Chow Yun-Fat

An American man returns to a corrupt, Japanese-occupied Shanghai four months before Pearl Harbor and discovers his friend has been killed. While he unravels the mysteries of the death, he falls in love and discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding.

In 18th-century Qing dynasty China, Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-fat) is a Wudang swordsman, and Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) heads a private security company. Yu Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai long have feelings for each other, but because Shu Lien had been engaged to Mu Bai's close friend, Meng Sizhao before his death. Shu Lien and Mu Bai feel bound by loyalty to Meng Sizhao and have not acted on their feelings for each other. Mu Bai, choosing to retire, asks Shu Lien to give his fabled sword "Green Destiny" to their benefactor Sir Te (Sihung Lung) in Peking. Long ago, Mu Bai's teacher was killed by Jade Fox (Cheng Pei-Pei), a woman who sought to learn Wudang skills. While at Sir Te's place, Shu Lien makes the acquaintance of Yu Jen (Zhang Ziyi), who is the daughter of rich and powerful Governor Yu (Li Fazeng) and is about to get married. Yu Jen meets Shu Lien and tells her that she is excited by the warrior life and doesn't want to get married. Sir Te warns Governor Yu that governing outer suburbs of Beijing would be a difficult task and advises him to keep connects with the local mafia. One evening, a masked thief sneaks into Sir Te's estate and steals the Green Destiny. Sir Te's servant Master Bo (Gao Xi'an) and Shu Lien trace the theft to Governor Yu's compound, where Jade Fox had been posing as Jen's governess for many years. This fact is not known to Bo or Shu Lien. Jade Fox keeps an eye on both and is concerned as Jen Yu gets close to Shu Lien. Soon after, Mu Bai arrives in Beijing and discusses the theft with Shu Lien. Master Bo makes the acquaintance of Inspector Tsai (Wang Deming), a police investigator from the provinces, and his daughter May (Li Li), who have come to Beijing in pursuit of Jade Fox, whom they know is living with the Yus. Jade Fox had killed his wife, and hence is out for revenge. He cant just arrest her and hence must lure her out of the Yu compound. Fox challenges the pair and Master Bo to a showdown that night. Following a protracted battle, the group is on the verge of defeat when Mu Bai arrives and outmaneuvers Fox. She reveals that she killed Mu Bai's teacher because he slept with her but refused to take a woman as a pupil (so she stole the master's secret manual), and she felt it poetic justice for him to die at a woman's hand. Just as Mu Bai is about to kill her, the masked thief reappears and helps Fox. Fox kills Tsai before fleeing with the thief (who is revealed to be Jen). Mu Bai and Shu Lien are sure that Fox is hiding in the Yu house, but this will ruin Yu's career and hence the situation has to be tackled delicately. Mu Bai tracks the masked thief and offers his help as her master, which she rejects. After seeing Jen fight Mu Bai, Fox realizes Jen had been secretly studying the Wudang manual. Fox is illiterate and could only follow the diagrams, whereas Jen's ability to read the manual allowed her to surpass her mentor in martial arts. Fox is livid that Jen Yu stealing the sword put the spotlight on Fox, and Jen Yu is livid at Fox for killing a policeman. At night, a desert bandit named Lo (Chang Chen) breaks into Jen's bedroom and asks her to leave with him. A flashback reveals that in the past, when Governor Yu and his family were traveling in the western deserts, Lo and his bandits had raided Jen's caravan and Lo had stolen her comb. She pursued him to his desert cave to get her comb back. However, the pair soon fell passionately in love. Lo eventually convinced Jen to return to her family, though not before telling her a legend of a man who jumped off a cliff to make his wishes come true. Because the man's heart was pure, he did not die. Lo came to Beijing to persuade Jen not to go through with her arranged marriage. However, Jen refuses to leave with him. Later, Lo interrupts Jen's wedding procession, begging her to leave with him. Nearby, Shu Lien and Mu Bai convince Lo to wait for Jen at Mount Wudang, where he will be safe from Jen's family, who are furious with him. Jen runs away from her husband on their wedding night before the marriage could be consummated. Disguised in male clothing, she is accosted at an inn by a large group of warriors; armed with the Green Destiny and her own superior combat skills, she emerges victorious. Jen visits Shu Lien, who tells her that Lo is waiting for her at Mount Wudang. After an angry exchange (Jen thinks, Shu Lien is trying to set her up and return her to her husband, while Shu Lien said she has done nothing but protect her family since the first day, as she knew Jen had stolen the sword), the two women engage in a duel. Shu Lien is the superior fighter, but Jen wields the Green Destiny: the sword destroys each weapon that Shu Lien wields, until Shu Lien finally manages to defeat Jen with a broken sword. When Shu Lien shows mercy, Jen wounds Shu Lien in the arm. Mu Bai arrives and pursues Jen into a bamboo forest. Mu Bai confronts Jen and offers to take her as his student. She arrogantly promises to accept him as her teacher if he can take Green Destiny from her in three moves. Mu Bai is able to take the sword in only one move, but Jen goes back on her word to accept him as teacher. Mu Bai throws the sword over a waterfall, Jen dives after it, and is then rescued by Fox. Fox puts Jen into a drugged sleep and places her in a cavern; Mu Bai and Shu Lien discover her there. Fox suddenly reappears and attacks the others with poisoned darts. Mu Bai blocks the needles with his sword and avenges his master's death by mortally wounding Fox, only to realize that one of the darts hit him in the neck. Fox dies, confessing that her goal had been to kill Jen because Jen had hidden the secrets of Wudang's best fighting techniques from her. As Jen leaves to prepare an antidote for the poisoned dart (Jade had taught it to her), Mu Bai prepares to die. With his last breaths, he finally confesses his love for Shu Lien. He dies in her arms as Jen returns, too late to save him. The Green Destiny is returned to Sir Te. Jen later goes to Mount Wudang and spends one last night with Lo. The next morning, Lo finds Jen standing on a bridge overlooking the edge of the mountain. In an echo of the legend that they spoke about in the desert, she asks him to make a wish. He wishes for them to be together again, back in the desert, and Jen jumps off the bridge to fly among white clouds.

During an orchestrated drug bust at a marine loading dock, Detective Stan Zedkov (Michael Rooker) kills Triad lieutenant Peter Wei (Yau-Gene Chan). Zedkov had cornered Peter Wei and had injured him with a gunshot. Peter ran across the marine dock, trying to find an escape route, but Zedkov had the entire place locked up. Zedkov wanted to capture Peter alive and had told all units to back off and not fire on Peter. But when Zedkov tries to arrest him, Peter tries to shoot at Zedkov, forcing Zedkov to gun him down and kill him. Peter is survived by a wife and a toddler son. Zedkov attends Peter's funeral and tells Peter's father Terence that it was Peter who made his choice. But Terence says that Zedkov made his choice when he decided to pursue a vendetta against him and his organization. Looking to exact revenge for his son's death, crime boss Terence Wei (Kenneth Tsang), sends for professional assassin John Lee (Chow Yun-Fat). Paying off on an old debt, Lee has already killed two targets for Wei, and the crime boss tells him that this third and final job will wipe out the remainder of his obligation. Lee is a sophisticated killer and not the usual gun for hire profile. Terence wants a child for a child. Because Zedkov is a cop, Terence needs an outside who cannot be traced back to him. However, Lee's conscience prevents him from completing his final assignment: to murder Zedkov's seven-year-old son Stevie (Andrew J. Marton) before the detective's eyes. Realizing that his actions will result in retaliation against his mother and sister, Lee prepares to return to China, enlisting the help of old friend Alan Chan (Randall Duk Kim), a monk in a local Buddhist temple, to make arrangements to have his family moved to a secure location. Alan says that Lee would not be able to protect his family for long, and the only way out is an attack on Terrence himself. Infuriated by Lee's disobedience, Wei orders his men to hunt for him and has his men in China begin the search for Lee's family. Wei also hires replacement killers to finish the original job of killing Zedkov's son. No longer able to use the Triad network to get out of the country, Lee searches for alternative means outside Wei's sphere of influence. Lee Triad contact Eddie (Frank Medrano) refers him to skilled forger Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino) to have her create for him a new passport. Lee is willing to pay her price but wants the passport in one hour. Before she can finish the job, Wei's men storm her apartment, destroying the computerized tools of her trade in the ensuing shootout, but Lee manages to escape after gunning the men down. Coburn is picked up by the police, unsuccessfully interrogated by Zedkov, and released as bait so the detective can see who tries to kill her. Meanwhile, Wei hires two skilled out-of-town contract killers named Ryker and Collins to take over the hunt for Lee and the Zedkov contract. Having been made aware that the Triads are involved, Coburn wants out, but Lee forces her to finish her original task of creating a forged passport. Getting pictures from a photo booth, Lee phones Alan, who offers the use of his own passport to create the forgery. When Lee arrives at the temple, he discovers that Alan has been tortured to the point of death. Alan tells Lee that his family was moved to Canton-but he told his torturers they were in Shanghai. Lee has little more than 24 hours before his family is found. The monk gives Lee his passport before dying in his arms. Coburn later concludes the procedure of forging a passport for Lee. Feeling compelled to stop the killing of Zedkov's son before leaving the country, Lee forces one of Wei's informers to reveal the plan, which is to kill Stevie while he and his father are at a cartoon festival in a movie theater. Lee and Coburn arrive barely in time to prevent contract killers Ryker (Til Schweiger) and Collins (Danny Trejo) from killing the boy, and Ryker is killed in the subsequent gunfight. Concerned that Lee and Coburn will make their way back to Wei's base of operations, the crime boss makes plans to flee the country and hunt down Lee's mother and sister himself. However, when two guards open the main gate for Wei and his entourage leave in an SUV, Lee stands ready, firing handguns in different directions killing many Triad soldiers. Coburn surfaces moments later driving a truck through the melee, incapacitating Wei's head consort Michael Kogan (Jurgen Prochnow), and later killing him. When Collins fires from a high perch on Lee and Coburn, Lee soon outflanks him, killing him from behind. Finally, Lee corners Wei on a fire escape platform. Though both men have emptied their guns, Lee is first to reload. Wei promises Lee that the boy and Lee's family will still die, but Lee replies, "Not in your lifetime," and kills him. Though Zedkov arrives before Lee and Coburn can get away, he lets them go, taking only their guns. Coburn reluctantly bids goodbye to Lee at the airport, presenting him with one last gift, passports for his mother and sister

A hit man played by Chow Yun Fat is unorthodox and gruesome in this crime.