Starting in the mid-1950's, director Chor Yuen logged an impressive 122 entries in his filmography over the years, including 1973's seminal comedy The House of 72 Tenants, which is credited with saving the Cantonese movie industry when it was at one of its' lowest points. By 1990, he was winding down his film career, with the "heroic bloodshed" picture Blood Stained Tradewinds being one of his last products produced for the jade screen.

The movie follows the template of many similar genre pictures, with Alex Fong and Waise Lee playing Chen and Xiong, two adopted sons of a powerful crime boss. Chen's methods have earned him the nickname of "Golden Gun", but he is tired of the Triad lifestyle, and so he turns down the dai lo's offer to take over the gang, instead heading to Macau to try and live a normal life. This creates a weakness in the gang, which the Yakuza (led by Lam Wai) look to exploit. All of this, of course, leads to a bloody finale where most of the characters aren't going to walk off happily into the sunset.

From a story-telling standpoint, Chor Yuen was definitely on auto-pilot here. Most of the actors play inside their usual realm of comfort, with Alex Fong playing the tough but naive hero and Waise Lee once again going to the shallow waters of his oft-used weaselly backstabber well. The matters unfold as one might expect for this type of film, with double-crosses being the order of the day, to the point that the changes in allegiance nearly rising to the level of ridiculous near the end of the film.

Action-wise, there are quite a few gunfights on display here, especially during the final act, but there's very little in the way of originality or flair. It's just mostly two sets of people blindly firing at each other, with the occasional person actually getting shot. Like the movie as a whole, everything is constructed well enough to be passable, but it's nothing close to the level of the classics in the genre. In fact, it would be surprising if a viewer could remember anything specific about Blood Stained Tradewinds a few days after they watched it, much less years down the road.

RATING: 5