Life Without Principle

Life Without Principle is a Hong Kong crime drama set during the global financial crisis. A police inspector, a bank employee and a small-time criminal connected to the triads find their lives crossing after a loan shark is attacked in an underground car park, shortly after withdrawing a large sum of money from a bank. The inspector works a murder case while his partner pressures him to buy an expensive home and his dying father asks him to take care of a half-sister he has never met. The bank employee, under pressure to sell risky investment funds to clients, becomes entangled in the fallout. The criminal, hoping to help a friend in legal trouble, plans a robbery tied to one of the bank's customers.

Directed by Johnnie To, the film is the twentieth of the twenty-three features he has directed in chronological order. It follows Vengeance (2009) and precedes Drug War (2012). The screenplay is written by Yau Nai-Hoi, Yip Tin-Shing and Au Kin-Yee, with To also producing. Lau Ching-wan plays Three-Legged Panther, Richie Jen plays Inspector Cheung Jin-fong, and Myolie Wu and Denise Ho appear as Connie and Teresa Chan, with Philip Keung and Lo Hoi-pang also in the credited cast.

On IMDb, the film holds a rating of 6.9 from around 3,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.7 from a much smaller number of votes, suggesting a modest but fairly consistent response from viewers. Its 107-minute runtime places it within the director's established crime-drama output.