Actor(s): Yun-Fat Chow, Danny Lee, Sally Yeh, Kong Chu, Kenneth Tsang
Director(s): John Woo
Publisher: Walt Disney Video
Binding: DVD
Language(s): English
EAN: 0786936191844
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Movie Description
This 1989 rouser is apocalyptic pulp--the bloodiest, showiest, most shamelessly sentimental specimen of Hong Kong's gangster melodramas. A torch singer named Jennie (Sally Yeh) is accidentally blinded during a slaying in a night club, and Chow Yun-fat's sad-eyed Jeff, a self-lacerating assassin, drags himself out of retirement to take on one last job--rubbing out a major mobster for major bucks--so he can pay for the singer's cornea transplant operation. But Jeff pauses to ferry a wounded child to the hospital during this final outing, and because of this a cop finally gets a good look at him: "He was seen on the job," snarls a saturnine Mr. Big, "and I want him wasted." Armies of thugs converge on the saintly slayer. Some of writer-director John Woo's flourishes are kitsch classics (doves flying upward in a candlelit church), while the action sequences are rapturous. "Life's cheap," a character opines. "It only takes one bullet," but in this case it actually takes about a dozen spewing bullet hits to kill anyone, as soulful triads in mirror shades and duster overcoats blaze away with high-tech weaponry. (A favorite trick involves grasping an enemy by the lapels, pulling him into a waltz embrace, and pumping several slugs into his duodenum.) Danny Lee, Chow's costar in City on Fire, is the intense, young officer who fixates on the killer's contradictory personality. --David Chute
This film is a masterwork by John Woo. It has much more of a penetrating story than Hard Boiled. For those seeking the best transfer in Region 1 this is where you should look. It's OOP status makes the price higher, but it is worth it. The new Dragon Dynasty edition was badly sourced from a PAL master and is interlaced. I recently sat down with this edition again and although it is non-anamorphic the difference in colors and pacing more than make up for it.
"A Shakespearean gangster classic. But where to buy?"
Written By: Jason Kirkfield
Both the Criterion (The Killer - Criterion Collection, 1998) and Fox Lorber (The Killer, 2000) releases are out of print and very expensive on the secondary market.
My suggestion is to get the Region 2 "John Woo Collection" from Hong Kong Legends (2005). This was distributed in the UK through Contender Entertainment Group (now Entertainment One/E1):
In addition to The Killer, this 4-disc set also includes Bullet In The Head and Once A Thief. All three films are presented in widescreen with loads of extras including commentaries by Hong Kong and martial arts expert Bey Logan.
Before you scream that you do not own (or can not afford) a multi-region player, you should know that most DVD players can be unlocked with a simple code via the remote.
Xin Nian Kuai Le!
"Sell your Criterions! Dragon Dynasty Release 3-30-2010"
Written By: A. Nani Moss
Don't pay an arm and a leg for these OOP releases. Dragon Dynasty is rad and they are getting better all the time. On March 30, 2010 they will be releasing a two-disc set for 'The Killer' on DVD and blu-ray.
Go to their website and check it out. I tried adding a link to the website but I guess Amazon doesn't allow that. Just google Dragon Dynasty and go to 'Coming Soon'.
For those readers not familiar with Dragon Dynasty you would be well advised to learn more. DD is not a second-rate-knock-off company. Rather, it was created through the efforts of the Weinstein Company in collaboration with Quentin Tarantino and is most certainly premium transfers. The goal of DD is to bring Asia's finest action/kung fu films (both contemporary and vintage) to North America with the R1 quality we have come to expect domestically. Truly they are top-notch. Just check out their release of 'Hard Boiled' to see this for yourself.
I only wish Amazon would get 'The Killer' up on their site for pre-order!
"For John Woo Fans"
Written By: Richard A. Montoya
The killer has more action in the first minute than most action films have in the first hour. Don't miss this gem!
One of the genuine trendsetters in Action history was this 1989 Action masterpiece from one of the genre's most skilled directors. After building his own "gun-foo" style througout the 80s with the classics,"A Better Tomorrow(1986)" and it's sequel in 1988, Woo hits paydirt here.
Basically retelling to some degree, Jean Pierre Melville's "Le Samourai(1967", Woo adds a high octane sense of action and his ever present theme of male bonding to the mix for one of the decade's classics. The sweet story about the Hitman's attempts to fix the eyesight of a beautiful singer whom he blinded in a hit, is handled with the appropiate amount of sensitivity.
Chow Yun Fat is one of cinema's great Action heroes, at once both cool and imposing, yet full of humor and sympathy, this is still one of the actor's great performances, not equalled in sheer coolness until Woo's Hong Kong swan song with 1992's "Hard Boiled".
The action scenes are among the most riveting and intense ever filmed, notably the explosive climax. A masterpiece of substained mayhem that nearly reaches the operatic, this is perhaps the best gunfight we've seen since "Bloody" Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch(1969)".
The DVD is presented with both English language and Chinese versions and are UNCUT, however the prints utilized, leave much more to be desired. There is also audio commentary by the man himself, John Woo and Trailers for the film and Hard Boiled.
It's sad that this is out of print, especially considering it's now classic status and the amount of films that it inspired in the States that ARE still annoying us on the big screen. I reccomend that if you really want a good film, skip that Matrix-knock-off and go for this John Woo classic that started it all.
"Beautiful film-and still the best transfer"
