hung could do. They're martial arts exponents, but get to handle guns most of the time, and this does not exploit the skills they are trained with, which you can probably employ anyone to take over their place. Most of the fighting sequences were courtesy of Wu Jing, who's especially mean with his lopsided blue-dyed hairdo and an extremely sharp sword, but given no competent exponent character-wise to spar with him, it all boiled down to a one-sided affair. Seriously I'm a fan of his and I think it's about high time he takes over the starring role mantle for Chinese action movie stars, instead of getting bogged down playing side show villains.

What gets compensated for the uninspiring action sequences, was blood and gore done in CGI. I'm placing my bets that Herman Yau, as director of photography here, would have added some of his own pointers in this aspect, and the camera does linger on in some of the more violent and gory aspects, such as pumping continuous lead into a body, and various forms of decapitations involving limbs and fingers, right down to a castration. The much touted fight between Sammo Hung and Wu Jing was the main draw for me I have to admit, but if you were to put SPL and this side by side, Wu Jing vs Donnie Yen had a lot more intensity and slick moves compared to Wu Jing vs Sammo Hung.

But alas despite the M18 rating here, the movie was still subjected to multiple edits (originally rated R21 uncut, but no thanks of course to money-making distributors), and most of the gory bits couldn't escape the censor's scissors. What made it unforgivable, was that the much awaited duel too became victim, and for that, with the insipid storyline and relatively generic action, I would have to recommend that this be skipped at the cinemas, and rent the DVD if you're really interested.