Johnnie To ingeniously portrays today’s economic crisis in the terms of a rollicking and complex suspense thriller. Set in Hong Kong during a few days of global financial upheaval, Life without Principle interweaves three characters in trouble: a police detective investigating a loan shark’s murder, an investment manager under pressure from her boss to sell high-risk instruments to elderly pensioners, and a low-level gangster who’s recruited to help sort out a failed financial scheme.