DVD Synopsis: It was the summer of 1991, Macau was in violent atmosphere. The two major triad gangs, separately headed by Giant and Bing were fighting for the control of the local casinos, with heavy casualties on both sides. The citizens live in fear. However Bing did not regard Giant as a rival. To establish his own reputation, Giant challenged Bing to an open battle which allowed their fellow attacking each other for a period of seven days to see who will be defeated. With the support of an affiliated gang headed by Lee, Giant won the battle and made his mark in the triad world. Bing plotted a revenge against Giant that he bribed the police officer to put Giant on the wanted list. Although Giant was in a critical condition he planned a counter attack against Bing which caused a series of street fighting in Macau. (92 Mins)

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Views: Billy Tang's Casino tells the tale of a gangster called Giant and his rise in the criminal underworld as he enters a turf war with a rival gang over the ownership of Macau's casinos. While it is said that Giant is loosely based on a real-life gang boss who just so happened to fund and produce the production, it's safe to say that viewers may take what they are seeing with a pinch of salt. That said, it still provides for an entertaining watch with plenty of gang fights, gritty violence, and decent performances from all involved. Although stamped with the infamous Cat.3 symbol on the DVD, Casino is a far cry from the other extreme works of Billy Tang such as Run & Kill, Red To Kill, and Brother Of Darkness – to name but a few. Still, the film proves to be stylishly made blending the styles of Ringo Lam and Johnnie To throughout, although without ever bettering their own works respectively. Casino offers up some neat cinematography courtesy of DOP Tony Miu who worked with Tang on a number of his productions as well as films such as Dr. Lamb, The Magic Crane, The Final Judgement, Underground Banker, Eternal Evil Of Asia, and A Chinese Torture Chamber Story, before going on to lens more modern titles like Flash Point, The Warlords, The Monkey King, Naked Soldier, and more. Henry Lai presents a decent score that compliments the mood of the film, and has since made quite the name for himself working on many hits such as Dragon Squad, 14 Blades, Operation Mekong, Beast Stalker, The Stool Pigeon, Dragon Blade, and Time Raiders. While the action involved focuses less on martial arts and more on brutal attacks, it fits the bill and was handled by actor/choreographer Ma Yuk Sing who worked on many great films including Sunshine Cops, Tracing Shadow, Butterfly & Sword, Enter The Phoenix, An Empress & The Warriors, City Under Siege, and Billy Tang's Sharp Guns (which also starred Alex Fong)!

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The brilliant Simon Yam Tat Wah leads the way as Giant, the gang boss that tries to keep his cool when other bosses are losing it under pressure. His cocky attitude and good luck make him a target for a lot of his rivals which soon leads to many assassination attempts, but it also allows Yam to toy about with his enemies and look great doing it. Of course, this wouldn't be the first time that one of Simon's films had been slapped with a Cat.3 rating having starred in classics such as Gigolo & Whore 1 & 2, Naked Killer, Friday Gigolo, Raped By An Angel, The Final Judgement, A Day Without Policemen, and Billy Tang's Run & Kill along with co-star Kent Cheng – here, returning to play the role of Inspector To, a cop who forges an understanding with Giant to keep the peace. Both stars do a great job in their roles and clearly share the screen well together, having starred in many films with each other over the years. As one of the hardest working men in show business, Yam's career in the late 90s often saw him dishing out around 5 or 6 titles a year. 1998 saw him star in a host of fun titles including Stephen Tung Wei's Hitman alongside Jet Li, Expect The Unexpected with Lau Ching Wan, Ringo Lam's The Suspect, and Operation Billionaires that saw him play a master criminal involved in a major kidnapping. Kent, on the other hand, had only starred in Mad Stylist the previous year with Casino being his only film role in 98 until he returned to the big screen a few years later to lead the Laurence Ma thriller, Body Puzzle. Both are joined by the great Alex Fong who plays Giant's sidekick and best friend Liu. This would also be a strong year for Fong with no less than 8 titles under his belt after starring in Johnnie To's Lifeline and Teddy Chen's Downtown Torpedoes the year before. From Portland Street Blues to A True Mob Story, and Storm Riders to Cheap Killers, Alex was showing no signs of slowing down even though his career started to look a little shaky just a few years before. Renowned actor/gangster Michael Chan Wai Man appears as the godfather of Macau, while regular Hong Kong film heavies Frankie Ng Chi Hung and John Ching Tung star as Yam's rival gang bosses. The lovely Teresa Ha Ping appears as Giant's mother, and Moses Chan, Michael Lam, and Raven Choi as his henchmen. It's also worth noting that producer Henry Fong Ping cameos as a gambler in 1 or his 7 roles that year. Having made his debut as an actor in the late 1950s, Henry turned to producing almost 3 decades later with The Story Of Hay Bo, which co-starred Alex Fong. From there, he went on to produce many fun titles including the little seen and underrated Jet Li/Chow Sing Chi vehicle Dragon Fight, Sleazy Dizzy, One Nite In Mongkok, 2 Young, Drink Drank Drunk, Heavenly Mission, Overheard, and more...

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It's not that Casino is a bad film at all, but it just doesn't offer anything overly exciting to make it another must-see film of Hong Kong cinema. I can only think that Tang possibly wanted to take this down a similar route like Johnnie To's Election series, as it certainly leaves itself open for more stories with its characters, but that wasn't to be the case unfortunately. Regardless, I cannot deny that it is a well made film that kept me entertained for the majority of its running time and would say that it'd be worth the watch at least once.

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Overall: While it offers nothing new, Casino still proves to be entertaining with a neat twist, some gritty violence, and decent performances from all involved!

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DVD Extras: Trailers