10-01-2025, 09:18 PM
The Killer (1989)
Criterion just assembled a Hong Kong action list and a John Woo list and this tops them both. I needed a little of the ol’ ultravi and this did just the trick. One of Woo’s earliest and a collab with the ever charismatic Chow Yun Fat, this film remains untouched as one of the greatest balletic gun play films of all, Woo and Chow at their youthful prime delivering groundbreaking fire fights that redefined the genre.
It begins achingly romantic, shot like a cheesey HK romance. Woo’s obsession with doves and crucifixes are blunt instruments of sentimentality. Chow’s performance is totally engrossing as he navigates ruthless slaughter with a good heart and all the conflicts that dichotomy present.
And the fire fights - gratuitous sanguineous mayhem. Chow likes to shoot victims repeated and they a blasted back into furniture, through glass and off balconies. Some serious stunt work. Chow’s two-fisted bullet barrages will become his trademark. Somehow he gets three or four times as many rounds as you’d expect from his reloads, but who’s bothering to count? Just make the baddies do that ‘I’m being shot’ samba and we’ll allow.
If you’ve never seen this, we should revoke your D00M card. This is not only D00M recommmended. It’s D00M required (exceptions made for those weary of excessive heroic bloodshed because this is as bloody as it gets).
Criterion just assembled a Hong Kong action list and a John Woo list and this tops them both. I needed a little of the ol’ ultravi and this did just the trick. One of Woo’s earliest and a collab with the ever charismatic Chow Yun Fat, this film remains untouched as one of the greatest balletic gun play films of all, Woo and Chow at their youthful prime delivering groundbreaking fire fights that redefined the genre.
It begins achingly romantic, shot like a cheesey HK romance. Woo’s obsession with doves and crucifixes are blunt instruments of sentimentality. Chow’s performance is totally engrossing as he navigates ruthless slaughter with a good heart and all the conflicts that dichotomy present.
And the fire fights - gratuitous sanguineous mayhem. Chow likes to shoot victims repeated and they a blasted back into furniture, through glass and off balconies. Some serious stunt work. Chow’s two-fisted bullet barrages will become his trademark. Somehow he gets three or four times as many rounds as you’d expect from his reloads, but who’s bothering to count? Just make the baddies do that ‘I’m being shot’ samba and we’ll allow.
If you’ve never seen this, we should revoke your D00M card. This is not only D00M recommmended. It’s D00M required (exceptions made for those weary of excessive heroic bloodshed because this is as bloody as it gets).
Shadow boxing the apocalypse