Castro does an okay job, but really plays Cabrera as any old Columbian drug lord except he knows how to fight. He really needed to be in the film more, as his relationship with Zhou was the best thing in the film, and really captured my interest and disappointment that there wasn’t more of that Master/Student relationship. Gordon Liu brings warmth to the film as the monk, but his scenes are far too short. First time (?) Director Gregory McQualter is sure-handed in his direction, even in scenes that don’t work. He does okay with what he has to work with, but it’s apparent he’s a novice, but he does have something in onscreen presence that with some more acting experience he could be quite something. Zheng Liu is a first time actor, and it shows. He does a lot of self-destructive things, like taking drugs, and of course the assassinations, with flashbacks that show that he may have undergone a traumatic moment in his life to cause his behavior, but we don’t get to spend enough time with those flashbacks to really care about the character and his plight, and that is the biggest fault of the script, or it may have been left on the cutting room floor. The story takes us into the seedy world of drug trafficking, and the shaolin assassin who walks through this world, just as dirty as the people he has to kill, but we don’t get enough time to spend with Zhou. But who is this mysterious woman, and why does Zhou care? With both Ho and Cabrera looking to kill Zhou and the girl he steals away from them, Zhou goes to seek help from a monk from his past (Gordon Liu) and together they defend the girl from Cabrera and Ho. While on the mission Zhou doesn’t complete his mission, and Ho decides to take him out. Ho sends Zhou to rescue the girl and kill Cabrera and his men. When a young woman staying in their care is kidnapped by Cabrera, and his men kill the brother of Steven Ho. Ho sends Zheng to “level the playing field” and he does so, meanwhile Cabrera’s men try to deal in distribution with the brother and sister of Steven Ho. The war escalates as several tons of cocaine is coming to Shanghai by boat, and all of them want to control it. Zheng Liu plays Zhou, an assassin who works for Steven Ho (Wong), a notorious drug lord, who is engaged in a war with biker gangs, Chinese cartels, and a crazy Columbian drug lord named Cabrera (Castro). Add to this the legendary Gordon Liu, and maybe we have a new martial arts classic? Bunraku, The Girl From The Naked Eye, and now we have Blood Money, and like those films introduces a potential new star to the world of martial arts cinema, Zheng Liu, a young Shaolin Master. Recently there have been a increased production of martial arts films popping out from the USA. Starring Zheng Liu, Alexander Castro, Gordon Liu, Jimmly Wong, Pitbull
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