Truly Dreadful Film

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The First movie of his Brotherhood of Assassin's TrilogyTale of Brotherhood surrounding 5 hitmen who's been tasked to bodyguard a Triad Leader . They must find the conspirator and eliminate him. Later, they're put in a jam when the youngest member of the crew has an affair with the Boss's wife .

The Mission(1999) is the most entertaining Johnie To movie i ever seen.For years i tried to watch many of his movie to know what the fuss about him and why he gain so much love in Western but every movie leave me with an unsatisfied feeling.Luckily this movie finally open my eyes about his direction style.Describe as a action crime movie with heroic bloodshed spirit to the core the movie is very relaxing.Sure there are many shootout in this movie but it never feel over the top like John Woo shootout.The bullet sound when it hit very realistic and add so much tension to the scene.There are many moment which make the characters stand out and shine in their own right when facing enemies or overcome each other differences.It a good watch and i highly recommend it

"The Mission" steers away from the usual plot types of the Hong Kong Cinema New Wave and does not rely on martial arts for thrills. Instead, what we have here is a sort of marginal "Reservoir Dogs" since there is a sense of comradery between the five assigned hit men (though a cigarette prank isn't as charming as its played to be). Consider the scene where a sniper catches the five hit men off guard as they escort their boss to a car. One of the hit men veers off and is left behind on the conscience decision of the lead hit-man. When this left behind man returns to base, he slaps the lead man in the most offending manner for minutes. The lead man, a tough guy named "Ice," allows himself to be beaten. Why? Because in their world of corrupt organizations and tight hit groups, one does not leave a man behind. This sense of loyalty arises to a full extent in the third act, where the men must question what is the "right" thing to do.The film also contains a couple of shoot out scenes. But don't be fooled; you are not gonna watch "The Matrix." Instead, look for the wide angle lense shots of various suited hit men standing in very specific places, barely moving their feet, but the sequences are very exciting because if you step back, it's orchestrated skillfully and cued beautifully to the--music.From the opening scroll a sort of 'laughable' techno beat pumps, and all sorts of upbeat synthesized sounds fill the soundtrack to an unexpected result: an acceptance. After a while, you look forward to hearing what kind of sound matches up with what sort of scene. This type of tough, nitty genre relies on music, and the setting of the film calls for this amped up sound.

Mainly because of the technical issues of the DVD = the captions last for 3 microseconds so it is almost impossible to know (unless you understand one of 2 versions of Chinese)what are they saying. And they are forunatelly not talking too much. I rented this DVD because of the comments here on IMDB. Damn, pleople! What the hell did you see inthis movie. Every half-drunk drama/film student can shoot 88 minutes of this thing in 44 minutes. With lunch break included!!!Scenes are slow so without any loss you can watch it on fast-forward. I'm not kidding.