William's mother is saved by brother Patrick, member of a triad and despite being a graduate, William prefers to be on Patrick's side, picking the life with triad. William's friends Derek and Edward also join the gang. Raising up the ranks, William and co start enjoying the life of crime as it gives them with money and fame but makes it clear who has the power. William continues to make money for the triad and soon is after that very power. Will he be allowed to raise that above in the ranks as both the sides shedding lot of blood, forms rest of the story.

12 years later, the film does feel extra dated due to it's story. I would've still called the film dated 12 years ago as well, that is solely because these gangster films have the same narrative and there isn't anything new to offer. It's about the a guy, growing up in ranks and eventually dreaming to earn the highest of the position to run the entire thing. The people he loses, new friends he gains and the enemies that he make for himself, the narrative pattern remains the same with the genre norms. The love story asusual is half baked.

To be honest, I started to watch this movie expecting the usual "cops try to resolve an issue that involves the Triads" premise, but was thoroughly surprised to see a movie built in this unique sort of structure.

Before you begin, know that this movie is certainly NOT your usual HK Triad crime movie. It isn't meant to be. The idea of this movie is solely to give a more realistic take on what it means to truly be within the Triads, and is not meant to be "good guys always win". If you're looking for cops, you won't see a single one in this movie.

I'm relatively open when it comes to movies, and I don't like jumping on any biased bandwagons. I'm sure those who watched may have been a bit turned off from the movie lacking depth, but I personally did not think so.

I thought the movie was done nicely, and at a nice, progressive pace. There was plenty of character development, and it was very logical, not "movie fake". My attention stuck throughout, and heck, I even wondered halfway how I managed to get so far into the movie without already feeling bored. I was genuinely interested in seeing how far the main character would reach.

The plot is relatively simple. Three friends, "blood brothers", make a pact and devote themselves to becoming the best within the underground Triads, in order to prove themselves. They work their way up the ladder by killing rival enemies and doing some errands, working under one of the major turf leaders.

The turning point of the movie arrives when one of the turf leaders desires to "ascend to the throne" and wishes to replace the current head of all the turf leaders. He starts stirring problems within the turf of the three brothers, and their turf leader catches word of his actions.

He sends the three brothers to teach him a lesson in order calm him down, however, one of them ends up deciding he wants to kill him instead. This ends up creating a major divide between the major turf leaders, since the dead leader's wife is a major turf leader as well, and she does not want her husband's death to simply be ignored.

Then comes a time skip of a few years to the next election for the new head of the turf leaders, and the remaining turf leaders battle it out in order to ascend to the throne, and to change HK into serving their own ideals.

All in all, I personally thought that this movie was a good watch and worth the time, however, if you're personally looking for a premise you'd normally see in a HK crime movie, then you may want to look elsewhere. My rating for this movie is a 6.5, but since IMDb does not allow half-ratings, I upgraded it to a 7 for the good pace that's not too fast nor too slow.

Terrible acting, horrible casting and worst triad fight scenes ever. It was like a wannabe young&dangerous and the election series poorly scripted together. HK movies are getting worse and worse.... feels like someone who's watched too many generic triad movies wrote this CRAP!!. As much as this pains me i have to submit 10 lines minimum. First off, the leading male was no-where near believable from the beginning. Who in the world has meetings on boats for 30 seconds over pretentious BS esp if you're a big time BOSS. Come on, at least give some background on how they make money besides killing each other and acting as tough security at clubs. Total Crap!!