Intense cops-and-hoods thriller which clearly raises the bar for Hong Kong martial-arts by infusing its tale of an idealistic cop (Donnie Yen) who goes on the warpath against a beefy crime lord (Sammo Hung), with brawny, dazzlingly fast displays of 'wushu' fighting.
One of Yen's chief obstacles is also the dubious techniques of his police team - still loyal to their former leader Yam - who get successively smashed to pieces by one violent, imposing hitman, Wu Jing (a champion 'wushu' fighter in real life). 'Old School' in its overall approach, dir. Yip expands the basic premise with some terse thematic comments on father-son relationships, providing en excellent cocktail of drama, danger and fist pounding.
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