All orphaned and living on the street, Joe, Cherie, and James were taken in at young ages and raised by their "father," a hard man who taught them the art of stealing. Much later, the three of them together are successful art thieves and manage to steal several high priced paintings for wealthy art collectors, one of them being their "father." For Cherie's birthday, though, Joe and James agree to promise her that they'll go straight and give up crime. However, it proves too strong an attraction when a collector offers them $2 million dollars to steal a painting from a heavily secured castle. Never one to back away from a challenge, Joe and James agree to the job, but when things turn sour, they must find a way out before they end up dead.

Once a Thief is one of John Woo's more lighthearted films, judging from those that I've seen. Yun Fat provides quite a bit of comic relief as Joe, while Cheung and Chung take on the more serious roles of James and Cherie. Woo really did an excellent job with Once a Thief; the film never drags and is always interesting and engaging. The characters are also well developed. Fans will be happy to know that the trademarked Woo action is here in spades as well, with two phenomenal action scenes.

Picture:
Once a Thief is presented in 1.85:1 non-anamorphic widescreen. The print has its share of marks, spots, and lines; however, they aren't that distracting. The print does appear overly soft, though, and colors appear to bleed every now and then, which is especially noticeable in a few of the nighttime scenes when the blacks have a blue tint. There is also some shimmer and a bit of grain. Overall, the film is quite watchable, though the transfer did need some more work.

Sound:
Once a Thief is presented in Cantonese and Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1. Though 5.1, the tracks are heavily center based. The surrounds provide ambient and background noise, but are pretty weak during action scenes, which was disappointing. Dialogue seemed clear though, and Media Asia has provided nine subtitle tracks in Traditional & Simplified Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Bahasa Malaysia & Indonesia, Thai, and Spanish.

Extras:
For extras, we get: the trailer for Once a Thief, biographies/filmographies for the director and the three principal actors, and a trailer featuring clips from Police Story 1-3, A Better Tomorrow 1-3, Chinese Ghost Story 1-3, Theft Under the Sun, and a few more. As a sidenote, I had trouble navigating through some of the biography/filmography menus, as the cursor just wouldn't appear from time to time.

Summary:
Once a Thief is a terrific film that fans of Woo or Yun Fat are sure to enjoy. Though the DVD is a bit disappointing, it is still well worth checking out. Highly Recommended.