Casino Raiders

Law and Chan are friends and colleagues both: professional gamblers, the pair of them. They have worked together for years and they trust each other. Then a gang with Japanese connections comes up against them, and money, a woman and pride get between them. The question arises of how many hands a friendship can stand. In the end it will be settled at a single table. Jimmy Heung's film is one of the earliest of Hong Kong's wave of gambling pictures. Alan Tam and Andy Lau take the leads; Lau was only then moving into stardom. The pattern feels familiar now: two friends, a betrayal, a final table. The film uses action and melodrama at the same time and overdoes both.