Dark War is a 1999 Hong Kong film directed by Toh Chi Fung. Andy Lau played Hua who had only four weeks left to live with cancer in the film, and Liu Qingyun played he Shangsheng in the police negotiation team, and the two began a 72-hour game of wit and courage. Du Qifeng directs with his best police film technique. Andy Lau won his first Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor for this film. Hong Kong grossed HK$14.65 million, ranking ninth in Hong Kong for the annual Chinese film.
Zhang Hua (Andy Lau), a cancer patient with only four weeks left to live, robs the finance company, snatches diamonds and threatens hostages. He Shangsheng (Liu Qingyun), who had just been transferred to a civilian position and a negotiator, rushed to the scene and wanted to persuade Zhang Hua to turn himself in. Zhang Hua threatened to play a 72-hour "game" with Shangsheng and then escape, and Shangsheng was deeply resentful of this. In the process of fleeing, Zhang Hua encounters a police barricade, so he threatens passer-by Liang Wanting (Meng Jiahui) and pretends to be a couple with her to escape from danger.
The 72-hour game is unfolded by a screw sent by Zhang Hua to He Shangsheng: Shang Sheng breaks into the financial company at night and unexpectedly hits Zhang Hua's plan. It turns out that Zhang Hua has been spying on Shang Sheng, and uses the latter to rob the jewels of Chen (Li Zixiong), the mastermind behind the transportation company next to the financial company. Zhang Hua used Shang Sheng to move the tiger away from the mountain, pretending to be Chen, and escaped from the scene after obtaining the gem from Chen's men. During the investigation, Shang Sheng discovered that Chen was smuggling jewelry and had betrayed Zhang Hua's father many years ago, so Zhang Hua returned to Hong Kong from England after his father's death to avenge his father.
In order to arrest Zhang Hua, Shang Sheng could not agree to cooperate with Hua against Chen. Hua Nan disguises himself as a woman, uses Shang Sheng's wisdom to take Chen's 20 million yuan and then escapes with a gem necklace, and Chen is arrested by the police for his plan to steal beams and change pillars (there are diamonds left by the financial company left by Hua at the transaction site). Shang Sheng waited in the car, but once again let Hua escape smoothly, losing the opportunity to send him to the police station. Later, Shangsheng learned from the newspaper that Hua donated 20 million yuan in Shangsheng's name to the Children's Cancer Foundation, and Hua disappeared without a trace.
Three years later, Shang Sheng met Wanting wearing a jewel necklace on a minibus. It turned out that when Hua sent the necklace to Wanting, it was said to be a fake, but Shangsheng did not tell the truth, so that Wanting remembered this romantic adventure in her life.