| One of the foremost classics of the heroic bloodshed genre, one fully ignited by director John Woo, and the film that established his and star Chow Yun-Fat's reputation internationally. The Killer has always been a kind of a struggle for me though. The reason is that I've never really seemed to grow to love it as much as others during my prior viewings. However with the Hong Kong legends dvd that received good remarks about its newly created translation, I finally began seeing what was truly great and what I always seemed to dislike. While the themes of brotherhood, loyalty and the action sequences (beautifully staged by Ching Siu-Tung & Lau Chi Ho, with much input from John) are pretty much nailed, I can't help to feel that it's one nail too many. Certain moments between and those about characters feels overemphasized, even sappy and corny, to me and that may explain why I've always felt a bit distanced to The Killer compared to other movies by John Woo.
It's still an excellent film though with Chow Yun-Fat at his charismatic best and while not as impressive, Danny Lee performs admirably in his finest role alongside the performance in City On Fire (his award winning turn in Law With Two Phases, which he also directed, I haven't seen so I can't comment on that currently). Sally Yeh is left a little in the background which is not surprising coming from a filmmaker specializing in portraying male bonding. However I think Sally's character does works nicely as the goal of salvation for Ah Jong while that particular theme and its outcome I think never sat well with every viewer. I certainly respond to it but I think it depends on where your mind can go in terms of light and dark. Sounds cryptic? Watch the damn film!
The terrific action finale set in a church took several months to shoot and it's here Chow suffered an eye injury, which is visible in the film. Also starring Chu Kong, Kenneth Tsang and Shing Fui On. The Killer won Best Director and Editing at the Hong Kong Film Awards the following year. |
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