A friendly love triangle between three assassins May, Chin and Koo (Mui, Lau and Bee) is shattered when a rival assassin known as Fox (Kwok) comes looking for revenge for his master (who May blinded and turned over to the cops) and kills Chin. In order to save Chin from Fox's wrath, May goes into hiding. One year later, the pair are reunited as Fox closes in.

There's a good amount of garbage in this movie, such as a weak plot that's full of holes (we find out that May was "hiding out" in the apartment across from Chin -- what the hell?), some pretty hammy romance, and a poor performance from Andy Lau. Seeing this guy trying to conjure up tears whilst trying to keep his hair from not getting mussed is one of the few true pains in watching Hong Kong movies. Not to mention he has an annoying habit in this movie of never pulling his shirt over his shoulders, probably just to show off for the ladies.

However, this movie delivers eye candy and lots of it. Saviour of the Soul really looks cool, with a mix of traditional sets and Blade Runner-ish future noir. There's plenty of inventive weapons (such as Lau's combination steel yo-yo/knife/sword and Anita Mui's arsenal of lethal exploding homing knives) that are put to use in some great action sequences. Of course, Corey Yuen could probably direct this kind of stuff in his sleep -- he even made Eddie Winslow from "Family Matters" look pretty good on the TV show "Freedom." But that's beside the point. If you're willing to forgive some shortcomings, there's some good stuff to be had from a viewing of Saviour of the Soul.

A review of the VCD for this movie can be found here

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