Sat sat yan, tiu tiu mo

Having done his part as an action director, or uncredited director, in many films since the start of his career, the great Donnie Yen made a point of becoming a serious director around the late 90's, launching with the fantastic Legend Of The Wolf. It was a great debut, though not without its flaws, and following that came this and Shanghai Affairs a year later!

With beautiful cinematography by Wong Ka Fai, Ballistic Kiss is an art-house, martial arts thriller. Its important to know that before watching, as fans of Yen's work (both before and after SPL) may find it somewhat disappointing. It doesn't have explosive, powerhouse fight scenes every few minutes (although they do come about), nor does it have insane stunts and cop chases like his Yuen Woo PIng directed vehicles did. Instead, the Kiss has style, with stylish Hong Kong action - almost as if Wong Kar Wai had directed The Killer...

Donnie still gets to throw some amazing moves, and we get a good dose of gun-fu, but while it is far from being as amazing as the John Woo classic, Ballistic Kiss still makes for a damn good movie, and an important piece in Donnie's career. Although Bey Logan's script could have been refined somewhat, Yen works with what he has and delivers on the action and his performance in the role of a hitman with a heart, who falls for his hostage, played by the lovely Annie Wu.

Packed with visual flair and keeping a steady pace, Ballistic Kiss is accompanied by a memorable score that reminded me of a Studio Ghibli movie, some beautifully lit shots, and a great cast. Donnie's Shanghai Affairs co-star, the great Yu Rong Kwong, appears briefly for a great shoot-out against Yen, and it was nice to see big Mike Woods pop up for a bit in what would be his last role in a Hong Kong movie.

Overall: Heroic bloodshed at its most stylish, and an underrated Yen flick, Ballistic Kiss is pretty damn good and shows Donnie in a one-time-only role that doesn't disappoint!

Wow, this film is utterly UNFORGIVABLE.

Donnie Yen is an incredible martial-arts talent who should utterly claim this film as his alan smithee masterpiece. God knows he couldn't be bothered to remove hisself as the film's lead. Usually, when watching an HK actioner you should suspend your disbelief to an unbearable degree. John Woo's HK films made this easy and fun to watch. But here the viewer is utterly dragged kicking and screaming into utter garbage. The acting was top notch, for most HK flicks, and thought he story was essentially striving to free itself there was no resurrection. Instead what we have here is a failure to entertain as we are subjected to uninspired fights, mingled with shameful gunplay, and some bad guys/heavies that are so happy go lucky that I'd probably play "Yut, Yee, Sum!" drinking games with 'til dawn. THESE BAD GUYS WERE SO UNTHREATENING THAT TRIX BUNNY ON MY TV RIGHT NOW LOOKS LIKE CHARLIE MANSON, IN COMPARISON.

Did I come into this flick wanting to hate it? HELL NO! Donnie Yen is cool, he's cooler than cool. This guy is action nitro glycerine times a thousand plus infinity. But here, in a film he directed no less, it's a heartbreaking waste. I encourage those who get caught up with the flashy title to instead search for something meaningful, like John Woo's earlier films. Hell, even Mission Impossible 2 was better than this. Yowza!

Donnie, let other people direct. I have only so much respect for you, buddy. Don't make me lose any more.

Having spent 6 years in an American prison for a crime he did not commit, a former police officer named "Cat Lee" (Donnie Yen) travels to Hong Kong where he has taken up a new vocation as an assassin in which his targets are known gangsters. Needless to say, the police don't take kindly to the number of dead bodies he leaves in his wake and fearing an all-out war between rival gangs they immediately begin an investigation to find out the identity of this lone hit-man. Among those given this assignment is a young female police agent by the name of "Carrie" (Annie Wu) who desperately tries to figure him out. What she doesn't know is that Cat has an attraction for her and the closer she gets the more dangerous it becomes for the both of them. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this had all the basic ingredients necessary for a good crime-action movie with solid acting and an intricate plot. Unfortunately, the almost complete lack of character development made the film difficult to comprehend at times while the over-the-top action scenes were simply too unrealistic to be taken seriously. Likewise, I didn't especially care for the ending either. In any case, while not necessarily a bad film by any means, I honestly thought the flaws were too obvious to be ignored and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

In an attempt to mix martial arts gunkata and some slight Buddhist philosophy, Donnie bites off far more than he can chew. "Ballistic Kiss" tries hard to be hard hitting and gritty, but comes off as just another John Woo's "The Killer" ripoff without any of the deep characters or sacrifice that film gives us. This just becomes an exercise in how not to write a script, and how not to make a plot.

The main story concerns an ex-cop turned killer who seeks revenge against the one who wronged him and sent him to prison. Along the way, he falls in love with a Hong Kong cop who has a relationship with the man who wronged him. While a certain amount of suspension is necessary, the story has so many jarring problems with logic that it's hard to keep a straight face.

The story is so plot driven that the characters are left in the dust. You never get a sense of who's who and what their personalities are like. Not only that, but Donnie Yen's character, Cat, is even more invincible than Jean Reno in "The Professional", which this movie even discusses. In one scene, Yen is about to snipe the villain from afar, but when he sees the love interest walking arm in arm with him, he charges in with a pistol. He then pries her away without being injured and the two escape. They also have a love scene after he used her for a shield five minutes earlier! This film isn't terrible, but when people say this is better than most of what Hollywood puts out, that is just Hollywood hate going around. "The Bourne Identity" is a Hollywood picture that manages to do everything this film tries to do, with a coherent story and character driven plot. Probably the biggest problem is the fact that the fights aren't even that good. They are hard to see, and it's like watching an episode of the A-team, lots of shooting, but their aim is awful.

It's too bad this film didn't work. I really enjoy Donnie Yen's more contemporary settings (Tiger Cage 1 and 2, Flashpoint, and SPL especially), but this one just tries so hard to be a John Woo style gun ballet that it just has no weight on it's own. Which is really too bad, because the idea has so much promise it's a shame it doesn't work.

I am not quite sure what the reason is for the harsh criticism that the film is receiving by commentators here on IMDb. "Ballistic Kiss" is one of those rare times that a film fuses together mass entertainment with personalized artistry, albeit not entirely successfully but to a greater degree than other film of its ilk.

Donnie Yen directors this film with surprising visual flair. The cinematography is slick with lighting that is very noir-ish in nature. Yen utilizes different color filters and shifts to B&W occasionally to formulate a distinct mood that reflects the situation of the scene or the emotions of the characters.

The editing, admittedly, is slightly rough. During action scenes this adds a feeling of gritter intensity, but during dramatic and emotional scenes, the editing can be jarring.

Yen, being an action legend, does not disappoint in the film's action sequences. He carefully choreographs gun fights that are balletic and poetic in nature. The most notable scene is a sequence within the apartment where Yen and a hit-man shoot at one another at extreme close ranges, encircling a sofa and sliding along the ground in effortless motion.

The acting, however, is a mixed bag. The performances of the Yen and his female captors are near perfect. The relationship between the two is entirely believable and we become involved with them, investing our own emotions into the film.

However, some supporting characters do give rather over the top performances, such as the two villains near the end of the film. Fortuantely, there isn't a high degree of theses occurrences so we are able to forgive them of these mistakes.

The narrative is rather typical of the genre, yet it is told in a fresh way. The artistry of the visuals really add depth to the standard story and the strong character development makes what would have been flat characters into full bodied, three dimensional figures.

The narrative does, however, have issues of coherency. The film often presses too hard for aesthetic scenes rather than scenes which are story driven which creates some moments of confusion, though the attentive viewer will easily be able to place the events together.

In conclusion, this is one of the better thrillers to come out of Hong Kong. It is a fine example of the Heroic Bloodshed and should be viewed by anyone remotely interested in the genre or Asian thrillers in general. For the average film viewer, however, I would suggest a rental or, better yet, see some of the classic examples of the genre such as "The Killer" or "Hard Boiled". If you like those films, then give this a try.