On paper, Herman Yau's Rebellion sounds like a can't lose scenario. A gritty, violent looking tale of triad loyalty set on the mean streets of Hong Kong's Eastern District with a strong cast directed by the man who gave us The Ebola Syndrome and The Untold Story? Sign me up. That lovely red triangle with the CAT III logo on the box serves as a veritable guarantee of bloody action - maybe some bullet ballet, maybe some nasty hand to hand combat, there's gotta be some bloodshed in here, right? It's a Herman Yau Category III gangster movie, how can it go wrong?

The story takes places right when a triad leader named Jimmy is murdered. His right hand man, Po (Shawn Yue), is stuck with having to take on the role of leadership that his former boss has since left empty until his successor, Mrs. Wah (Ada Choi), who happens to be Jimmy's widow, returns back from her travels. At this point, she'll gather up the other four local area triad bosses and they'll elect an official replacement. Po's temporary position of power upsets Blackie, (Chapman To), an up and coming player in the gang world, and Blackie feels that according to the rules under which the gang's operate, he should have gotten the position in Po's place. With this in mind, Blackie decides it's time to show the current, older reigning triad bosses that a change in leadership is long past due.

As Po goes about trying to figure out the details behind his boss' death and drinking far too much for his own good, Blackie begins forging alliances with some of the other triad players in hopes of swinging them to his side. Once he gets a bit of momentum going, he finds himself in the middle of a gang war. The territory finds itself split wide open with warring factions contesting rights and Po caught in the middle of it all.

Rebellion starts off strongly enough with a great set up and a very memorable introduction for Po (he gets loaded and pukes everywhere) but once the set up, as good as it is, is established the plot starts to wander in too many directions at once. Unlike Johnnie To's Election films, which benefit from the large cast of characters and multilayered plots, Yau's film winds up more than a bit disjointed and the last half feels rushed and messy.

What saves the film and makes it worth watching are a few key qualities. First off is Shawn Yu as Po, the man who finds himself in the middle of this mess that he really didn't expect to be involved with in the first place. His performance is very strong, subtle enough that you can believe him in the role but at times, tough and slick enough that, yeah, this guy is definitely right to play a young triad type (or at least the cinematic version of one). As the lead, Yu is very good and while the rest of the supporting cast is also strong, here he shines and he's the best part of the movie. Also interesting are a few moments of interaction between the various characters. Yau's horror films, often dismissed as nasty, gory exploitation, actually show that the director has a knack for staging and setting up memorable set pieces and there are moments here where he puts that talent to use. A perfect example is a scene towards the end of the film where the war is coming to a boil. Man armed with machetes run down the busy streets intent on using them against their opponents. Revealing the end would spoil a large part of the film but the buildup ,the way that Yau shows all of this coming to a frenzied head is visually exciting.

Unfortunately, the fact that the script and storyline jumps around as much as it does really hampers what could and should have been an amazing film. The end result is a picture that has moments of greatness that are counteracted by a choppy flow, a sometimes confusing narrative making for a really uneven whole.