Synopsis

The movie begins with Autumn Yip (Ekin Cheng) being released from an eight year incarceration in a Thai prison. Choosing to make his first travel by boat, gives the opportunity for a flashback to detail the reason for his incarceration. Eight years before as a prominent triad leader he had gone to Thailand to broker an arms deal with the legendary "doctor" Arriving he discovered that the "doctor" has been murdered and his business has been taken over by his wife. ( Hu Jing). When they are attacked in the middle of the deal Autumn protects and saves the now female "doctor", In the process the gods intervene causing Autumn to be arrested and sentenced.

Returning to meet her in Thailand, she asks him to stay with her, he refuses and instead asks to borrow a large sum of money, promising to double it in a year. Autumn has reformed himself while in jail and now wants to put his triad days behind him.

Traveling to a mountain shrine to burn incense for a fellow prisoner he receives yet another heavenly message, informing him that helping others is the same as helping himself. In the shrine are a number of objects that belonged to people who had died away from home. Autumn chooses a watch with the inscription " My Life" and decides to track down the owner's relatives and return it.

Autumn Yip's release causes a stir in Hong Kong. His own sworn brothers gather around him once more. Lawyer Ma (Chilam Chung), newspaper editor ( Eric Kot) together with Fool ( Ah Chi) and Crazy. The police are also very interested, fearing that Yip will return to Hong Kong to make trouble. Inspector Sung ( Alex Fong) is organized to head up a team of anti triad cops to follow Yip and arrest him at once should anything illegal happen.

Autumn's former gang members are also interested in his return. The boss (Ti Hung) tries to reign in his current hot shot mid-level triad leader Ghost ( Stephen Fung). Ghost is not impressed by Autumns return and decides he really doesn't like his current good guy act, giving to the elderly, the poor and various other charities. Yip is working behind the scenes to set up a legitimate limited company to make money on the stock market. He hires a young woman whose son is sick, by promising to fund research into his illness. Ghost can see the grousing among his triad brothers and decides to take matters into his own hands, by sending a bomb to the police headquarters in Yip's name. The ensuing fall out causes Yip's company plans to flounder. and ghost to be arrested as the bomber, informed on by one of his own. Autumn helps Ghost to evade jail time because of his debts to his gang boss, though he tries to put terms on his help.

However in the meantime the relatives of the owner of the watch have been found, and with a little research the body of the deceased is also located. Autumn reunites the man's widow with her husbands remains and the watch, the high ranking business son of the lady, gives Autumn a helping hand in return. While transacting business in Macau, Autumn runs into a blind Masseuse( Huo Siyan). He meets with her each time he is in Macau. He also runs into Sung at a playground, where Yip is remembering his own initiation into the triad group.

Ghost is trying desperately to make a name for himself and also wants to broker a deal with the Thai "Doctor". In order to try to make Autumn agree to help him, he kidnaps the blind girl, and delivers an ultimatum to Autumn. Because she is innocent and helpless Autumn realizes that he has been backed into a corner by helping Ghost he knows he has to deal with him once and for all and plans to go back to Thailand and help Ghost meet the "doctor". Ghost realizing he has been informed on, takes out his informer and tries to frame Autumn for the murder. Inspector Sung and his team delay Autumn from making the rendezvous with Ghost in Thailand. In the altercation one of Sung's men is killed and Fool becomes a coma victim. Autumn is arrested and detained. Unable to answer Ghosts call , he forces Sung to let him make a call. In Thai he speaks to the "doctor" asking her to help him contact Ghost to force him to wait until he can get there.

Sung is forced to let Yip go because of his diplomatic status. Her also sees the message from Ghost on Yip's phone and realizes that it may indeed be Ghost who is the one to deal with. The action switched to Thailand where Ghost meets Autumn in an abandoned train station. Autumn tries to get Ghost to stop going down the wrong path, to no avail. Police are on hand and also the "doctor" and her people. Autumn knows that the " doctor" will not deal with Ghost, so he causes himself to get shot. Ghost runs, killing and wounding several policemen before being brought down by Sung. Ghost is sentenced to five years in the same prison and the final scene sees him beginning to read the same book that turned Autumn around.

Running to the hospital Sung is told that Autumn Yip is already dead. The "doctor" and her people take the body, however Sung is unable to ascertain whether he is truly dead. The "Doctor" assures him that Autumn Yip will never appear again. The news of his death is made complete, and his sworn brothers re salvage their lives. Crazy let's Fool go, turning off his life support machine. The blind girl whose release from Ghost's men was effected by Autumn is seen on the beach. She finds the bracelet she had given to Autumn. In the distance is it Autumn Yip quietly watching her, or his ghost?

Review

Ekin Cheng returns to the screen in BMA's second film as a triad leader. It isn't the Chan Ho Nam kind of character this time, but more reminiscent of the reformed triad in Good Bye Mr Cool. There are some holes in the plot line. It is never quite clear, what the motive for the limited company is, other than to make money on the stock market. Ekin plays this kind of part extremely well, and is very believable as a former triad member with loyal sworn brothers. He obviously enjoyed messing about on the beautiful yacht used as his living space in the movie. His rise to respectability though seemingly to easy, nevertheless the role suited Ekin completely.

Ti Lung is also completely convincing as the gang's aging boss, set in his ways and trying to support all of his flock and keep them under control. He knows Autumn is angry with him for failing to visit and help in when he was in Thailand. He also fails to keep Ghost from self destructing.

Stephen Fung's character ghost seems to be the least developed. He wants to take over Autumn's place, and resorts to brooding, treating his girlfriend ( Nikki Chow) very badly and dirty tricks in order to get Autumn Yip to help him. Stephen makes his character most unlikable, and his final incarceration feels right, whereas Autumn Yip's shooting has a feel of impending tragedy. The relationship between these two seems to be the main emphasis of the movie, the idea that Ghost is Autumn's past and it is up to Autumn in a Heavenly Mission to turn his life around. Unfortunately the script and the acting doesn't give the feeling of a true mission being enacted. Ghost seems petty and self centered, while Autumn just makes a sacrifice.

Inspector Sung is well played by Alex Fong. He plays off Ekin's character extremely well and the scene in the police station cell is one of the best in the movie. Sung is not willing to give Autumn Yip a chance, knowing that he is obviously up to no good. The sentiment is echoed by Chilam, when he tries to convince Yip that he is deluding himself by thinking he can reform. Coffee he says is still coffee no mater how much sugar you put into it.

There are also excellent performances by both Chilam Cheung and Eric Kot. Chilam does an excellent job as a lawyer for a triad organization able to manipulate the law for their own ends. Eric Kot wants to print the truth, or rather his version of it. He too falls foul of Inspector Sung, who accuses him of triad sympathies, no doubt true as he is Autumn Yip's sworn brother.

James Yuan as the director, misses the opportunity to make many of these characters more than one dimensional. The film focuses on the big plans of Autumn Yip, however the audience is never quite sure what they are or the motivation for them. Sadly, he fails to make Autumn Yip the focus, or Ghost. The high profile cast may have been some of the cause of that, in the need to give each a suitable amount of screen time.

There are several versions of this BMA movie, one put out by Joy Sales, and one by Tai Seng There is a double disc edition, with a making of, theatrical trailers, photo galleries and filmographies included. All of the versions have both Cantonese and Mandarin tracks, with removable subtitles in traditional, and simplified Chinese and English.

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