Brigitte Lin

A broken-hearted hit man moves to the desert where he finds skilled swordsmen to carry out his contract killings. Ou-yang Feng lives in the middle of a desert, where he acts as a middle man to various swordsmen in ancient China. One of those swordsmen is Huang Yao-shi, who has found some magic wine that causes one to forget the past. At another time, Huang met Mu-rong Yin and under the influence of drink, promised to marry Mu-rong's sister Mu-rong Yang. Huang jilts her, and Mu-rong Yin hires Ou-yang to kill Huang. But then Mu-rong Yang hires Ou-yang to protect Huang. This is awkward, because Mu-rong Yang and Mu-rong Yin are in reality the same person. Other unrelated plot lines careen about. Among them is Ou-yang's continuing efforts to destroy a band of horse thieves. Oy-yang recruits another swordsman, a man who is going blind and wants to get home to see his wife before his sight goes completely. The swordsman is killed. Ou-yang then meets another swordsman who doesn't like wearing shoes. Oy-yang sends this man after the horse thieves, with better results. We then find out what a man must give up to follow the martial path. —Scott Hamilton <stomptokyo@aol.com>

The movie comprises two different stories, told one after the other, each about a romance involving a policeman. Aside for a brief moment when the first story ends and the second begins, the two stories do not interconnect. However, the three main characters from the second story each momentarily appear during the first. First story The first story concerns Taiwan-born cop He Qiwu, also known as Cop 223 (played by Kaneshiro). Qiwu's girlfriend May broke up with him on April 1 (April Fool's Day). His birthday is May 1 and he chooses to wait for May for a month before moving on. Every day he buys a tin of pineapple with an expiration date of May 1. By the end of this time, he feels that he will either be rejoined with his love or that it will have expired forever. Meanwhile, a woman in a blonde wig (played by Brigitte Lin) tries to survive in the drug underworld after a smuggling operation goes sour. On May 1, Qiwu, looking for romance, approaches the woman in the blonde wig at a bar (the Bottoms Up Club). However, she is exhausted and falls asleep in a hotel room, leaving him to watch movies alone. She leaves in the morning and shoots the drug baron (played by Thom Baker) who had set her up. Qiwu goes jogging and receives a message from her on his pager wishing him a happy birthday. He then visits his usual snack food store where he collides with a new staff member, Faye. At this point, a new story begins. Second story In the second story, the unnamed Cop 663 (played by Tony Leung) is similarly dealing with a breakup, this time from a flight attendant (Valerie Chow). He meets Faye, the new girl at the snack bar (played by Faye Wong). She falls for him in secret, and frequently breaks into his apartment during the day to redecorate and "improve" his living situation. Gradually, her ploys help Cop 663 to cheer up, and he eventually realises that Faye likes him and arranges a date at the restaurant 'California'. However, Faye stands him up after a last-minute decision to see the world before settling down; she leaves him a fake boarding pass with a date a year from now. In the last scene, Faye arrives back in Hong Kong, now a flight attendant; she finds that Cop 663 has bought the snack bar and is converting it into a restaurant. Their future however always remains ambivalent.

A force of loners and fighters is put together to try and rescue Generals that are captured by the Japanese and save the war effort with the promise of gold and/or pardons of past crimes. Similar to "The Dirty Dozen" or one of that nature. Japan is trying to take over the world and the generals of the allied forces trying to stop the Japanese have been taken prisoner. A force of loners and fighters is put together to try and rescue the generals and save the war effort with the promise of gold and/or pardons of past crimes. —Ron Plumley <Ron@PeachNet.EDU> Set at some point during the thirties or forties, Japan is at war with China. During an attack on the Chinese forces, the Japanese capture four Western Generals. Fearing that if this news were to reach their troops it would affect their morale greatly, the Chinese hire Captain Don Wen to form a commando squad and get the Generals back in four days. Don decides to regroup his old squad (consisting of thief Old Sun, escape artist Grease Lightning, con artist Billy and his ex-girlfriend Lily, the bumbling and apparently unnamed General and his buddy Stone) one last time to get the Generals back. Don is apparently killed in an attack but the group continues on regardless, with the aid of ex-wrestler Sammy and his former manager Emily who trail the group to make sure they stay alive, so they'll have a share of the reward. Towards the end, the previously comical film takes a bizarre turn and climaxes at a Japanese bunker where the group go kamikaze and fight off a small army in the hope that the last survivor will be able to claim the reward. But are the Japanese the only villains? —Roger Hartfell