Bullet In The Head: Viewer Comments

John Woo's grand war epic that, despite the scathing reviews and poor box office return it garnered upon its initial release, became a true classic of the heroic bloodshed genre.

This is probably Woo's most personal film, set in the time of his own youth, and using the Vietnam war and political turmoil of the late 60's as a backdrop for a story about brotherhood, sacrifice, redemption, and all the usual themes of Woo's cinematic universe. Here he reaches new emotional heights, through the tragic characters, the dark storyline, and the powerful recreations of iconic images from the era. All this, along with big action set pieces, tons of extras, excellent production design, and a personal knowledge of the period setting, helps give the film its overwhelming epic feel and authenticity--even if it does fall into the traps of anachronism and shoddy editing now and again.

The headlining trio of Tony Leung, Jacky Cheung, and Waise Lee all deliver great performances, especially Tony Leung, who can convey more with a look than most actors can with ten pages of dialogue. Cheung and Lee tend to go overboard on occassion, but considering the over the top nature of the film, it is excusable. The prize for coolest character has to go to Simon Yam, though. A lot of his backstory ended up on the cutting room floor, but he still managed to flesh out the character and provide it with enough style and depth to make an impact. And come on, what would a John Woo movie be without a cool hit man character?

The action is a blend of the usual operatic Woo style shootouts, and some pretty grim violence that adds a lot of emotional weight to the tragic story. And while the car jousting final� may seem a bit tacked on, I think a movie of this scope and magnitude deserves a strong finish. And I actually prefer this action packed showdown to the more subdued alternate ending.

This movie originally started as a proposed prequel for "A Better Tomorrow", but when Woo and Tsui Hark went their seperate ways, Woo decided to run with the Vietnam template for this movie, and Hark did the "A Better Tomorrow 3" prequel, as first intended, on his own. I think Woo drew the longest straw, even if the HK audiences and critics weren't really up for a dark and gritty tale like this at the time.

For all its minor flaws, this is still an awesome classic of the genre and a must-have for HK action fans.

"Bullet In The Head" is a story of three loyal-to-the-bone friends who flee Hong Kong for civil war-torn Vietnam after being sought for murder. But that loyalty is soon put to the test when they arrive. Money and power or friendship, which is more important? That is the question they soon find themselves looking to answer. The three main characters and Simon Yam's Luke provide a compelling contrast to one another in performances that just have to be seen. Tony Leung is simply amazing, Waise Lee does a great job in making you hate him even though you feel sorry for him, Jacky Cheung overreacts at certain times but is still impactful, and Simon Yam is one cool mofo. This movie is full of unforgettable moments that you will enjoy--check for the prison camp scenes and the ending.

Oh, I forgot to mention that this movie is stocked full of great action scenes. And, that is what makes this movie my favorite Woo movie: great story and great action.

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.