A Chance to Die

Less 'personal' than Jam (Chen wrote it to order for Sino-Japanese producers), this is still much fresher and tastier than the average gangster movie. A team of self-styled mavericks ambushes a drug deal in Taipei, stealing millions in cash from the Japanese buyers and leaving two Japanese dead. While triad bosses fret over the situation, the Japanese - who include the girlfriend of one of the victims - go on the warpath. Pace the title, the result is countless violent deaths. It's raised above genre norms by Chen's obvious love for the characters and by the underlying sense that the recklessness of the 'mavericks' is a symptom of a real contemporary malaise. Gao Mingjun, long one of Taiwan's most interesting actors, is terrific as the gang lieutenant who urges calm and caution until the day a hated rival pushes him too far.