Donnie Yen directs and stars in this stylish thriller as Cat, a hit man who has entered into a kind of mid-life crisis. Prone to contemplating life in between hits. Cat seems to vacillate be... Read allDonnie Yen directs and stars in this stylish thriller as Cat, a hit man who has entered into a kind of mid-life crisis. Prone to contemplating life in between hits. Cat seems to vacillate between throwing himself into his work and running away to Australia. However, his life gets... Read allDonnie Yen directs and stars in this stylish thriller as Cat, a hit man who has entered into a kind of mid-life crisis. Prone to contemplating life in between hits. Cat seems to vacillate between throwing himself into his work and running away to Australia. However, his life gets more complicated when he falls in love with a beautiful policewoman.
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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.
This is the type of film that leaves one wondering if the producer-director-actor thinks the audience is so mental as to take the movie seriously. I ended up giving this film a 4/10 because it had it's moments. Annie Wu did a decent job with what was available. She was even able to sprint, without favoring her bad leg, minutes after being shot in the thigh. It could have been a decent film with a bit more character development and shorter, more realistic gun fights. I could only recommend viewing to have a few chuckles.
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.
Did you know
- TriviaDue to the problematic shooting process, Donnie Yen had to turn down 10 film roles in order to complete post-production of the movie.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Moonlight Express (1999)
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- Ballistic Kiss
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- Runtime1 hour 32 minutes
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