John Woo’s promising, sporadically brilliant early feature offers a pristine window on a future master learning his craft.

A nascent Woo still bears all of his future hallmarks, but in 1979, he was still working out the kinks.

stands out as an important transition work, where a future master was working out the interplay of his stylistic and thematic obsessions.

Entirely engaging, if a bit messy, while pointing forward to what John Woo would accomplish in the coming decade as he developed his skills as a director.