Director: John Woo
Starring: Chow Yun Fat
Before John Woo became famous for his mainstream Hollywood movies like Face/Off, Broken Arrow, and Mission Impossible, he was working the Hong Kong Movie Circuit with the same cast of people who have made Hong Kong actors and directors more acceptable in the United States. And before he went on to make horrible American movies, Chow Yun Fat was making a name for himself as the top non-kung fu action star in Asia. If you grow up and people call you “Yun Fat” all the time, you better be prepared to get into some fights. Or do we call him “Chow Yun”? How about Moo Goo Gai Pan?
The first time I was exposed to either of these two individuals was through The Killer. A copy of this video was lying on a coffee table in my friend’s room. It was either watching this or watching Jenna Jameson Exposed (okay, I’m not sure about the title). The choice was quite obvious. Okay, so about thirty minutes after my first choice, I started watching The Killer.
The Killer is a tale about Jeffrey (Chow Yun Fat), an assassin who wishes to leave the business (high turnover rate, no formal employee stock option plan, no 401K, etc.) so he can take care of a lounge singer named Jennie. He feels bad for her because he accidentally blinded her during his last assignment. And she is also hot. But then a morally righteous cop decides to bring Jeffrey in at all costs. However, like the WWF, there are no clear-cut good guys or bad guys, and, like Stone Cold Steve Austin, you root for guys who are simply bad-asses. Jeffrey gets double-crossed by his employers and decides to join forces with the cop. The movie is a bit predictable, but you will still be amazed by the camera work. We get so used to watching the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon series that any movie that breaks the stereotype becomes refreshing.
Of all the John Woo and Chow Yun Fat movies I have seen, this is probably my favorite. First, you see the trademark Woo directing styles that have become a bit clichéd. For example, in this movie, like all of his movies, there are guns, and lots of them. And action scenes are in slow mo, with bullets flying everywhere, fire burning in the background, and those weird pigeons flying everywhere, while the good guy doesn’t break a sweat. My guess is that the Samuel Jackson and John Travolta characters in Pulp Fiction were influenced by the style of these Hong Kong men.
I believe that this was the first major collaboration between these two juggernauts on Hong Kong cinema. Of course, being a juggernaut in Hong Kong is like being the star quarterback for an All-State high school team. But to succeed in the US, you need to have NFL material. And while John Woo’s refreshing style of directing was novel, these two boys don’t have the stuff to bring their magic that they have created in The Killer to the US. And that is a shame.
