Life Without PrincipleMovies like Life Without Principle
- Key Features:
- Financial crime, Moral ambiguity, Intertwined lives, Financial crisis, Loan shark, Police investigation, Criminal underworld, Greed, Desperation, Betrayal, Hong Kong, Complex plot, Social commentary
- Tone:
- serious, gritty, suspense-driven
- Target Audience:
- Crime drama enthusiasts, Fans of complex narratives, Viewers interested in social commentary, International cinema aficionados
- Emotional Arc:
- Tension → Desperation → Resignation
Life Without Principle

A criminal, a bank clerk and a police officer find their destinies entwined when a loan shark gets assaulted after having withdrawn $10 million from the bank in the midst of the world financial crisis.
Life Without Principle
Life has not been kind to drinking buddies Sam, Fai, and Mok as they struggle to make ends meet, until one stormy evening a mysterious old man appears before them in a bar with a 'get rich quick' scheme: an ancient treasure is buried under a high-security government building.

The story revolves around three members of a police surveillance squad conducting an investigation into a financial investment group involved in criminal fraud. The focus of the plot, however, is actually on the three officers themselves who stumble upon an opportunity to capitalize on information they gathered during their surveillance.

After a disastrous failure to stop a robber gang, the police attempt to redeem themselves through a series of publicity stunts and shootouts.

A struggling restaurant owner, caring for his sick mom, finds a bag of cash in a sauna locker, while a customs officer gets into trouble when his girlfriend runs off with money he borrowed from a loan shark.

Four young officers of the Hong Kong Police are joined together to fight against organised crime using all possible means, even if this would lead them to break the law… Their first assignment is to eliminate a gang of criminals who have stolen a shipload of explosives.

Sang-hoon is a lowlife gangster, a debt collector exercising thuggish ways to collect his money. The recipient of nothing but anger since his childhood, he expresses himself through violence. When he finally encounters someone who can stand up to him, feisty school-girl Yoon-hee they become unlikely friends.

In a city of love and prosperity, a city of lost hope and premature death, veteran detective Hei feels it all: the hurt, the helplessness, the horror. When his father-in-law, the billionaire benefactor Kim, is gruesomely murdered in his palatial mansion, he enlists the assistance of his former partner turned private detective.

Follows a police tactical unit during one dangerous night on the streets of Hong Kong as they try to recover a cop's stolen gun. Things turn deadly when they run into a web of gangland crimes.

A special agent has for 8 years been deep undercover in Asia's lucrative organized crime trade as he plays protégé to one of the key players, Banker. Now, Nick has but he has started to feel loyalty to his new environment and to the money.

Hong Kong 1997, where young people dream of love and death, suicide and murder. Moon is a cynical young debt collector, smitten by Ping, a young woman dying of kidney disease. A suicide note from a student they don't know ends up intertwining their fates.

A financial tycoon, once a triad member, tries to eradicate the drug market while an old accomplice aims to be Hong Kong's first drug lord.

Financially troubled, a newbie hitman reluctantly takes the job of finding the plotted killer of a Japanese tycoon.

Chan Wing Yan, a young police officer, has been sent undercover as a mole in the local mafia. Lau Kin Ming, a young mafia member, infiltrates the police force. Years later, their older counterparts, Chen Wing Yan and Inspector Lau Kin Ming, respectively, race against time to expose the mole within their midst.

A special agent is assigned to protect a wealthy business magnate. However, when the businessman is kidnapped in a daring ambush, he teams up with a seasoned detective to crack the case. But soon he discovers the case isn't that simple.

Cheung Sung-bong is a highly respected cop with a long history of success in dangerous cases. However, his past soon comes back to haunt him when a former protégé resurfaces, seeking revenge.

A con-team couple head west after taking a city businessman for his BMW. But an encounter with a naive young carpenter traveling home with his life savings challenges their fate as thieves.

A restauranteur teams up with a police officer and his ex-con brother to avenge the death of a friend's daughter.

Beleaguered police detective Nishi takes desperate measures to try and set things right in a world gone wrong. With his wife suffering from leukemia and his business partner paralyzed from a brutal gangster attack, Nishi borrows from a yakuza loan shark and then robs a bank to clear his debt.

Police inspector and excellent hostage negotiator Ho Sheung-Sang finds himself in over his head when he is pulled into a 72 hour game by a cancer suffering criminal out for vengeance on Hong Kong's organized crime syndicates.

Realising that he will be defeated in no time during a police showdown, a thug shoots himself to force the cops to cease fire and take him to the hospital. In the hospital, he claims human rights to refuse immediate treatment in order to buy time for his underlings to rescue him. The detective in charge sees through his scheme but decides to play along so as to capture his whole gang once and for all.

Jason Chan, a Hong Kong lawyer, is angry at the way the law protects criminals and decides to take the law into his own hands, dishing out vigilante justice when a key witness and his entire family are murdered. But hotshot cop Cindy Si is soon on Chan's case, and the situation unravels into a fight that only a few will survive.

Liu Yue Ping reports to the ICAC about a rich 2G Cao Yuen Yuen who bribed officers of the Hong Kong Correctional Services (HKCS) from inside the prison. William Luk decides to infiltrate the prison as an inmate to conduct his investigation, while his partner Ching Tak Ming and Chief Inspector Lau Po-keung back him up from the outside.

Hong Kong. When Cao Nan and his group of thieves rob an armored car in broad daylight, they don't hesitate to murder innocent people on the run. Lui Ming Chit, a veteran police inspector, is forced to use sinister tactics to catch them.

While Yeung Kam Wing is trying to remove all connections between the mob and him, his actions are being carefully observed by Lau Kin Ming, who bears a personal grudge against him.

By a strange twist of fate, dutiful Hong Kong policeman Dan saves the life of the leader of a violent gang of armed robbers. When they commit another crime, Dan is determined to put an end to their activities. He works with the leader, whom the gang had betrayed, to engineer a plan to wreak havoc within the gang and let the gangsters kill one another. But it becomes increasingly obvious to Dan and to his colleagues that Dan is suffering from a severe mental disorder, and Dan finds that instead of upholding the law as a righteous police officer, he has now become a fugitive wanted for murder.

A debt collector who looks intimidating, but actually has a warm heart, ends up becoming the guardian of a child, who has been left behind as collateral by her illegal immigrant mother.

A loan shark is forced to reconsider his violent lifestyle after the arrival of a mysterious woman claiming to be his long-lost mother.

Five police officers in Hong Kong are kidnapped. The police commissioner is on a business trip overseas. Two vice commissioners, Sean Rau and M.B. Lee, then take over the case. The two vice commissioners are rivals who both vie for the police commissioner seat. At first, M.B. Lee takes the lead in the case, but comes to a dead end. Sean Lau then takes the lead, but he falls into a trap. Both men are then investigated by the ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption).

An operation in Thailand against a notorious drug lord changes the destiny of a Hong Kong Police Department narcotic team. Five years later, a drug dealing brings them together again.

Mob assassin Jeffrey is no ordinary hired gun; the best in his business, he views his chosen profession as a calling rather than simply a job. So, when beautiful nightclub chanteuse Jennie is blinded in the crossfire of his most recent hit, Jeffrey chooses to retire after one last job to pay for his unintended victim's sight-restoring operation. But when Jeffrey is double-crossed, he reluctantly joins forces with a rogue policeman to make things right.

In this prequel to the original, a bloody power struggle among the Triads coincides with the 1997 handover of Hong Kong, setting up the events of the first film.

A gangster's son is accidentally killed during a drunken dispute with a rival gang, and Officer Milo's task force is assigned to the case. He soon learns that a hitman has been hired to take out the rival gang leader. While Milo and his crew desperately try to find and stop the hired gun, fearing all-out war in the streets, Lai Fu, a smart but inexperienced killer from a small town in the mainland, arrives in Hong Kong to do his job.

In the midst of a violent gang war, a series of misfortunes threaten the fate of a gang boss and his mob.

A middle-aged businessman faces bankruptcy after his partner's suicide and a rival's unscrupulous offer to buy his company. Determined to avoid the trap, he finds an unexpected solution through a prostitute.

Danny is a young cop partnered with Nick, a seasoned but ethically tainted veteran. As the two try to stop a gang war in Chinatown, Danny relies on Nick but grows increasingly uncomfortable with the way Nick gets things done.

A reforming ex-gangster tries to reconcile with his estranged policeman brother, but the ties to his former gang are difficult to break.

Marino Pacileo has a soft spot for gambling. When he discovers that Lila's father, the young Chinese girl that he is in love with cannot pay a debt, the gambler steals money from the jail he is in to help the love of his life.

Manson Law, a celebrated stockbroker in Hong Kong, is injured in a car accident. The police, led by Inspector Jack Ho, discovers a military surveillance device in the car wreck. Meanwhile, the wiretapper Joe Szema is unveiling his extensive plan that targets the mysterious financial conglomerate, the Landlord Club. The fate of these three men soon intertwines in the cat-and-mouse game that may bring down the entire stock market.

A woman, fired from a financial corporation during the Asia crisis, returns home with no money. However, she finds a box with a fortune in front of her door, and decides to keep it. However, the people that left it there soon want it back.

A monk turned body-builder, with the gift to see into people's lives, befriends a female cop, and uses his gift to change the force of Karma and her destiny.

Reckless police inspector Sai Gau (Zhang Jin) is on a mission to crack down on criminal Shing's (Shawn Yue) gold smuggling scheme, yet fails to arrest him. As Sai Gau continues his manhunt, he discovers Shing's involvement with triad boss Blackie (Yasuaki Kurata), who hides on a casino cruise ship on the high seas. Shing has been involved in a power struggle within the smuggling ring, and is forced to kill his adopted father. He also loses his share of gold smuggling to Blackie. To get even, Shing appears on the cruise, while Sai Gau is there to hunt for him.

Ho Sheung Sang finds himself wrapped up in another cat-and-mouse game, this time against a tricky magician.

Hong Kong's three notorious thieves who have never met one another before appear in the same restaurant. This leads to a rumour that they are joining forces to pull off something big before the Handover, though this is not something that any of them.

As election time nears, current Triad chairman Lok faces competition from his godsons. At the same time, Jimmy looks to increase his business relations with mainland China.

When the Ronin Gang robs an armored car, three cops — Chan, Fong and Wai — go on the warpath. Each has a personal interest in bringing down Ronin leader Tien: he killed Chan's fiancée, humiliated Fong and kidnapped Wai's brother.

After losing an election to become chairman of the Wo Lin Shing triad, a gang leader lashes out and tries to seize the dragon-head baton, the official symbol of a chairman's authority.

Living in the guilt of sacrificing his informant in a previous operation, Criminal Intelligence Inspector Don Lee is wary when his superior orders him to send another informant to spy on the criminal operations of Barbarian, a vicious gangster plotting a jewelry heist. He seeks ex-convict Ghost, who agrees to work for Don despite vowing to go straight since he's desperately in need of money to repay a debt and save his sister. Ghost's driving skills help him infiltrate Barbarian's gang and earn his trust, but by feeding information to Don and hooking up with Barbarian's girlfriend Dee, Ghost is pushing himself into a tight and deadly corner...

A drug cartel boss is arrested in a raid and coerced into betraying his former accomplices as part of an undercover operation.

Lo Ka Yiu, a young ad designer who is sentenced to jail for manslaughter, has gotten himself in trouble with the corrupted wardens and fellow inmates of Triad background. Chung Tin Ching, a veteran inmate and Yiu's mentor, is forced to confront his comrade's enemies time and again, leading up to the final showdown with the head of security.

A friendship is formed between an ex-gangster, and two groups of hitmen - those who want to protect him and those who were sent to kill him.

A suspected criminal mastermind escapes from police custody, throwing the city into turmoil. With the police department now divided, rival police chiefs are forced to take their fight to the streets of Hong Kong with deadly consequences.

A debt collector receives a call from a woman who is kidnapped by an unknown gang. He thinks it is a joke but soon, he realises that it is not a prank.

Detective Sergeant Ma Jun, known for dispensing his own brand of justice during arrests, teams up with an undercover cop, Wilson, to try and bring down three merciless Vietnamese brothers running a smuggling ring in the months before mainland China's takeover of Hong Kong. Jun pursues the gang tirelessly, sometimes ignoring police protocols. A showdown is inevitable!

Five young hoodlums sing karaoke, murder, joke around, get beaten up, win and lose women, and learn the value of blind loyalty.

Ko Chow is an undercover cop who is under pressure from all sides. His boss, Inspector Lau, wants him to infiltrate a gang of ruthless jewel thieves; his girlfriend wants him to commit to marriage or she will leave Hong Kong with another lover; and he is being pursued by other cops who are unaware that he is a colleague. Chow would rather quit the force, feeling guilty about betraying gang members who have become his friends.

Chan, an articulate senior detective nearing the end of his career, is taking care of the daughter of a witness killed by ruthless crime lord Po. Martial arts expert Ma is set to take over as head of the crime unit, replacing Chan who wants an early retirement.

A thriller that revolves around the key people at an investment bank over a 24-hour period during the early stages of the financial crisis.

Sent into a drunken tailspin when his entire unit is killed by a gang of thrill-seeking punks, disgraced Hong Kong police inspector Wing needs help from his new rookie partner, with a troubled past of his own, to climb out of the bottle and track down the gang and its ruthless leader.

Jack and Martin are gunmen who work for two rival kingpins. Jack and Martin have been fighting on their bosses behalf for close to a year. When a truce is made both Jack and Martin are cut loose. The two men then decide to join forces and take on the gangsters who used them.

A young Cambodian man who has been trained to fight for money in his country is hired to kill someone in Hong Kong. He performs the hit and then flees from Hong Kong police, who are wrestling with internal problems of a model cop and his son, who is also on the force and who was told by his dad not to become a police officer.

A poor young man is wrongly charged with drug trafficking after being deceived. An ex-prosecutor investigates the case, uncovers a corrupt lawyer team's scheme, and restores justice despite obstruction from evil forces.

The Hong Kong police is hunting a counterfeiting gang led by a mastermind code-named "Painter" . The gang possesses exceptional counterfeiting skills which makes it difficult to distinguish the authenticity of its counterfeit currency. The scope of their criminal activities extends globally and greatly attracts the attention of the police. In order to crack the true identity of "Painter", the police recruits a painter named Lee Man to assist in solving the case.

Amid the glittering casinos of Macau, a gambler running from his past — and his debts — becomes fascinated by an enigmatic woman at the baccarat table.

Officer Chan Ka Kui manages to put a major Hong Kong drug dealer behind the bars practically alone, after a shooting and an impressive chase inside a slum. Now, he must protect the boss' secretary, Selina, who will testify against the gangster in court.

In New York, racist Capt. Stanley White becomes obsessed with destroying a Chinese-American drug ring run by Joey Tai, an up-and-coming young gangster as ambitious as he is ruthless. While pursuing an unauthorized investigation, White grows increasingly willing to violate police protocol, resorting to progressively violent measures -- even as his concerned wife, Connie, and his superiors beg him to consider the consequences of his actions.

A French chef swears revenge after a violent attack on his daughter's family in Macau, during which her husband and her two children are murdered. To help him find the killers, he hires three local hit-men working for the mafia.

As the police launch a full-scale crackdown on organized crime, it ignites a national yakuza struggle between the Sanno of the East and Hanabishi of the West. What started as an internal strife in Outrage has now become a nationwide war in Outrage Beyond.

A cop who loses his partner in a shoot-out with gun smugglers goes on a mission to catch them. In order to get closer to the leaders of the ring he joins forces with an undercover cop who's working as a gangster hitman. They use all means of excessive force to find them.

Caught in the middle of a fierce gang war in Macau, a corrupt cop named Sam handles negotiations between two Triad leaders who plan to join forces. He meets a suspicious bald man named Tony, who keeps following him around and disrupting his personal business. But when Sam finds out he's a suspect in a nightclub owner's murder, he's sure his stalker has something to do with it.

Madame Tang colludes and mediates between the government and the private businesses for the benefits of her all-female family. One case does not go according to plan, and an entire family close to Madame Tang fall victim to a gruesome murder. Ambition, desire and lust eventually change Tang's relationships with her own family forever.

An idealistic policeman must bring down his estranged older brother, now a powerful gangster in a South Korean port city.

An assassin who is fresh from his latest kill becomes stranded in an island, when he inadvertently befriends a female police officer. As the night progresses, the unspoken truth honored by the two sides of the law is broken. After the remains of a body that belonged to a drug lord and syndicate crime leader are found, chaos ensues and criminals ravage the once peaceful streets in a race against time to find the mysterious murderer that's loose and out for blood.

A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider, whom takes the youth under his wing.

Two detectives who are up to their necks in trouble and in each other's face, as they try to shut down a drug-trafficking scheme that could be connected with international ties to organized crime. But in the midst of their investigation, innocent immigrant dock worker Luk Wan-Ting gets caught up in the mix when he witnesses the murder of an intelligence operative and is framed for the crime.

Sam and Fordy run a credit card fraud scheme, but when they steal from the wrong man, they find themselves threatened by sadistic gangster. They need to raise £5m and pull off a daring diamond heist to clear their debt.

Bun, a schizophrenic, former police inspector comes out of retirement to help a rookie detective solve a complex murder case involving a missing colleague and a suspected policeman suffering from a multiple personality disorder.

When a tough yakuza gangster is betrayed by his bosses, it means all out war. Bodies pile up as he takes out everyone in his way to the top in a brutal quest for revenge.

An undercover cop struggling to provide for his son and ailing wife, must infiltrate a ruthless gang. But things turn sour when another cop blows his cover and he quickly finds himself battling for his life and the lives of his family.

Two boys are becoming real adults during a turbulent time as they experience a world that doesn't go their way.

Follows a young cyclo driver on his poverty-driven descent into criminality in modern-day Ho Chi Minh City. The boy's struggles to scratch out a living for his two sisters and grandfather in the mean streets of the city lead to petty crime on behalf of a mysterious Madame from whom he rents his cyclo.

Five friends are released from prison and do their best to stay out trouble. While trying to mind their own business (and run their 5-Star Cleaning Service), they are caught up in a war between rival Triad gangs fighting for control of the counterfeit currency market.

As a crime wave sweeps through Hong Kong, the police call Jessica Yang, a rising star in the ranks, to help stop a notorious gang of thieves! What Jessica doesn't realize is that her boyfriend – recently discharged from the force – is the leader of this ruthless crime ring!

Someone in a prison run by a corrupt warden fakes the deaths of convicts to later use them as expendable assassins. A police officer is sent into the prison to gather evidence of the corruption.

A police detective must solve a brutal murder to prove his partner's innocence and unearth the truth behind Hong Kong's police force. The investigation brings him to an unlikely collaboration with an inspector from the Narcotics Bureau, whose motives may not be what they seem.

A man looking for the release of a long-time prisoner takes a police officer, his daughter, and a group of strangers hostage.

After his negligence causes an innocent woman to go to jail, a lawyer and his colleagues work to clear her name.

For never-do-well compulsive gambler Fong, there's only one thing more fearsome than debtors at his doorstep - having to coax a crying baby. But what if the baby becomes his golden goose to fend off his debtors? Can he overcome his phobia of diapers, milk bottles, and cloying lullabies?

An illegal immigrant from Mainland China sneaks into the corrupt British-colonized Hong Kong in 1963, transforming himself into a ruthless drug lord.

Double-crossed after a bank heist, a team of professional thieves attempts an even more challenging mission: returning the money they stole.

A man meets up with two "good guys" to recover what is unlawfully his, taking them on his whirlwind ride, doing things they never would have imagined, just to survive.

A career-long undercover Hong Kong cop is sent to Mainland China when his former protégé becomes the primary suspect in a murder.

When a Hong Kong police negotiator is informed about the sudden disappearance of his 16-year-old daughter in Thailand, he travels there to search for her whereabouts.

Five men plot to steal a large sum of money from the local yakuza, but everything does not go as planned and the men find themselves hunted down by contract killers.

Tatsuhito, a cop, pursues Chinese warlord Wang through the underworld of Shinjuku and over to Taiwan.

A team of Interpol agents arrive in the city to testify against a local crime lord. However on the way to court the vehicle carrying the Triad boss is attacked and the crime lord snatched, not by his own people but by another foe.

Kei is the experienced leader of a team of pickpockets — also known as "Sparrows" in HK slang. He enjoys a carefree lifestyle taking photos. One day a dashing beauty, Chun-Lei, suddenly appears in Kei's viewfinder. Kei is mesmerized. But behind Chun-Lei's attractive facade lies a mysterious past and a mission to set herself free.

Sergeant Tong is wracked with guilt after he unwittingly kills a young girl whilst capuring a criminal named Cheung. When the girl's sister is later kidnapped in a ploy to get Cheung released, Sergeant Tong vows to find and rescue her before she comes to harm.

A seasoned cop and his rookie partner try to solve the murder of a heroin trafficker.

A troubled hedge fund magnate, desperate to complete the sale of his trading empire, makes an error that forces him to turn to an unlikely person for help.
