Nine Gates

In the middle of an ornate room, Lao, a Chinese crime lord battles an Old Man in a game of mahjong. Lao claims a rare Nine Gates hand, and the Old Man immediately recognises the cursed set. Following a New Year massacre, other prominent gangsters who claimed Jade Dragon, Four Winds, and Thirteen Orphans hands, met grisly ends linked to the hands they drew. The Old Man fears for Lao and urges him to turn himself in and confess to his crimes before it’s too late. Lao refuses, claiming to the one responsible for the reprisals was in fact a rogue magistrate with underworld connections, the Old Man. He orders his guards to take him away to remove any loose ends. While Lao gloats over his victory, the doors to the room are blasted open, and the severed heads of the guards sail through the air and thud against the mahjong table. Lao stands to see the Old Man, now in the outfit of the Chinese Judge of the Dead, standing between two fierce guardians of the underworld, Ox-Head and Horse-Face. The Judge tells Lao he should have taken his advice as confession is good for the soul, but the unrepentant crime lord tells him to go to hell. Ox-Head smashes the floor with his weapon, causing a fiery pit to appear. As the guardians toss Lao into the pit, the Judge reminds him that he has opened up the Nine Gates and that hell is just the beginning.