Once a Thief (1996)
Set in Hong Kong and Vancouver, the story follows Mac Ramsey and Li Ann Tsei, lovers and professional thieves who are separated while fleeing the powerful Hong Kong underworld crime lord who raised and trained them. After being imprisoned in Hong Kong, Mac is forcefully recruited into a clandestine international crime-fighting unit by a hard-nosed, menacing Director. He is teamed in Vancouver with Li Ann, who thought Mac was dead, and her new fiancé Victor Mansfield, an ex-cop who is attracted to the unorthodox methods of the agency. Conflict flares between Mac and Victor as the trio take on their assignment. They soon learn that their principal target is their foster brother Michael Tang, who had been given Li Ann as his future wife and who has vowed to hunt down the pair for their disloyalty to the "family".
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Reviews
Absolutely brilliant
A Major Disappointment
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Big names like John Woo don't often work with small budget movies like these. However, despite the small budget and a relatively less talented cast - Woo comes up with a decent package of thrill/romance/action.Quite obviously, the screenplay is not as stylized as other Woo movies, but then again the comparison would be baseless given the size of this project. The script is quite typical to Woo's movies - not really believable but always good/entertaining material. People might complain that this is an unbelievable plot - but then that's John Woo. All his scripts hover above reality (Broken Arrow, Face/Off, MI2). Anyways, the script is closely linked to the original Once a Thief (starring Chow Yun Fat) which was definitely a popular movie of its time.In my opinion, the acting was definitely top-notch for a TV-movie. And the inherent charm in some shots/sequences is too cool as well - typical John Woo. Not to put in too much spoilers, but the one where all 3 guys place their weapons around the lady is quite tasteful.Perhaps today (10 years down), the visual appeal might not be so much since a lot of cinematic style has been infused in Hollywood in the past decade, but overall, this is an entertaining TV-movie.
This is the best double episode of Once a Thief. Nick Lea is the best of the cast and his performance is very good. The talent of Ivan Sergei and Sandrine Holt is undeniable and the story is very interesting.I think that all fans of John Woo must see this episode.
Once a Thief was a pretty good show and I was sorry to see it go off the air. It was a really good show for a Canadian show and had a excellent lineup of actors.True, the plots were just rip-offs of many other TV shows but I think that is just part of the show itself. The slogan of the show was "The art of violence, the art of romance, the art of action" which fits it perfectly.The show is a humorous show with a few serious overtones to make it interesting. And ANY good show does a few ripoffs of other shows, but I agree that OAT did it a bit too much.
What can I say?, I love this film, I love it! this is John Woo at his best. It combines a top notch cast of Actors including Nicholas Lea (X-Files), Ivan Sergei (Opposite of Sex), Sandrine Holt (Outer Limits) and Micheal Wong (A Better Tommorow) and such a brilliant original story-line! Buy this now, if you love action or comedy or not. BUY IT NOW!!!