Ho Ka-Wah

Hong Kong's three notorious thieves who have never met one another before appear in the same restaurant. This leads to a rumour that they are joining forces to pull off something big before the Handover, though this is not something that any of them.

The textbook definition of a good citizen is a person who works hard, helps others and respects the law. A night minivan driver witnesses a crime and chases the robber down an alley and confronts him. A bloody fistfight ensues. But when the shot cuts to his close-up in the confined space of the interrogation room, we find him looking ragged and unkempt, trying hard to give a coherent account of what had happened to a hostile plain clothes cop, wondering if it pays to be a good citizen when one becomes punished for one’s own good intentions.

“Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.” Inside an after-hours bowling alley, a counselling session is underway with the attendances discussing the various merits and drawbacks of execution strategies and the prevention of occupational hazards. A man offers to play the flute and all hell breaks loose from there. The weapon is a folded chair, the victims his fellow professionals and the crime is predestined by karma. As the camera lingers on the gory actions, set to offbeat music and at times muted and occurring out-of-frame, a foreboding, dark and somewhat sinister overtone hangs heavy in the air. In a profession such as his, life is predestined by karma and choice is not an option.