the drug, a powerful stimulant, before she is captured by Rain. Sakaguchi helps Qiu sneak onto a truck carrying Tenjin test subjects, but once at the laboratory he is separated from the others and subjected to an excruciating treatment that causes him to become an involuntarily violent, nigh-invulnerable killer. Sakaguchi tries to kill the other prisoners, but has a moment of clarity and commits suicide. Sakai recognizes Qiu among the subjects and order he be subjected to the treatment, designed to turn a person into a near-superhuman, brainwashed soldier. Yamura arrives and offers Sakai the decoding equation in exchange for Qiu. Rain, realizing that Sakai is ultimately responsible for Dawn's death, releases Mayumi and gives her a gun. Qiu is injected and forced to fight Yamura, but he manages to break his conditioning and the two turn on the guards with the help of Rain. Qiu, Yamura, Mayumi and Rain end up fighting through hordes of guards through intense firefights. Hiroshi injects himself with the updated formula, surviving several gunshot wounds before finally succumbing and dying, confessing to the murder Qiu was accused of. Sakai shoots Rain, and wounds Qiu but is cornered by Qiu and Yamura, begrieved by his son's death, Sakai commits suicide. Rain dies in Qiu's arms, and Rika arrives with police backup. Weeks later, Qiu meets Yamura at a train station, where they shake hands and exchange names in Japanese and Mandarin, respectively. Yamura bids Qin farewell as he boards the train with Mayumi, before walking off with Rika. Cast Production Development After the death of Japanese actor Ken Takakura, Woo searched for material to commemorate him. During this search, he was contacted by Peter Lam, the head of Media Asia, who asked if he would like to do remake of the Japanese film Manhunt. Woo's Manhunt is an adaptation of the Japanese novel Kimi yo Fundo no Kawa o Watare by Juko Nishimura which had previously been adapted into a Japanese film starring Takakura. Woo decided to make a new adaptation of the film, stating that "Ken Takakura is one of my favorite actors in the world. He was my idol, and he has influenced a lot of my films. [Hong Kong actor] Chow Yun-Fat's image in A Better Tomorrow was inspired by Takakura's image and style. I wanted to make a movie dedicated to Ken Takakura." The original film was described by Variety as