King (Lau) is a master conman who has little respect for the business he is in and even less respect for his wife.  When a card game goes seriously wrong King kills a man and is left colour blind in the process.  He is imprisoned for five years without knowing what has become of his family.  When he is released he is met by Skinny Dragon (Nick Cheung) who is sent by an old friend to look after him.  King's only thoughts are of finding his wife but he decides to help Dragon by teaching him some tricks while he pursues his search.  Dragon's sister Ching (Athena Chu) takes the two friends in and begins to fall for King without even realising it but he seems intent on rekindling his previous relationship.  When they run into Macau Mon, one of the greatest conmen of all time, they are drawn into a plot to kill him and King must place his life on the line to play one last game that could be his last ever.

For 'The Conman', director Wong Jing attempts to emulate the success of his 'God Of Gamblers' films with something of a modernised retelling of the story.  This time Andy Lau is the master gambler whilst Nick Cheung takes the role of the foolish sidekick.  However, unlike Jing's timeless classic, problems start to arise here when certain plot lines struggle with continuity elements.  For a start lets take King's colour blindness; this serves no real purpose in the telling of the story and is only used to show some of the shots in black and white for no apparent reason.  Then there is the ending which turns the story into more of a farce than a gripping climax with Wong Jing himself making a cameo as a film expert who can help get them out of a sticky situation.   Finally, the most annoying thing of all was the use of the musical score in the film which is a totally misleading comedy soundtrack that is particularly noticeable during the serious scenes, making it almost impossible for the viewer to become involved in the emotional moments.

As for Jing's directorial talents, well they come across as more of a mixed bag than usual here.  He has tried to climb the ladder somewhat by using an excess of adventurous shots and camera trickery (like sweeping blurred shots and fast, quick takes) which can occasionally work but, especially during the action scenes, tend to restrict the viewer's focal point.  Another noticeable trait was the use of the shock factor in which Jing likes to throw in a graphically violent twist to force his hero into taking the road needed for the tale to progress.  This is not always the most pleasant way of proceeding and never really seems to sit properly in this supposed comedy/adventure film.

So, those are the bad points but what are the good?  The acting is of a decent standard with Lau playing the strong silent type well and Athena Chu, although lacking real substance in her role, is definitely one for us guys to watch.  Nick Cheung also succeeds in showing that he has a talent for comedy and is one to look out for in the future whilst Waise Lee gets what is really a cameo role as the sadistic bald bad guy but plays it more for laughs.  As for summing up the film as a whole, it's watchable but just tries to pull itself in too many directions and doesn't lay down a solid structure for the audience to follow.  If you separated the comedy and the seriousness you could probably have two half decent films but mixed together this way they never really seem to gel. 

Having analysed and over-analysed, I still end up going in a complete circle with my feelings on this film and just concluding that this really is nothing more than a second rate attempt at remaking 'God of Gamblers'.  When will film makers learn that it's always best to come up with something new rather than try to build on blocks that have already been laid?  Sadly, this unoriginal offering is just way too average.