Heavenly mission

Chan Ho-Nam gets out of prison and tries to go straight. James Yuen's triad drama features a decent storyline and direction, and never proves uninteresting. However, the characters are not fully developed, the plot sometimes unbelievable, and the themes occasionally pandering. Entertaining but underwhelming. Hong Kong's greatest accidental superstar, Ekin Cheng, returns to familiar territory in director James Yuen's Heavenly Mission. The man formerly known as Chan Ho-Nam plays Autumn Yip, a seasoned triad who's just completed an eight year tour of duty in a Thai prison. Previous to his incarceration, Autumn was reportedly fiery and a bit wild. The leather pants-wearing bad boy got nabbed by the authorities during a massive machete melee on the streets of Bangkok, where he protected a sexy female arms dealer named Doctor (Hu Jing of Drink-Drank-Drunk). Now out of prison, Autumn is apparently a changed man, and possesses the calculating demeanor of an overly serious high school teacher. The first thing he does after getting out of the joint is to go see Doctor to secure a multimillion dollar loan - which he obtains with the promise of a 200% return on investment in just a year's time. What could this once legendary triad be planning? The media fuels the speculation, trumpeting Autumn's return from the slammer on the front page. Immediately, the cops get involved; anti-triad cop Ming (Alex Fong) thinks Autumn will step out of line soon, and forms a team of investigators to shadow Autumn upon his return to HK. Autumn certainly acts suspicious; he corrals a bunch of his ex-triad buddies (played by Eric Kot, Julian Cheung, and Lai Yiu-Cheung, among others) into helping him invest his multimillion dollar loan into a supposedly legitimate corporation designed to go public and make tons of fast cash on the stock market. Autumn achieves this by getting a media makeover, appearing as a charitable benefactor who respects the elderly, kisses babies, and gives money to the poor. Within days Autumn Yip becomes the media sensation du jour, leading to increased confidence by the public and the ridiculous notion that people would actually pony up large sums of venture capital to join his business.