The Hon Dagger Brothers, Chung [Tony Leung Ka-Fai] and Lam [Jimmy Lin Chih-Ying], are uncle and nephew who operate as rival bounty hunters, always trying to outwit one another while taunting each other with their stubborn pride. They stand in stark contrast to the Fung Sisters, the rival clan led by the cunning Big Bewitchment [Sharla Cheung Man] and the sly Evil Lady of Yi Ho [Pauline Chan Bo-Lin], who revel in matching wits with the Hons and often one-up them in schemes and escapes. The two pairs are locked in a playful, sometimes bitter, game of cat and mouse, especially since Fung Ling, the enigmatic Flying Cat [Maggie Cheung], and Lam are secretly in love, though they both keep their feelings buried under a lot of bravado and banter.
Emperor Tsao summons the Hons to collar the Nine-Tails Fox, a notorious thief whose tally of alleged crimes includes a major household robbery, the rape and murder of the emperor’s daughter, and the murder of 41 servants. As the chase unfolds, the Hons stumble into a far more bizarre scene: Never Die [Yuen Cheung-Yan] and his band, including Never Die’s Man, persistently pursue them even after decapitation and a lost hand, clawing their way toward the fox’s lair. The Nine-Tails Fox has just driven away his wife, the apsara Flying Cat, whose departure unsettles the fox’s world and sets off a chain of glib talk, miscommunications, and odd loyalties. The severed hand of Never Die’s man flails and scrambles, a grotesque reminder of the strange powers at play in this wild, fantastical pursuit.
Inside the lair, the groups discover that Never Die is allergic to glib talk. As they exchange blithe chatter, Chung, embarrassed to speak to Lady Fung in that manner, instead faces the Nine-Tails Fox, and in a moment of audacious defiance, the two strip off each other’s shirts and set their defenses aside, forcing Never Die into a trap where he quickly dissolves. With Never Die neutralized, the four bounty hunters—Chung, Lam, and the Fung sisters—along with Flying Cat’s own retreating loyalties, escort the Nine-Tails Fox away from danger. Flying Cat returns to a room of drawn sketches that record their past actions, and she confronts the old man who sent the drawings out, chastising him for his role in the spectacle while he explains that meddling isn’t his place.
The Nine-Tails Fox, now with his fate entangled with a house full of courtesans, escapes to Pang Tin-hong’s inn. Pang Tin-hong, the innkeeper [Richard Ng Man-Tat], becomes a magnet for new paramours and extra bounty hunters, including the Western Ace and an Erotomania man, while a transsexual figure weaves into the crowd and delivers kisses that carry a poison. The inn becomes a chaotic stage where the Hons, the Fungs, the Fox, Flying Cat, and Pang all collide as the stakes rise and the tension thickens. The inn’s atmosphere intensifies when the transsexual kiss causes Chung to turn green, spreading the poison in a chain reaction that threatens everyone nearby. The cure for the poison, according to a bizarre local superstition, involves nine times of sex followed by consuming a fetus that will be born three days later. Chung tries to lead Lady Fung toward bed relations, but the disease spreads to Pang and his wife, triggering constant conflicts and a race against time.
Outside, Ling and Lam slip away, and Never Die’s hand again tightens its grip on Ling’s shoulder, distracting her enough to allow Tsao to seize the moment and capture both of them. The threat forces the thieves and bounty hunters to team up against their common foe and, in a moment of uneasy solidarity, they rally to rescue the young ones and set things right, if only temporarily. The story culminates in a startling, grotesque twist: Lady Fung gives birth to a strange fetus, and everyone—Hons, Fungs, Fox, Cat, Pang—seems prepared for a normal birth, only to be horrified when the baby that arrives turns out to be Never Die, a surprising and macabre conclusion that redefines the entire chase.
In this wildly stitched-together tale of martial bravado, magical whimsy, and transgressive humor, the film blends elements of folk legend with loopy slapstick and surreal romance. It leans into the absurd while keeping a steady thread of rivalry, loyalty, and desire, and it ends with a jolt that reconfigures the idea of family, revenge, and fate in a world where figures both human and supernatural collide.
