Lang man sha shou zi you ren

Check this out if you love HK gangster flicks. This one has it all: evil Japanese, swordfighting, acrobatic gunplay, love, honor, betrayal, kneecap shooting, and ancestor disrespecting, all topped off with a bittersweet finale! Basically plays like a low-rent version of "The Killer". The action is slow to build, coming mainly in the film's second half, but once it starts, it doesn't let up. Somewhat imitative of John Woo's stylings during the gunfights, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Certainly not in the same class as Woo, Lam, or Hark's best work, but a lot more satisfying and exciting than "The Replacement Killers". The DVD from Tai Seng is cheap, but it's also dubbed, fullscreen, and a poor transfer to boot. Still, I consider it 6 bucks well spent on a film I'll definitely watch again.

(1990) A Killer's Romance (In Chinese with English subtitles) ACTION

The sole idea taken from the "R" rated Japanese manga comic book series called "The Crying Freeman" except that upon watching it, doesn't seem like a comic book at all. To describe the plot is forgettable since it's just another revenge type of movie co-written and directed by Philip Ko involving double crosses and backstabbers, and in my opinion serves no purpose but to showcase some amazing action and violence and that Simon Yam is the star with . My rating is solely because of it's well choreographed impressive action set pieces that includes gun fights and sword fights and nothing else.

This is a really good looking flick by the standards of Philip Ko (in opposite to an earlier reviewer, I own a RC2 disc in widescreen format), many scenes have been shot on location in London including passers-by and police men happily smiling in the camera for the Asian "tourists". Anyway, not much reason to smile, "Killer's Romance" is a merciless, violent revenge picture. Simon Yam plays a young man who wants revenge for the death of his father, but it is not easy to find out who the actual killers were. He runs into a beautiful lady (Joey Wong from "Chinese Ghost Story") who sees him donate a lot of money for the orphans the first time, and shoot a man in a wheelchair like a professional killer the second time. Her curiosity about this contradiction leads to a love story which will of course put her in deadly danger... Recommended.

A Killer's Romance is a pretty poorly made action movie from Hong Kong that is based off of Crying Freeman(Japanese Manga). This also film tries pretty hard to emulate John Woo, but fails miserably with poor direction, bad editing, poor characterization and mostly lackluster action scenes. The romantic scenes between Simon Yam and Joey Wang are horrible and they seem awkward towards each other and possess zero chemistry. Speaking of which, check out the incredibly cheesy sequence where the couple go horseback riding, Yikes! I am not insulting the talents of Simon Yam and Joey Wang as they both are excellent in a whole lot of other HK movies, many of which are classics.(plus I always thought Joey Wang was one of the prettiest actresses in HK cinema) To put it mildly, A Killer's Romance is less than killer and far from the quality and class of The Killer which this movie attempts to rip off left and right. It should also be noted leading man Simon Yam was cast in John Woo's Bullet In The Head the same year. He had a supporting role in that film, but tears it up in that film with a memorable performance that nearly steals the show from the 3 leading actors. Overall, A Killer's Romance is a fairly poorly made heroic bloodshed movie that is barely watchable besides a few decent gory action scenes that rip off A Better Tomorrow, The Killer and every other movie like that. Nothing new to see here and surely not done well and not very exciting.

Killer's Romance is one of those titles that popped up once I ventured deep into the genre that is heroic bloodshed. At that time I loved every second of it. Although I do remember being heavily inebriated during my viewing sessions. Turns out I had a very good reason to be. Even God was trying to warn me!

How? Well, I happen to come across the title on Amazon and felt compelled to purchase it. I did, and for some unknown reason the vendor couldn't deliver the title since it was out of stock. Weeks later I saw it on Amazon again and this time the price had increased and it was very much in stock. So I didn't hesitate and purchased it a second time. This time it was delivered and I was very eager to watch it. I opened up the DVD case and tried to remove the disc. It didn't come out as easy and to my shock and horror I managed to break the disc. I never ever in my life have broken a disc. And I have been on this planet for quite a few years. I was beginning to think I wasn't meant to watch the film again. Yet my stubbornness knows very little bounds so I now more than ever I felt like getting another copy. And this time nothing bad happened and finally was able to watch it.



And now I wished I hadn't. Because now I realize that the intoxication during my viewing sessions had warped my thoughts on this film considerably.



Here is a review of what I had previously written on IDMB:

The first time I saw this movie, I didn't even know that this had something to do with the Crying Freeman. Of course they changed the story quite a bit. But in this case that doesn't matter. The focus of the story here is on the loyalty between the adopted son and the family. His father was very proud and happy with his son and wanted a good life for him outside the gang. But things go wrong. This film has it all. Betrayal, revenge, love, drama and action! For the most part this is a crime/gangster drama with great action. The action consists of gun play and sword fights. These fights are more then excellent. It is a mystery to me why this movie doesn't get the attention it deserves. It is much better than most HK movies they release on DVD's. But that is a general complaint I have. There are a lot of Hong Kong titles out there that would blow your mind, but somehow never got made on DVD. Or at least not made available internationally. Which is strange, because they did import these titles on video. Anyway, this movie is a classic. Simon Yam in a early good role. Brilliant!

Settle down younger Chrichton. Killer's Romance is many things but it definitely is not a classic. The action still holds up for sure. But it does take a while for that to happen. And once it does there is not that much of it. Still it has to be said the action is enjoyable.

Everything else though is very questionable. I understand what vibe they were going for. They tried to make most events super dramatic. And to an extent it is very effective. However the story and the characterization is completely lacking. Even for a Hong Kong flick it's very minimal. It also has to be stated that the story is only very loosely based on the Crying Freeman manga. So you might recognize some elements but for the most part it has removed THE elements that makes Crying Freeman so compelling.

The musical score is filled with themes from Hollywood films mostly composed by Hans Zimmer like Black Rain. I am wondering how they got away by using these. I mean either they have been extremely lucky or either they can't be sued for some reason. Ripped of or not the themes in combination with the vibe is surprisingly effective.

Overall Killer's Romance is quite messy and unbalanced. It has huge pacing issues and is an incredibly simple tale that you have seen over and over again. The saving grace is Simon Yam, director Phillip Ko's villainous role and his choreography of the action.