| I remember watching this movie almost ten years ago. And maybe I was just a little too young to see it at the time, and it wasn’t the uncut version, but what remained was pretty horrible and remarkable, for life. I saw every action movie by John Woo I had wanted to see until I saw this one, and “Bullet In The Head” was his most personal work. He went broke trying to make this film and experienced a mental breakdown at the time of creating this one. Unfortunately, it was a box office flop, because this came out a year after the Tiananmen Square Massacre. People just didn’t want to see this kind of violence, because much of it is reminiscent to the Vietnam War in the 60s and 70s. So, unlike American audiences, Asian audiences despise this kind of violence being shown on film, and therefore, do not support these kind of movies. However, as soon as the movie came out on DVD in the late 1990s, it soon became out of print and there are all kinds of remasters running around all over the place. Even before the DVD release was official, the film was edited so many times in different countries, because it was so freakin' violent. The German version suffered the worst and was edited down to 90 minutes!
Basically, this is a movie that takes place from 1967-1970, in war-torn Hong Kong and Vietnam. Three childhood friends grow up in the slums of Hong Kong with an ambition to see the world, get rich and form a lifelong bond together. The three young men are Ben, Frank and Paul. After getting into a vicious gang attack on Ben’s wedding night, Frank tells Ben about the attack and the two of them accidentally kills the gang leader who attacked Frank. Then, when there’s a warrant for Ben’s arrest, the three friends travel to Vietnam, trying to get rich and dodge the police. Instead, the three men are faced with circumstances that forces them to collide with a nightclub owner (who has held a female Chinese pop singer captive as a sex slave), the Viet Congs, and eventually each other, thanks to Paul’s dangerous ambition to get rich and put wealth over his friendship with Frank and Ben.
I’m not the kinda dude who’ll cry during a movie, but this is one movie that made me do everything amid watching it. I was disgusted, I laughed, I was in shock, I was emotionally and psychologically disturbed and I cried during a particular scene towards the end. And this was when during the second time I saw it. I’m not gonna go into further details about what happens during the movie, because I’m not trying to spoil anything. You just gotta see it. |
