The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon 2023

Chen Kui-lin, [Ethan Juan], a notorious hitman in Taiwan, infiltrates a funeral and shoots down a high-ranking gang boss. Police detective Chen Hui, [Lee Lee-Zen], surveilling the scene, spots Kui-lin fleeing. The two engage in a brutal chase, but Kui-lin overpowers Chen Hui, costing him an eye and forcing him to flee the scene. The opening sequence sets a gritty, no-nonsense tone as the city’s underworld collides with law enforcement in a moment of violent precision.

Four years later, Dr. Chang, [Cheng Yu-chieh], an underground physician who has kept Kui-lin hidden, delivers devastating news: Kui-lin has stage IV lung cancer. Gripped by a sense of urgency and a desire to leave a lasting mark, Kui-lin decides to surrender at a nearby police station. Yet the officers don’t recognize him and sternly order him to wait in line. In that moment, he discovers that he is ranked only third on the country’s most-wanted list, behind the notorious Ben Yuen and Chen Yi-wen. The revelation fuels a desperate plan: Kui-lin will pursue one final act of reckoning by taking down these two legendary criminals before his breath runs out.

Kui-lin’s first target is Hongkie, and the information from Dr. Chang points him toward a Taichung hair salon where Hongkie maintains control over the room and its people. Kui-lin spends the night tailing Hongkie from a hotel across the street, watching as the gang boss manipulates Hsiao-mei, the salon owner, and binds her to a coerced relationship. The next morning, Kui-lin tries to speak with Hsiao-mei, but is spotted by Hongkie, who realizes Kui-lin was spying all night and misreads his motives as interest in Hsiao-mei. Realizing he has been exposed, Kui-lin acts, intercepting Hongkie just as he attempts to assault Hsiao-mei and keeps his men at bay. The pursuit pushes them from the salon to a deserted warehouse, where Kui-lin lands a fatal blow. With Hongkie dead, Kui-lin returns to the salon, rescues Hsiao-mei, and dispatches the rest of Hongkie’s crew. He leaves Hsiao-mei by the sea and commands her to tell the police that he killed Hongkie, a final act of vengeance wrapped in a thin sheet of mercy.

Kui-lin tracks Bullhead to the New Soul Society, a sprawling religious commune in Penghu. He attends a lecture by His Holiness and, during the ritual, vomits a black liquid and collapses. While he recovers, His Holiness explains that Bullhead died years ago and urges Kui-lin to join the new life the society offers in the hope of spiritual healing. Kui-lin undergoes a drastic transformation: he relinquishes all his money and possessions to be incinerated as part of the society’s rules, and soon discovers that his cancer appears to be in remission. The promise of renewal is intoxicating, and Kui-lin cautiously embraces the sense of purpose the commune provides.

Yet the dream cracks when a young boy visiting the society with his mother vomits black liquid and is rushed to the hospital. Kui-lin overhears whispers that the group is poisoning the boy, and he watches as His Holiness manipulates the boy’s mother into joining the cult. Suspicion solidifies into action when Kui-lin sneaks into His Holiness’s private quarters and uncovers a trapdoor leading to a lavish apartment and a room full of the stolen possessions of the society’s members. He confronts His Holiness during the boy’s mother’s initiation ceremony, but the mother commits suicide. Kui-lin is subdued, stabbed, and buried alive by the cultists, a brutal twist that forces him into a sealed, suffocating tomb of his own making.

Kui-lin somehow escapes his burial and digs up Bullhead’s grave, only to find it empty except for a single photograph of Bullhead with his mother. The discovery reveals a shocking truth: His Holiness is Bullhead. Kui-lin digs up the gun he had buried earlier and returns to the commune to reveal Bullhead’s true identity and past to the cult members. He shoots His Holiness, but the cult rallies behind the once-great figure and fights back. Kui-lin returns, stern and merciless, and orders the remaining cultists to leave. Those who stay face his fury as he shoots them one by one, a brutal purge that marks the end of the cult’s hold over Penghu.

Having completed his mission, Kui-lin surrenders to Chen Hui, who arrives to take him into custody. In prison, Dr. Chang visits and reveals a final twist: she is dying of lung cancer, and the X-ray she showed Kui-lin was hers all along. Her deception was meant to persuade him to abandon his violent path, but she never anticipated how things would unfold. The talk leaves Kui-lin oddly at peace, a man who has earned a dangerous, glittering reputation in the eyes of the world. Chen Hui invites Hsiao-mei to the prison to shave Kui-lin’s beard one last time, a quiet ritual that underscores the human ties he leaves behind. The film ends with Kui-lin receiving the death penalty and being executed by firearm, a stark, unflinching close to a life defined by violence, redemption-seeking, and the heavy toll of a man who chose to confront his city’s darkest corners.