The Killer
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Actor: Chow Yun-Fat, Danny Lee, John Woo, Kong Chu, Sally YehDVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown), Unknown; English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 111 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-10-03
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Fox Lorber
Movie Reviews of The Killer
Movie Review: HONG KONG ACTION AT ITS FINEST !!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Chow Yun Fat plays a hitman. On one particularly bloody assignment the backfire of his gun blinds an innocent lounge singer (played with wonderful simplicity by real life singer/actress Sally Yeh). He takes responsibility and begins to provide care for her without her knowing who he really is. They eventually fall in love. He takes on one last job to pay for an operation which will hopefully restore her sight and allow them to start a new life together. However, a tough Dirty Harry style cop (played with conviction by Danny Lee) who has been assigned to protect the target, and the gangsters who are behind the hit have other plans. No punches are pulled. The violence is completely appropriate to the goings on and the action expertly staged making great use of long, medium, and claustrophobically close shots letting you know at all times how the characters are feeling emotionally whether on the chase or on the run. The gunplay is truly balletic and the actors "act" like human beings who know the fear and power these weapons instill. One of the best examples of the extended chase ever put on film occurs during Chow Yun Fat's attempt to assassinate the target protected by Danny Lee. Never have both a protagonist and antagonist proven more worthy of audience fandom and involvement due to the onscreen competentence and mutual respect each character posesses. Watch from the edge of your seat as a little girl gets caught in the crossfire between Chow Yun Fat (the killer and the human) and the triad that betrays him. Your heart will pound as Chow Yun Fat tries in desperation to get her to safety. THE KILLER is a true MOTION picture and fully utilizes the capabilities of the motion picture camera to tell its story. It is more than just a Hong Kong action film. The cinematic nonverbals transcend all language barriers and can be understood in any part of the world. John Woo is a master director and THE KILLER shows him at his finest. It's a shame that he, like Jackie Chan, has been working here in America for the past several years and has not been given the opportunity to be the total filmaker that he is capable of. In Hong Kong they were the masters, here they are simply doing the best they can as laborers. THE KILLER shows why Chow Yun Fat is one of Asia's most revered actors. He ranks right up there with Olivier, DeNiro, and Pacino in his ability to play a wide range of truly memorable characters. Unfortunately, as is the case with Woo and Chan, his American films too have been so-so at best. His first, THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS, a pale Americanized revamping of THE KILLER has slowed down his success not allowing him to hit the American ground running as he could have. Thank goodness Ang Lee snatched him up momentarily from a limbo land of mediocrity to create another memorably different role in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.
I keep hoping and praying that the great talents of Hong Kong who want to make pictures for American audiences get the chance to do it right. Wouldn't it be great to see Hong Kong action films in English (not dubbed or subtitled) with the budget and technology that we have here? Better yet wouldn't it be great if these Hong Kong masters worked together in American films? Imagine John Woo directing Chow Yun Fat as a crime boss pitting Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh against Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao! The possibilities are endless.
Hollywood has noticed the popularity of Hong Kong's style of action but so far has merely tried incorporating it into Western pictures where it doesn't really seem to belong. They let Hong Kong choreographers train young image-but-no-real-substance actors for a few weeks or months for films, but the action has always seemed a little manufactured with the actors merely going through the motions without having solid foundations in this type of art. The veterans of Hong Kong action have lived with this kind of action for so long that it is a part of their film vocabulary and THE KILLER is a great starting place for anyone who wants to see true Hong Kong action.
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