Bullets Over Summer: Viewer Comments

Yes sir, ya just gotta love some of the names the Chinese come up with for their movie titles. Here's another movie that I find hard to classify. So unless you're really a fan of either FRANCIS NG (the star of THE MISSION and HORROR HOTLINE), who actually won the 1999 Chinese "Critics Society Best Actor Award" for his role in this, or a fan of LOUIS KOO (who played the awesome RED from THE LEGEND OF ZU), or you just enjoy quirky Chinese crime movies, then this may not be your cup of tea. Is it a "Good Cop, Bad Cop" flick? Is it a "Bullet Ballet" film? A "Heroic Bloodshed" movie? An action-comedy? A romantic-love movie? Hmmm, I'm just not to sure. It's got a little of it all. I'll try to break it down for you as simply as possible. Okay, first, the serious part of the movie, Francis (who's ill with a blood disease that causes him to loose control of his temper) and Louis are detectives after a wild madman killer called Dragon. He's a gang leader, a thief, a murderer, and all around bad dude. After a few failed attempts to bring him in, they finally get lucky and receive information on one of Dragon's henchmen. They stake out the henchmen's house in hopes of getting the drop on the next robbery or killing spree by holding up in an elderly woman's (LAW LAN) apartment located directly across the street. She turns out to be a little daffy (she thinks that they are her children all grown up who's returned to take care of her in her old age). From here, the comedy elements start to creep in, let's add in a young vagabond girl from the streets (played by the super cute and super sexy MICHELLE SARAM) that Louis wants to have sex with something awful and a pregnant dry-cleaner that Francis (the stand-up guy that he is) offers to help out financially since she has no husband and no way to support herself. These five yahoos now all end up getting involved in the police case that's going down, take up chores around the apartment, become the building committee supervisors, start fights with local gangs, make trouble with the residents, and generally cause a great big mess that's really unwanted and especially not needed because the whole time they're still trying to catch the evil crime lord Dragon, who we find out, also uses this same building as a safe-house. Now I know what you're thinking, and NO, it's not as stupid as it may sound. It's really quite funny at times but unfortunately, something terribly bad happens during this movie. It's sudden bursts of graphic violence, super-spiffy gunplay, and bloody murdering now seem out of place in this film. And that's the greatest shame, because that's why we love the Asian "Shoot-Em-Up" Cinema so much to begin with. So in closing, let me just say again that this WILSON YIP directed movie is a strange breed indeed and unless you're more than a casual fan of the actors, be careful and don't expect too much. But it is certainly worth the watch though.