Chow Yun-Fat plays The Killer, a much talked about man who for unknown reasons was behind a blood drenched massacre 10 years back. Now he runs the Peace Hotel, a safe house for criminals who can live there without questions asked. The peace and calm is disrupted when a woman (Cecilia Yip from Hong Kong 1941) arrives and claims to be The Killer's long lost woman in order to get a room at the hotel. It turns out she is a low-grade conwoman and a thief, traits that The Killer greatly detests her for. Soon a gang of men shows up at the hotel demanding their revenge of the murder of their boss, an act commited by the newly arrived woman. The Killer then is faced with two options, either quickly get rid of the unwanted guest or stand by his sworn principle to protect anyone who wishes to stay at the hotel....

Fulltime Killer and Fat Choi Spirit were two movies where Wai Ka-Fat had a co-directing credit and they were two quite bad movies in my opinion. It was then difficult to know what to expect from this Hong Kong western because of the mediocre movies mentioned but also the fact that I had no idea what Wai Ka Fai's style or qualities really was. After watching the film one gets the impression that he doesn't want to be stylish unless necessary but there were some really nice intercutting between flashbacks and present as well as the same editing technique being used before action scenes. The latter could have something to with John Woo being the producer but I'm not taking anything away from Wai Ka-Fai's work.

Clear from the start is that this movie had some money put into it and our director nicely combines showing off the costume- and production design without compensating the need to push things forward in terms of story. He distances himself from the camera and let us watch the movie instead. That of course is logical since an mtv style of camera movement and filmmaking wouldn't at all fit into a period piece. Also Wai Ka-Fai surrounds himself with some veterans behind the camera like art director Hai Chung Man (the director of Anna Magdalena) and cinematographer Wong Wing-Hung (whom we'll talk about more below). This always helps to ensure a professional feel to the project and is also probably a blessing to a new director.

Surprisingly enough (or maybe not) the first half of the movie is more comedy oriented which mostly revolves around Cecilia Yip's character's attempts at stealing and lying in order to stay at the hotel. I did find some of this rather amusing mostly thanks to Cecilia's timing and charisma. The film becomes more serious after a certain point in the story and the comedy doesn't really fit in with that when you look back at it. It's a Hong Kong movie though and comedy can come and go whenever it feels like it so I'm not surprised to see it in this film.

All is not well in terms of storytelling in Peace Hotel sadly. Despite a rather uncomplicated plot some of the minor twists and turns are sometimes not made clear to the audience. Sure we can understand it enough but we feel that it's not entirely done right. This mostly applies to the second half where the mystery arround The Killer is unveiled but even with some expository dialogue, things still feel a bit confusing. Drama sets in here and there with pretty big emotions in the air but Wai Ka-Fai can't quite take a firm grip emotionally on us. We do care about the fate of characters but the way scenes are played out we should've felt a lot more for them. The script definitly needed some fine-tuning but writing and directing is a learning process and who says you have to get it right the first time?

The nominated photography by Wong Wing-Hung (A Better Tomorrow) is very fitting for the western setting of Peace Hotel. Brown is the dominant colour but it's really well used and integrated into the story. Some of you may know that I'm no fan of colours in cinematography but this is one of those cases where someone actually knows how to use them to good effect. Wong Wing Hung's camerawork is mostly calm and only goes into overdrive during some of the action moments. The wild camerawork does feel right and wrong, right because it does create the chaos the director is looking for and wrong because the music video style creeps in here and it really shouldn't have.

If you expected an action spectacle as Chow Yun-Fat's goodbye to the Hong Kong movie world you were wrong. It leans more towards drama with a few scenes of action and bloodshed during the latter part of the film. The action choreography doesn't really stand out but just ends up being good enough for this story and setting. I did get a little rush seeing Chow Yun-Fat shooting hordes of bad guys while sliding down a ladder in a scene that is quite similar to THE scene Hard Boiled but in a good way.

Chow Yun-Fat and Cecilia Yip starred opposite each other in the 1984 war drama Hong Kong 1941 and it's really nice seeing them together again in this quite different film. You've seen better performances from Chow in the past and even in Hollywood films but he does show off some of his charismatic mannerisms to good effect here. He also injects the depth that is necessary for the character to work despite some weak writing. One aspect that didn't sit well with me was the turnaround from hate to love between Chow and Cecilia's characters. To me it seemed way too convenient to be believeable but movies do get away with a lot of things, including this. The stunning Cecilia has a slightly more fleshed out yet still predictable characterarc. She has good comedic timing and handles the transition to the serious nature of the film pretty good also. The chemistry between the two is also one of the strong points of the film.

Peace Hotel is fair entertainment and I think Chow Yun-Fat went out in as much style as he could. I don't see any huge amount of depth in Wai Ka-Fai but there is talent somewhere in there for a number of genres.

A lot of people were expecting Peace Hotel to be The Killer set in the Chinese Old West, especially with it being Chow's last HK movie before moving to America and John Woo producing. While there are Woo-like touches (like slow-motion), in actuality Peace Hotel comes closer to the "spaghetti westerns" made in Italy during the 60's and '70's (such as Django and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) than the heroic bloodshed of the '80's; in fact some people have gone so far as to term this movie a "ramen western." As such, it may put off those looking for the typical Chow Yun-Fat action movie with a constant flow of violence. Not to say there isn't a good deal of gunplay in Peace Hotel, but it's not as over-the-top as many other HK movies.

The emphasis in Peace Hotel is the relationship between the characters, most notably between Chow and Yip. Both turn in great performances, but Chow's in particular really stands out, especially when compared to his later US films. He communicates more with a simple look than the overwrought speeches in The Corruptor could ever hope to. When you combine the performances with great cinematography, a outstanding soundtrack and a strong script that features a ending that may truly surprise many viewers, Peace Hotel is a great new take on a classic genre.

With a style very much in the tradition of the American Western the story is about an ex-fighter, Chow Yun Fat, who establishes a haven in the wilderness known as the 'Peace Hotel'. In the film's opening moments we see a deranged Chow Yun Fat, head shaven and standing amid numerous dead bodies, cut down his wife in a battle hazed fury. Roll on a few years and Chow is battling with his guilt, having made a vow never to fight again, and has established the hotel within which nobody is allowed to bring weapons or cause trouble. His old sword, embedded in the ground outside the entrance, marks the boundary.

The peaceful existence is broken apart when Cecilia Yip, on the run from a gang of bandits, comes to the hotel looking for sanctuary. Such is Chow's reputation that the bandits dare not cross the boundary but set up camp outside in a kind of siege. Claiming to be Chow's wife, Cecilia causes friction inside the hotel. All is not as it seems, however, and Chow's hidden past is threatening to catch up with him, which it does in the final reel.

Quite unique in its approach (I don't think I've ever seen another Chinese 'Western') 'Peace Hotel' manages to effectively create the style and mood of the traditional Western. Typical of the movies from that genre the tension is allowed to build until the explosive final showdown where we see Chow fight a multitude of armed attackers. I thought criticisms over lack of action to be a little unfair as 'Peace Hotel' seemed to be as much about the intrigue and tension and, I felt, got the balance right between story development and action. There is an action set piece that comes about half way through the movie that allows the audience to realise that Chow hasn't really gone soft and can fight when the situation demands it. The short gunplay sequence that comes at the end is expertly shot and again pits Chow Yun Fat against almost impossible odds. The swordplay that follows is also well choreographed and filmed to good effect.

Altogether 'Peace Hotel' is a competent piece of film making and it was good to see Chow Yun Fat finish on something completely different rather than to try to recreate one of his earlier successes.