The Killer

First of all, I am disgusted by some of these reviews. Modern action has been overrun by special effects and stuntmen with death wishes (not that I'm complaining), but one must consider the time and the place. It's not the world of the Matrix or the Human-Cyborg War (or whatever it's called) in the Terminator, it's Hong Kong in the 1980's with counterfeiting, hostile Chinese syndicates. It doesn't have to be a big budget feature to be great. Clerks by Kevin Smith had a minute budget, but it made Smith famous.

I digress. Woo creates a sensitive and emotionally complex... assassin. To make him reconsider his job as a professional killing machine Jeffrey, the killer, blinds a lounge singer, Jenny. He swears to himself that he will end his career after one last job. Woo introduces us to the concept, like you see in A Better Tomorrow, that you can never leave a Triad even if you try your hardest. With an hour of attempting, Jeff realizes the horrible truth. Rarely does Woo bring in this feeling of absolute futility in his work. After losing his best friend, Jeff has crossed the Rubicon in his attempts and must end his ties to it by ending his everyone's but his own, excluding Jenny and Inspector Lee. Some people dislike the final shootout, but the doves and the Christian symbology adds a touch that drives religious and heroic bloodshed to the minds of the audience. On a personal note, I love it. The last few seconds depict a man, perhaps Lee, playing a harmonica in front of the church for reasons I don't know.

The Killer is widely regarded as John Woo's best all round film, and makes an appearance on an extraordinary number of people's Top 10 lists. This may be because it was the first Hong Kong movie a lot of people saw, as it was one of the first to get any kind of widespread attention in the US. It doesn't feature in my own Top 10, but that's not because it isn't good

Chow Yun Fat plays the titular killer, an assassin who begins to regret his life of violence after accidentally blinding singer Sally Yeh during an assassination. Danny Lee plays the cop on his case, who begins to find he can relate to the killer more than he can to many of his colleagues. Both men are shown to be men whose values of loyalty and honour are increasingly being forgotten by the society in which they live.

THE KILLER pretty much defines the "Heroic Bloodshed" genre, taking the code of chivalry from the old swordplay films and bringing it into the world of guns and bullets. Woo basically started the whole genre with the seminal A BETTER TOMORROW, but THE KILLER is the most distilled vision of the concept he or anybody else in Hong Kong produced. It's a very romanticised film - even though the main characters earn their livings from violence, they're painted as very noble characters and starkly contrasted with the real villains (led by Shing Fui On in his best role ever) who kill without honour. There's a broad message of peace and restraint from violence there too, though it's somewhat conflicted with the romanticisation of some of the bloodshed.

John Woo and Chow Yun Fat were serious box office gold when THE KILLER was made - apart from another Jackie/Sammo/Biao collaboration there was probably no more anticipated collaboration than this one. As such, THE KILLER was afforded a budget and shooting schedule that most Hong Kong productions could never dream of (though still no doubt miniscule compared to any Hollywood film of the time). This is evident in the quality of the production on pretty much ever level. The film has as high production values as any Hong Kong film ever made, and is surely one of the most technically accomplished. Credit for this must be shared between cinematographer Peter Pau, producer Tsui Hark and of course director John Woo.

I've always suspected that the real talent behind the film was probably Tsui Hark - it's rumoured that Tsui & Woo fell out heavily because Tsui felt THE KILLER should be "A Tsui Hark Film" and not "A John Woo" film. Evidence for this is that Woo's earlier and later films have been largely lacking the substance and depth of THE KILLER (especially his Hollywood films, but everybody gets that in Hollywood). However, the interviews on the Hong Kong Legends DVD clearly show that Woo had a vision and pursuit of excellence that was the driving force in the project. He's spoken of very highly by his cast and DOP, who give him the full credit for the film's success. I'd like to hear Tsui Hark's side of the story though

The attention to detail in the film is most obvious in the cinematography. This was Peter Pau's first big film, and the one that established him as one of Hong Kong's top cinematographers. He gives Woo most of the credit for the film's visual style though, describing how much thought Woo would give to the way the camera should be positioned and move to bring out the emotional quality of the scene. I don't have the knowledge/education to be able to perceive how the camerawork in the film does contribute to the emotional depth, but I can acknowledge that it's effective.

Woo is often regarded by Western film makers as the best director of action in the world. I think Tsui Hark probably deserves that credit more, but Woo certainly redefined the way gunplay was choreographed and filmed. HARD BOILED is his finest work in this respect, but THE KILLER certainly comes second. The action was choreographed by Ching Siu Tung, who was evidently a little uncomfortable with choreographing gunplay when he worked on A BETTER TOMORROW 2 (sorry, but most of the shoot outs in that are just people running round randomly waving their guns at stuntmen). He'd obviously improved his skills a *lot* by the time of THE KILLER though, as the action scenes are exciting and violently beautiful. The grand finale in a church is surely one of the best gunplay sequences ever filmed, topped only by the finale of HARD BOILED.

Some Western audiences find THE KILLER too melodramatic, and for an audience not raised on the swordplay and kung fu films that influenced Woo the romanticised notions of loyalty, honour and integrity may seem rather alien and strange. It's a theme that has long been found in Hong Kong Cinema though, so perhaps it reflects a more Chinese set of values than the average American or European is used to experiencing. It would be especially rare to find such emotional scenes in a Hollywood action movie, where the action genre is usually considered to be wholly distinct from drama. Perhaps it's this that makes THE KILLER such a wide hit whenever it is screened in the US.

So, although I won't put THE KILLER in my Top 10 list, I definitely won't dispute the fact that it's one of the best realised films Hong Kong has produced. John Woo is unlikely to produce a film of this calibre again, and unfortunately it's unlikely Chow Yun Fat will do either. As for Danny Lee, this was undoubtedly the highlight of his career - Psychadelic Cop anyone? Sally Yeh also gives her most memorable performance, and a surprisingly convincing blind character for somebody that had no real acting training. Shing Fui On and Kenneth Tsang have never looked better either. In fact, for almost everybody involved this was probably the high point of their career.

9/10

"Heroic bloodshed" and "gun fu" were sub-genres coined by John Woo during the mid-80s, starting with A Better Tomorrow. This was a film that marked Woo as a rising artist within Hong Kong cinema of the modern age. After making a sequel to A Better Tomorrow, Woo went and directed The Killer, followed by Bullet in the Head and Hard-Boiled, these films proved his talent as a director who was able to illustrate ultra-violence, through what closely resembled ballet (a.k.a. in this sense, a dance of death). These outrageously stylised methods of film-making hastily became noted by Hollywood producers and Woo –via a mistake on his behalf- decided to make his move to the place where financing was merely an accessory. Ever since this move, Woo has crafted numerous well-known works of commercial success, but critical failure (unlike his earlier pictures), including the likes of Broken Arrow, Face/Off, Mission Impossible 2 and Windtalkers. Shame, considering these lacked everything that his trademark works created, but can be expected with the restrictions Hollywood producers commonly put in place. Fortunately, his '80s legacy lives on and still has an acute influence on many mainstream directors of today.

The Killer propelled Woo's career, as well as that of Chow Yun-Fat, who took the title role of Ah Jong. Although, he plays an assassin, he is the kind who is out to get "the bad guys", and follows a strict code of honour and ethics. Compassionate, sympathetic and remorseful of the way in which he leads his life, Ah Jong begins to become more cynical of the brutality he savours. After accidentally blinding an innocent singer (who he later falls in love with) during a gunfight, Ah Jong's remorse overwhelms him to such a degree that he becomes determined to get a vital donor that could potentially save her eyesight. In order to finance this, Ah Jong settles a final hit, which soon spirals out of control. Law enforcement inevitably becomes aware of the destruction wreaking its way throughout Hong Kong because of the triads. Nonetheless, the cop on the case happens to be understanding of Ah Jong, and as both relate to each other they start to unexpectedly develop an unexpected partnership.

In 1992, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs was released; now, it should be noted that the white suits used in The Killer admittedly inspired those now-infamous black suits. I bring this up because I wish to present one of the main techniques utilised in Woo's 1989, action classic. Such a procedure is contrasting the lashings of blood (shown during the countless fight scenes) against the calm, white clothing. Waving a white cloth, for example, is a sign of retreat, or peace and placing blood on white is an opposing confliction. Transcending everything that most action films can only dream of, The Killer combines a compulsory fusion of intelligence and entertainment. Then there is the paradox (as such) of both the cop and the killer using guns, but for differing reasons. Essentially, both are committing the same acts, through similar methods, but for different reasons. The two men have a certain confidence and an explicit willingness to seek fulfilment and justice, which enables a parable to be crafted between the two individuals.

Edited with a glaring visual stance, filmed through bright colour filters and following bare-knuckled narrative management, The Killer packs a well-placed gut-punch. Engaging the viewer through ultra-cool protagonists and beautifully choreographed fight scenes, this grand, wry take on the idealistic assumption of decency within the world of organised crime remains a work of bloodshed which holds artistic significance. Even with the overly dramatised screenplay (echoing a consistent waft of unsuited, moralistic sentimentality) and the dated '80s soundtrack, the piece is an extravagant and exciting take on a temperamental genre. Containing metaphors (the doves extinguishing the flames on a collection of candles) and the use of a church for a set-piece, the film is vastly unique for what is adrenaline-based action. Saying that, most directors would opt for endless cuts as a means of groping the viewer's attention, Woo on-the-other-hand avoids such an amateurish technique, choosing a cultivated approach. The finished result is a concoction of mind-boggling stand-offs and humanistic undertones, enabling it to become a motivating take on a seemingly predictable genre and an ode to the classic westerns (who said The Wild Bunch?). Remember, Chow Yun-Fat is for action, what John Wayne was for the western.

Of all John Woo's bullet-ridden action movies, this is his greatest. You see many of Mr. Woo's "trademarks" (flying doves, reflections in mirrors, very strong Catholic symbolism) that appear in his inferior American directed films (save Face Off) first in this Hong Kong cinema classic. Sure the violence is over the top, the plot only adequate, the sentimentalism a little thick. The actions scenes are filmed with such, I dare say beauty, that no Hollywood 'by the numbers' action film can possibly compete. While this film is not for the squeamish or those offended by excessive and rather graphic violence, if you are in any way a fan of action films - you mush see this movie (and many other John Woo directed films during his Hong Kong days, i.e. Hardboiled, A Better Tomorrow, etc).

John Woo's "The Killer" shows a master at the height of his powers. Woo, today working in the United States, gained fame in Hong Kong through the two "Better Tomorrow" films. He became popular and used his success to go to greater things. In fact, much of Woo's HK work is similar, including the work he did in the early 90's like "Bullet in the Head" and "Hard Boiled". But "The Killer" shows John Woo as a perfectionist, the top director of action films who can perfectly blend in over-the-top violence with emotional drama.

"The Killer" follows John (Jeff in other versions of the film), who's played to utter perfection by Chow Yun Fat. John is a hit-man planning retirement. On one job, however, he accidentally shoots a singer (Jenny) near her eyes. She survives, but her vision is blurry. John saves her from a gang of rapist thieves, and the two ultimately fall in love with each other, despite Jenny never having seen John's face. On John's case, however, is Inspector Li, hard at work, who is intent on always getting his man. Much of the movie involves John and the results of his final job which ultimately pits him up against the entire mob, who want him dead for overexposing his identity. And the rest of the film follows John catering to Jenny's needs and helping her at every moment, all the while evading Li, who's getting closer and closer to stopping him.

To make the movie the memorable film that it is, Woo perfectly orchestrates some of the best shoot-outs ever seen on film. Much of what Woo did here, he was never able to follow up. "Hard Boiled" was interesting, but its final shoot-out, over 20 minutes in length, just couldn't keep up. It got boring by the end. What Woo does in "The Killer" is give you a sample of his powers and then leave you begging for more. And that what you'll be literally doing: begging for just a glimpse of the next dude victim to Fat's two beautiful handguns.

It's only sad to see that, not so much Woo doesn't do these films anymore, but that Woo rarely does good films now.(Period) He's too busy, working on ego with top stars and killer budgets. His two films that came as far as making an impact with me from his U.S. catalog will probably include "Broken Arrow" and "Face/Off", both primarily due to just how much I like Travolta (though the former was also an early film of mine that I really remember liking, since it was different from all the Disney and kid stuff I was used to). But Woo, intent on fulfilling his dreams of making a musical and captivating audiences with his powerful style, can just show the people a screening of this film. It's quoted as being "Violence as poetry", and that's exactly what it is. With the beautiful music adding feeling and depth to the characters and the great writing and direction, this is easily Woo's tour-de-force.

9.5/10 (****/****)