General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Once a Thief (纵横四海)

Once a Thief (纵横四海) is a 1991 Hong Kong heist action-comedy directed by John Woo, starring Chow Yun-fat, Leslie Cheung, and Cherie Chung as three art thieves who are double-crossed by their crime boss after stealing a Modigliani painting.¹ It was the first production of Milestone Pictures, the company Woo co-founded with producer Terence Chang and Linda Kuk, and it was released as a Lunar New Year blockbuster on 2 February 1991.¹^•² Hard Boiled (1992) was John Woo's last Hong Kong film before his move to Hollywood.³^•¹⁷

Key fact	Detail
Original title	纵横四海 (Cantonese: Chung hang sei hoi)⁴
Director and writers	Directed by John Woo; written by Woo, Clifton Ko Chi-sum, and Janet Chun¹
Cast	Chow Yun-fat, Leslie Cheung, Cherie Chung, Kenneth Tsang, Paul Chu¹
Release	2 February 1991, Hong Kong²
Hong Kong box office	HK$33,397,149, fourth-highest-grossing Hong Kong film of 1991⁵
Awards	Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Editing at the 11th Hong Kong Film Awards⁶
Restoration	4K restored version screened at the Hong Kong Film Archive in 2023 and 2024; released theatrically in mainland China on 3 May 2026¹^•⁷

Spoilers

Plot

Joe (Chow Yun-fat), James (Leslie Cheung), and Red Bean (Cherie Chung) are orphans raised by an adoptive father (Kenneth Tsang) who trains them to become professional art thieves.⁸ Working in Paris, they steal a valuable painting, and their employer double-crosses them; in the ensuing shoot-out Joe disappears, presumed dead, while James barely escapes.⁹ The story moves to Hong Kong, where James and Red Bean are now a couple and their adoptive father continues to ask for their help with thefts. When Joe reappears in a wheelchair, the trio reunites and begins to uncover their betrayers.⁹

The Hong Kong Film Archive's synopsis names the stolen work as a painting by Modigliani, and describes the three leads as childhood friends caught in a love triangle as well as a partnership.¹

Production

A company's first film. After Terence Chang resigned as general manager of Film Workshop, he, Woo, and Linda Kuk founded Milestone Pictures, with Once a Thief as its inaugural production. Woo's previous film, Bullet in the Head (1990), had failed commercially, but Golden Princess still backed the new picture and scheduled it for the Lunar New Year holiday slot. Because time was short, the production split its units: Leung Pak-kin directed the second unit in France, while Clifton Ko, Philip Kwok, and David Wu assisted with the Hong Kong shooting.¹⁰

Sources and style. The Hong Kong Film Archive describes the film as inspired by François Truffaut's Jules and Jim (1962), a two-men-one-woman love story recast around a treasure-heist plot.¹⁰ A Chinese-language retrospective notes that the three leads' English names, Joe, James, and Cherie, correspond to the three central characters of Truffaut's film, and that their relationships mirror its combination of friends, partners, and lovers.¹¹ Woo wanted a European-flavored picture, combining the romantic feeling of Jules and Jim, the comedy of heist films such as How to Steal a Million and To Catch a Thief, and the action staging of The Killer.² The film was shot on location in France and Hong Kong.¹⁰

Woo's position in 1991. Woo had left Film Workshop in 1989 after creative disagreements with Tsui Hark, and Bullet in the Head's commercial failure left investors unwilling to meet him. Leslie Cheung and Chow Yun-fat repeatedly invited him to make a happier film, and Once a Thief became his commercial comeback.¹¹ Woo later said he did not consider the film among his own favorites, feeling that its mixture of genres left the plot uneven.¹¹ The same year, while shooting in Paris, he met Oliver Stone, who wanted to produce his films, an early step toward his Hollywood career.¹²

Reception and legacy

The film earned HK$33,397,149 in Hong Kong, ranking fourth for the year 1991.⁵ At the 11th Hong Kong Film Awards it received nominations for Best Picture, Best Director (Woo), Best Actor (Chow Yun-fat), and Best Editing (David Wu).⁶

Critics have treated the film as an outlier in Woo's mature period. The Slant Magazine review places it closer in spirit to Woo's pre-breakthrough comedies than to his dark crime dramas, and the Radio Times review notes that Woo aimed for comedy and less violent action, with results described as alternately charming and hilarious.¹³ On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 56% Tomatometer score from 9 reviews and a 54% audience score from more than 500 ratings.¹³ The BFI describes it as a tonal shift from Woo's run of dark crime dramas, blending big action in Paris with broad comedy and a love triangle, and highlights a moving-truck heist set-piece.⁴

The wheelchair dance. The choreographed wheelchair dance between Joe and Red Bean, shot in France, is singled out by the Hong Kong Film Archive as a sequence that left an indelible impression on audiences in Hong Kong and across Asia.¹⁴ Leslie Cheung performed most of his own stunts in Woo's stylized action sequences.¹

Restoration and re-release. A 4K restored version screened at the Hong Kong Film Archive in November 2023 and January 2024, with post-screening talks featuring Terence Chang, Linda Kuk, and other collaborators.¹^•¹⁰ The restoration received a limited theatrical release in mainland China on 3 May 2026, grossing $1,683,639 there according to The Numbers.⁷ A 4K UHD home-video edition from Shout! Studios includes featurettes on the film and on Leslie Cheung's career.¹⁵

Related versions

A 1996 Canadian television series and pilot titled Once a Thief was inspired by Woo's 1991 film, though its story was altered extensively.¹⁶

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1990s films › Crime comedies and capers

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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