Big Bullet

One of the two Best Films of the year. A well filmed, well written, well put together film with an outstanding cast. Lau Ching Wan and his friends (Dayo Wong Chi Wa, Anthony Wong Chau Sun, Francis Ng Chun Yu, Jordan Chan Siu Chun, Cheung Man Tat) had great chemistry before the film and their friendship shows in their performances. Theresa Lee plays her comedic role well (Though much like a female version of Michael Wong, her gag seems to be the foreign born Chinese surrounded by native HKers.), and I found myself cheering for innovative explosive scenes, something I haven't done since 1. the fan boys took over alt.asian-movies and 2. John woo's Hardboiled. Sure the ending was expected, but I feel better cheering for cops than a bunch of young gang members. Highly enjoyable.

Big Bullet is one of the best action movies to come out of Hong Kong in the mid 90's. Lau Ching Wan is a super tough and dedicated policeman who gets transfered from Serious Crimes to EU(Emergency Unit) after giving a senior officer a serious smackdown after a hostage rescue went awry. Lau Ching Wan, a very good actor carries this film very well. Also, he has the right physical stature and rugged toughness that makes him more believable than most actors that play cops in movies. Great support is also to be had with Jordon Chan(also a very talented actor). He plays a super serious, disciplined cop who often is at odds with Lau Ching Wan. They are after a vicious gang of thieves led by Yu Rong Gong(Iron Monkey) and Anthony Wong(Hard Boiled) who are very effective and menacing without saying much. The tone of the film changes throughout the film from very serious to very silly. While the humor might seem out of place for a film of this type, it is actually the norm for a Hong Kong film. The action scenes are abundant with lots of great shootouts and explosions which sometimes bring to mind Michael Mann's Heat. Overall the drama, action and comedy coalesce well and director Benny Chan made one great action film.

This film has some really impressive action scenes. The humor and action are blended well, though the intensity of the film does not sustain itself till the end. The last scene is a slight anti-climax in terms of action quality and astonishing explosiveness of the scenes preceding it. The humor doesn't seem to be so ridiculously clumsy as in many other Hongkong movies, and this film is of totally other class than most American action-comedies of recent years. Lau Ching-Wan acts as a typical, intuitive police-hero who scoffs at invalid orders from incompetent police superiors. The dialectic of the film is built on the superhuman coolness and ruthlessness of the drug gang, humiliating the police force while providing a serious dose of lead poisoning with a variety of machine guns. Leaving plenty of corpses in it's wake. Yu Rong-Guang is especially impressive as an ultra cool, merciless gangster in this Woo-like piece of action where tough guys are truly die-hard.

When you hear of dealing with international criminals, you may think of great detectives or whatever high competent police units. This film, therefore, can give you surprise that the emergency police unit, which is actually in relatively low level, was the main team to cope with the great organized criminals by some reasons.

I found it is not only a great and brilliant action movie, but also a good drama. The team, consisted of several policemen and one policewoman who have different characteristics, showed many precious human relationships. There are brotherhood, conflict, collaborating as well as compromising. I love this film because I was touched by their team working spirit. I felt as if I were one of them.

Moreover, I appreciate Benny Chan who was a director of this film so much. He has his own style to create action scenes, they are poetic instead of too violent. I especially love the shooting scene in Central(where is the most crowded place in Hong Kong), just see it and you'll know how intense the shooting was. If you've already watched all John Woo's films and hence you're hunger for seeing somthing great and stylish action scenes, Benny Chan can satisfy your needs.

Besides the actors in the emergency unit, I was excited by the performance of Francis Ng. He did a short part of the film since he was killed in a busy road in Central at the quite beginning. I was impressed the way he presented his character.

In short, good plot, good director and brilliant actors as well as great action scenes (though it still have rooms for improvement if there is higher budget ) you'll find in this film. I rate it 10 out of 10! Make Benny Chan's film as your first choice!

I'm slowly ploughing through as many Hong Kong action films as I can get my hands on and came across this gem - mainly due to Ching Wan Lau who is one of my favourite actors.

Its a great action film although not as OTT as the title might suggest. It moves along at a great pace and is truly enjoyable.

The biggest surprise of this film was the soundtrack. It would appear that Rob Dougan - the guy who did the 'Clubbed To Death' song which was popular in 'The Matrix' has lifted the soundtrack from Big Bullet and compiled it into one of the tracks on his 'Furious Angels' album; the tune in question is called 'Im not driving anymore' and is also the opening tune for the TV series 'Law and Order' AND the opening track on the 'Matrix Reloaded' DVD menu teaser! That really surprised me, due to the sheer conincidence!