Heavenly Mission is an interesting take on the Triad movie genre that initially holds some promise. In a rarity in the world of Hong Kong movies, this is a gangster movie with a heart. Unfortunately, director James Yuen never fully fleshes out his vision and the results end up feeling more than a bit hollow.

The film centers on Autumn Yip (Ekin Cheng), a gangster who is returning to Hong Kong after spending eight years in a Thai prison. Autumn wants to go straight, so he borrows $30 million from a former associate and then sets out to spread cheer around HK by doing good deeds like buying tickets to Disneyland for poor kids.

Autumn's PR campaign allows him the means to set up a new legitimate company, but the cops still aren't buying his face turn. Led by the hot-headed Ming (Alex Fong), the police doggedly harass and follow Autumn, hoping to reveal some sort of dark inspiration behind his actions. When Autumn begins metting with his old Triad buddies, it seems that the cops have finally trapped them... or have they?

Heavenly Mission features a solid story and looks great. But there's nothing behind it, even though James Yuen is constantly trying to hit the viewer over the head with some not-so-subtle messages about life and destiny. Most notably, this is shown through the relationship between Autumn and Ghost (Stephen Fung), a young Triad boss who Autumn hopes to change before he falls down the same path that led to incarceration.

The big problem with these scenes is that the acting is just not very good. While Ekin Cheng goes back to the stone-faced mannerisms of Chan Ho Nam Young and Dangerous movies, Stephen Fung runs in the opposite direction and over-acts in every scene he's in.

The other actors don't fare very well either: Alex Fong generally just acts like he's consitpated while chain-smoking (the film also has a ton of painfully obvious anti-smoking messages) and Niki Chow (who plays Ghost's girlfriend) is your typical "jade vase" -- pretty to look at but ultimately useless.

Also, the script -- even though it was written by three people -- has a bunch of nagging points. For example, one of Ming's officers (played by Carl Ng) can't read Chinese. I don't know the requirements to be a Hong Kong cop, but one would think that actually being able to read would be one of them. Nit-picks aside, there are also broad holes in the plot (such as Autumn's extremely quick rise to fame) which tend to make the movie more than a bit unfathomable.

Things aren't all horrible here, though. There are a few cameos by veterans like Ti Lung, as well as a couple of decent action scenes that perk up the viewer's interest. But overall, there's really nothing here that elevates Heavenly Mission above the realm of the average.

If you're really hard up for a new Triad movie or a die-hard Ekin Cheng fan, you might get some more enjoyment out of Heavenly Mission than this particular reviewer, but as such, I can only give this film a mild recommendation.

RATING: 5