Chuen zik saat sau

There's a plot in there somewhere about two assassins and a girl they both have feelings for. One of them wants to take the number one assassin title from the other. But really this film is just a exercise in style over substance. The thing is the style IS great and it's very fun to watch. Well at least it attempts to get serious. A few nice set-pieces though.

My Grade: C+

DVD Extras: 25 minute Making of; 23 minute behind the Scenes; Bios for Andy Lau, Takashi Sorimachi, and Johnnie To; Theatrical Trailer; and Trailers for "The Believer", "the Last Minute" and "Scratch"

This is one of the better Hong-Kong bullet fest to be released in a while.

The movie sets are good, the action fast, the gritty cold violence reasonably to excellently done. All the actors are good with kudo's going to Andy Lau for stealing many of the scenes.

The basic story is about a flamboyant over the top new assassin hoping to take over number 1 spot held by a disciplined introspective killer.

There are a couple of important sub plots involving a women and of course the cop trying to chase them both down.

This movie is all about set action pieces and how well they can be executed...that that is pretty darn well.

A fun movie with a charismatic cast and lots of blood and bullets.

This movie's action sequences blew me away, with how it was shot and the camera angles, i also like the way the dramatic music was used in order to express the emotions of the characters during the action scenes. As for the story, its not really that unique, it somehow reminded me of the movie, "Assasins" w/ Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas. But its still a great action movie overall, it felt like a refreshment after seeing all the horrible action movies that they show here in the U.S. I definitely recommend this film for anyone who likes a lot of Shoot-em up ation, but only if you have already seen A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, or maybe even Hard Boiled, if that is not the case then I suggest you watch those first until you get sick of it.

It is the story of two professional assassins who live to kill. Both are act without remorse or second thoughts, are highly effective and completely relentless. Takashi Sorimachi plays O, the Japanese killer who is considered the best in his (admittedly limited) field. He kills efficiently, dispatching the target, his bodyguards and anyone who could identify him. He is quick, clean and much in demand by those who employ him. Andy Lau is Tok, a Chinese killer who wants to replace O but who is considered too showy and flamboyant. When O executes a hit he simply walks away and disappears into the crowd. Tok escapes on a stolen motorcycle while a police station explodes in the background.

They are brought together by Tok's envy of O and Tok's desire to replace him as the most sought after assassin in Asia. While they stalk and spy on each other, they are also linked by Miss Chin, played by the gorgeous Kelly Lin. She is O's housekeeper and Tok's girlfriend. Simon Yam is Inspector Lee of Interpol who leads a team going after both of the killers and who (literally in one case) are always just a step behind them.

There are references galore to other movies: El Mariachi and Desperado, Blood Simple, Hard Boiled, Point Break, The Godfather, Samurai and probably plenty of others that I missed. Even the Warner Brothers cartoons of Chuck Jones are referenced—one of the more outrageous assassinations by Tok has "Largo Factorum" from The Barber of Seville accompanying the action, in much the same way that Bugs Bunny committed mayhem to the tune of Mozart, Wagner or Rossini.

The action scenes are excellent. There are cars that blow up when shot, pistols that are accurate at 500 yards and huge shotguns that appear from beneath short leather jackets but even with these clichés the action set pieces created by Johnny To are exciting, fast paced, very violent and seamlessly shot and edited.

Sorimachi is properly dour and brooding, almost phlegmatic. His understated acting personifies the loneliness and isolation of his character. Lau, in keeping with his character, has a much more florid style—Tok could be a full time smirker as well as a full time killer.

While not exactly a return to heroic bloodshed—there aren't any heroes here—Fulltime Killer uses many of that genre's conventions. Very much worth seeing and recommended.

There seem to be a lot of Japanese movies that are pure exercises in style. I tend to like highly cinematic movies, so I usually enjoy myself, but somewhere along the way I always seem to go from thinking, this is just so cool to thinking, is there some point here. Fulltime Killer is lots of fun. It is very stylish, looks nice and has some very striking scenes. But it has about as much depth as a piece of typing paper. There's not much in the way of character development, and the movie feels increasingly unconvincing as it progresses. So while there is stuff I love, like the scene with the grenades, the movie as a whole failed to connect with me on any sort of intellectual or emotional level. Still, it is lots of fun, and I was torn between giving it a 7 or an 8 (which is usually the quandary I face when rating stylish, empty movies). Well worth watching, but not worth remembering.