At the point when Lau yield at his superior (with a strong baritone voice sourcing from the lower belly regions) 'It's a life you're dealing with !!!' it was pretty exhilarating. I thought this might be different.
Then the 3 main actors got together for a lunch and started singing.. I can see the sentimental setup already. Further more with another signing episode when deciding to go to Thailand or not. By the way, Nick Cheung's goofy hair style and demeanour sort of too childish and maybe gave away the 2nd half? Yet, at the climax of the Thailand scenes, the 'other' philosophical writer came back!!!! The "choose 1 of 2"... difficult choice Lau has to make breath life back into the narrative again. I would have like a bit more time there to show the difficulty (maybe like Good/Bad/Ugly with the 3 minute song extreme close up ending).
Yet over yet, when the 8 face Buddha comes to HK and messiness resumes. Then until the rooftop scene where "choose 1 of 2" philosophical question came full circle.. I thought this could be revenge well played but really how would they follow it up? then came a Better Tomorrow ending that is maybe 1/2 the effort of all the footage before it. Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....
