Takeshi Kaneshiro plays Ma Wing Jing, a country boy who escapes with his brother Yuen Wah to Shanghai, a city owned by the British and run by two rival powers: the honorable Yuen Biao and the evil Yuen Tak. Gifted with incredible fighting skills and great pride, Ma Wing Jing plans on taking part of Shanghai for himself, and that he does.

Officer Lam Che Chu and legendary kung fu physician Wong Fei Hong have joined forces to serve in the front lines against opium smugglers, and naive So Chen (Donnie Yen) alternately picks fights with shady characters from Fire Lotus Gang while stealing food for the poor. Meanwhile, a lovely school teacher (Fenny Yuen) is reviled by suspicious parents.

Anita Mui is Wonder Woman, a superheroine in the Hong Kong of the future, who has been called upon to stop the wave of kidnappings of male infants from a local hospital. The perpetrator is the Invisible Woman (Michelle Yeoh), who has been forced into working for an aging supernatural eunuch with a scheme for world domination.

Jet Li is Kit, a despondent ex-cop who finds work as the bodyguard - and uncredited stunt double - for Frankie, Asia's number one movie star, played by Jackie Cheung. Frankie, who is famous for supposedly doing all his own stunts, is not only a fraud, but a lazy womanizer as well. When terrorists take control of a posh high-rise, it is up to Kit to storm the building.