Prolific action director Woo proves his thespian mettle on screen as a destitute, desperate Chinese defector who, with his brother in tow, tries to find a foothold in the Hong Kong underworld.

When an honest company employee is falsely accused of being an accomplice to a robbery, and his wife dies through police incompetence, he seeks revenge by launching a one-man crime spree, starting with the abduction of his former boss's spoiled daughter. But she soon begins to understand his motives, and becomes his lover and willing accomplice.

A woman who is in debt to loan sharks is about to commit suicide to escape her debts. Two ghosts are waiting to take her soul when she dies, but at the last moment she is rescued by a member of the loan shark gang who is in love with her. The ghosts, angry at being deprived of a soul, take their vengeance on the gang.

The rivalry between two Chinese prison factions heats up as a seasoned inmate forms an alliance that could cost him more than his freedom.

A family man attempts to undo the deadly contract he made with a stranger during an evening of drunken depression.