Despite all the tugging at heart-strings, 'Love in the Triad' remains

AGANGSTER, a wife and a mistress ... all the classic ingredients of a triad movie, except that Love in the Triad offers something a little different from the usual shoot'em and kill'em fare.

Ching Kit-shun (Simon Yam Tat-wah) returns from exile in Taiwan to run the family business with his brother-in-law Tong Chun (Wan Yeung-ming). He soon meets ex-singer Cici (Cecelia Yip Tung), with whom Tong is having an affair, and is strongly attracted to her.

However, he is forced to woo Kwan Cheuk-lam (Rosamund Kwan Tsz-lam) because he needs to have her father's financial backing to wrest a lucrative contract from her half-sister Ma Man-fung (Pauline Wong Siu-fung).

While Ching is busy deciding whether to follow his heart or his business acumen, Tong also has his hands full juggling his mistress and his very jealous wife, Shue (Veronica Yip Yuk-hing).

If you're looking for lots of violence, blood and gore, then you're not likely to find it in Love in the Triad . With the storyline keeping really close to its title, there are only about three scenes where there is any real gang fights and perhaps only a couple where blood is drawn ... certainly nothing compared to any one of John Woo's explosive flicks.

In all, director Chin Wing-keung has managed to portray the importance of family ties in a business where you can trust no one but your own. In one scene, for instance, Cici asks Tong if he would divorce Shue to be with her. His answer sums up the message of the story: he would die for her but he would never leave his wife.