The Killer (1989)

Fresh and Exciting

Don't listen to the negative reviews

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

A high-octane, over-the-top & deliriously old-school action extravaganza, The Killer is a hardcore example of its genre that's jam-packed with style, swag & non-stop action, is stylishly directed by John Woo, brilliantly steered by Chow Yun-fat's confident performance, and features gunfights that are as thrilling as they are ludicrous.The Killer tells the story of an assassin who inadvertently damages the eyes of a young nightclub singer during a shootout and blames himself for her predicament. Determined to help her regain her sight, he accepts one last job but soon finds himself being hunted by his bosses as well as a cop who's handling the nightclub shooting case.Written & directed by John Woo, the film finds the notable filmmaker further tightening his grasp on genre elements with his patented gun fu action, slow-mo camera-work & aptly staged Mexican- standoffs. The plot unfolds at a frenetic velocity, never losing its intensity, while the action keeps surfacing on a consistent basis from the first frame to the last.It does slow down every now n then to indulge in some overly melodramatic moments. Character development part is somewhat rushed and is rarely convincing but the crazy stunt work & stellar choreography behind its action segments brushes away most of those shortcomings. Themes of friendship & honour is sensibly explored, and dark wit permeate its frames more often than once.Coming to the performances, the cast consists of Chow Yun-fat, Danny Lee, Sally Yeh, Chu Kong & others, and they all chip in with serviceable inputs. Yun-fat brings his charisma & swag into play to deliver a fab performance as the assassin while Lee challenges him in his role of the cop from time to time. The interplay between these two keep things interesting, however, there are no memorable villains to be found here.On an overall scale, The Killer works mainly because of its unadulterated approach, full-throttled action & engaging storyline, all made possible due to John Woo's raw shooting style & gifted eye for staging one-of-a-kind action segments. Bordering on comedy at times yet high on adrenaline for the most part, The Killer remains one of John Woo's most memorable works and is one of the most influential films of its kind. And deservingly so.

At times John Woo's The Killer has segments that seem directly lifted from those Chinese karaoke videos that my parents and their friends used to crowd around. They share the same dreamlike qualities - random flutterings of doves meant to be symbolically relevant, a hazy background that seems perfect for the haunting vibraphone score, slow motion for the most emotionally tense moments and so on. It is problematic because throughout the film Woo piles on these elements, combined with the shoot-outs upon shoot-outs that seem to last an eternity, and it is difficult to know whether to laugh or not. When Detective Li Ying storms up towards Ah Jong's hideout in fury after the death of his partner, he cocks his gun and right before climbing over the wall, does a forward roll for seemingly no reason. Later, two of the white suited goons of Frank's hire execute a similar manoeuvre as they drive up to assault the house. There are good characters, and there are terrible characters. The latter is firstly Frank, who Woo seems to think can be made menacing merely by suiting him up and placing Ray Bans on his head. This does not make for the deadly assassin that he is stated to be. It is funnier yet when his apparently deadly methods include sending endless hordes of gunmen at the target and in reality just providing fodder for yet another shoot-out. There is also the object of Ah Jong's desire, Jennie, who falls in love with him pretty easily. Their initial encounters evoke a rather neo-noir aesthetic with the grimy neon signs of the karaoke bar, and the glistening asphalt in the back alley. Magical and slightly surreal, but her character itself is bland, displaying no distinct qualities apart from being the voice of innocence which shouts out (okay well she's quite meek really) plot points and warnings. Why is the room so dark, she inquires, right before the dark dramatic shoot-out which will end with her lover's death. There is one moment of saving grace, where she fires a gun then immediately collapses into tears at what she thinks she has done, which highlights exactly how the average civilian might react to such events. Both Ah Jong and Li Ying are portrayed quite well, and manage to create real emotion from the rather oddly paced script. You can almost believe the tears of rage at the end as Li Ying succumbs to his anger and murders the triad boss, renouncing his former morals. Maybe they aren't so different after all. The best character however has to be Fung Sei, Ah Jong's close friend who encounters and struggles with several dilemmas involving friendship, honour and betrayal. Here is a man who has long given up the assassin life but who still has vestiges of pride and commitment to long term friendship left in him. Woo builds up his heroic escape, and then makes him misfire literally by miscounting the number of bullets in his gun, a great moment of characterisation using a dialogue callback.But it still remains impossibly hard to root for these characters when Woo seems to prefer the endless shoot-outs and their dramatic role. They are used to build character and resilience, but very early on they blur and become all too repetitive, and trivial, because although our main characters take hits, they seem to be fine moments later. The first infiltration by Ah Jong is quite well choreographed and edited, but after that point The Killer seems to descend into repeated massacres. I can acknowledge the gun-fu influence on similar Hollywood type action scenes (The Matrix, Tarantino, Rodriguez), but even so The Killer's action sequences are horribly disjointed and chaotic. Hordes of nameless and faceless goons seem to stumble and teleport into the frame, their lifeless bodies spasming onto the ground before we are even aware of what has occurred. Do not fret however, for the most gory and vital bits always seem to be emphasised via this self-important slow motion. This does not build tension, but sentimentality. Sometimes, like when the Triad boss shoots Ah Jong from outside the church and around the door, the action will not make logical sense. Other times, the action is put on pause altogether for moments of melodrama; after Fung Sei is shot within an inch of his life, the goons suddenly stop storming the church to allow our dear friends to say goodbye. Woo seems to lean onto these elongated action sequences as if they are the most important moments for the main characters. After the trio escape from yet another ambush, there is a chance to reflect or simply bask in the reluctant alliance they have been forcibly pushed into. But Woo cuts to that dramatic confrontation where they both refuse to kill each other, and then cuts again rapidly to them tending to each others wounds. Where is the meat? My favourite little tidbit is when Li Ying infiltrates Ah Jong's apartment, sits in his chair and slides over to the doorway, imitating the same shooting action as Ah Jong when forced to defend his home. A bit of subtlety in visualising how they are not so different from each other, both armed guns shaped by larger, uncontrollable forces. It's all very sad of course, but Woo cannot wrap it up. The end of the film has perhaps the most karaoke-like scene of them all, a wistful Chow Yun Fat solemnly playing the harmonica beside the window. Surely we are not meant to take this seriously?

Asian action movies. I am a fan of stuff like Hero, Hard Boiled and Seven Samurai (if you can count that) So when I found this in a shop that packages rare DVD's I thought "Okay, it's Chow Yun Fat and directed by John Woo so I'll get it" and I liked it. It basically has all the clichés of "Heroes who don't play by the rules" "Villains who are petty, no development or any kind of arc" and at the end... I enjoyed it.The plot is that a hit-man who has a strong moral code (well... for a contract killer) accidentally blinds a woman on his latest contract. Feeling guilty he decides to get close to her and help her out in any way possible. While this is going on a cop who doesn't play by the rules is asked to be a bodyguard to a prominent figure - who is the hit-man's next target, after a chase between cop and hit-man the hit-man finds out he's been set up by the Triads because his identity was blown. The cop eventually finds out about him but they must team up together to kill all the triads.Basically my biggest problem with the movie is that the Triad boss's motivation is because he wants to clean up the whole "He's blown his cover" but he begins taking care of it as he's returning home. This would mean that he would prematurely know this is going on or someone found out about it, told him and he sent people after him and they got there in under 5 minutes, this is not because I missed a subtitle, in the action scene in the beginning of the movie the only survivor could not tell people what the assassin looked like.Aside from that it basically encompasses all to expect from this genre of film. The action as typical of John Woo is actually really good. The cinematography is also something to admire from this movie. Not the best but it is worth mentioning and I also think think to some extent the acting is... okay, I mean it's over the top in places - yes but that's the genre.So all of whether you'll like this movie or not boils down to if you like these types of movies. Because when you get down to it this movie is probably the best example of Hong Kong Action cinema I have seen and if you don't really like the clichés then you won't like this movie. I personally think it's half good movie half guilty pleasure (... if that makes sense) but if someone wants to see a solid enough action movie of the 80's then this is certainly going to satisfy your expectations.

John Woo has certainly proved in Hollywood now that he has what it takes to be a top rate international action film director. The Killer is an early example that shows the maestro of mayhem and action at his very best. I really liked this film and I think it's one of John Woo's best films along with Hard Boiled. You get to see a vulnerable side to Chow Yun Fat's character as the hit-man Jeff who accidentally blinds a nightclub singer. What I liked was the way in which Woo showed that hit men are tortured souls doing a job that they don't always like doing and that there are so many emotions that they have to deal within in carrying out their job. I found it touching the way the central character Jeff is racked with guilt over blinding the nightclub singer Jenny and that he is willing to risk his life for her so that he can raise the money for an operation that may save Jenny's life. A superb action thriller and one of the finest ever made. Woo's hit men have soul and depth unlike the vicious killing machines that we see in most Hollywood action/thriller films.