Directed by John Woo • 1986 • Hong Kong
Starring Ti Lung, Chow Yun-fat, Leslie Cheung

The box-office sensation that established director John Woo as the king of 1980s Hong Kong action cinema and set the standard for the heroic bloodshed genre, this electrifying gangster saga combines the director’s intricate bullet play with operatic emotion as it tracks the explosive relationship between two brothers, one a criminal trying to reform (Ti Lung), the other a cop (Leslie Cheung) who blames his brother for their father’s death. In the first of his celebrated collaborations with Woo, Chow Yun-fat radiates his matchless cool as a hit man who lives by his own code.