In my hunt for heroic bloodshed titles this is one of the titles that was listed. While it does have some fancy gun play I wouldn't classify it as such.
In hindsight The Adventurers is a quite simple revenge flick that does have the pretension of making you think more is going on. Only to find out later that this isn't the case. For example, main character Wai Lok-yan (Andy Lau) is heavily traumatized after witnessing his parents being murdered. The only thing he can think about is taking revenge for what happened and kill the man responsible. However by pursuing this vengeance he negatively impacts the lives of all the people close to him. It's only a bit too late when he realizes this. But do his actions have consequences for him? Barely. It's a real missed opportunity for writer / director Ringo Lam not to have explored this plot element.
Instead he focuses on the laughable love triangle since like in most films the love element is forced in and not really shown. It is accepted of you to accept that the love is real and true. Even when in real life this would be considered fantasy. Thankfully Ng Sin-Lin and Rosamund Kwan manage to give their characters the illusion of depth by some outstanding acting. Andy Lau is quite good as well. As for everyone else they serve the plot but that is all I can say really. The main villain is too flat to take seriously and David Chiang is not in the film enough to do something worth wile. The plot might be simple but was very effective. You can't help but root for Andy Lau's character even when some of his actions are quite questionable.
To be fair I wasn't really planning on getting to invested in the plot since I was more focused on the action. However I did get sucked into it because of the beautiful visuals and some outstanding action. Was it enough to satisfy by bloodshed needs? Kind of. It certainly didn't disappoint, I can say that much.
Overall I do think this is one of the better Ringo Lam films has made so certainly worth checking out.
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