Runtime: 110 minutes
Directed by: John Woo
Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Danny Lee, Sally Yeh, Chu Kong, Tsang Kong
From: Several Hong Kong companies
Thankfully for me, 30 years later this film is still marvelous:
In 2019 terms, the two leads had what would now be known as a bromance.
This is yet another case where I've seen a movie before but that was long before I joined the site in early 2013; at times it was like I was viewing this for the first time. I recalled The Killer being awesome and while I was not too worried about this prospect, there was always the possibility that with the many different films I've seen since then and the vast expansion of my movie knowledge, that my opinion of this would be different. Thank heavens I still think this flick is great.
On the surface this may sound like a standard tale of an expert hitman vs. a police officer but this is a lot more complex than that. The GOAT known as Chow Yun-Fat is Ah Jong, who is great at doing hits but accidentally blinds a young singer during a shootout; he looks for salvation so they become friends without her knowing for awhile who he is. Danny Lee is Li Ying, a loose cannon cop who goes after Jong... but starts to admire him because he is not the stereotypical cold-blooded hitman, plus he is looking for some salvation himself. When the Triad double-crosses Jong, s*** hits the fan and it leads to an incredible final act which is still noteworthy even three decades later due to all the carnage and damage done.
The complicated relationship between Jong and Ying could have gone awry, but thankfully was executed quite well and it's a blast seeing them as friends or enemies; the former also has a nice relationship with Fung Sei, his Triad manager and close personal friend. That gets more attention than his relationship w/ Jennie, the young singer. After all, Woo's main inspirations for this film were flicks from Scorsese and Jean-Pierre Melville, thus some moments that could be classified as melodramatic... but that makes this more thoughtful than you'd expect for a movie that still has cracking action setpieces and some showdowns done cleverly. Many SOB's die in The Killer, especially in the aforementioned final act.
Of course this was visually beautiful & there are the typical Woo trademarks such as slow motion and white doves... oh at times there are many white doves. Plus, the ending is unforgettable and I am not too terribly surprised that after this and Hard Boiled, Hollywood wanted both Woo and Chow Yun-Fat; of course they screwed it up with Woo and especially Fat, but that is clueless big budget American filmmaking for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment