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The Killer (1989)

Dir: John Woo.

A hitman, Ah Jong (Chow Yun Fat), goes out on one last job to get money towards an eye operation for a girl named Jenny (Sally Yeh) whom he injured and has since fallen in love with during an earlier assassination.
When the Ah Jong is betrayed by his employers he attempts to get the money owed to him, at the same time as an honourable Policeman, Inspector Li (Danny Lee), is hot on his trail.
Soon they will meet, and stand together against the Triads...

 

John Woo directed 3 masterpieces before he went to Hollywood and fell from grace... "A Better Tomorrow", "A Bullet in the Head" and "The Killer" (weak story/script means "Hard Boiled" just fails to reach the heights it should have).
And it's here, so very long ago now, that we see the artist that is John Woo in full flight.

The basic story is pure pulp, pure melodramatic fiction. But it works. And it works because of the masters involved in its conception.

Woo delivers the high melodrama with accomplished ease, combining full blooded, mammoth shootouts with scenes of love, friendship and honour. This combination of emotion and violence is still, even today after such masterpieces as "True Romance", a unique beast. what shouldn't work, does. Woo knows how to pull the emotional heartstrings and knows how to instill in the viewer the raw Human emotions so essential to real action cinema. And yet he delivers an action film that to this day is a text book example of hardboiled thriller cinema.

His handling of the 'character' scenes shows true knowledge of what the viewer wants. He gives us plot and people to care about, and yet fuses it all with some of the finest gunplay sequences ever filmed.
We have emotion, but it's emotion backed up with the bullet.

The opening assassination is pure cinematic magic. Ah Jong is filmed in slow motion entering a club where the lovely Sally Yeh is singing a wonderful, heartfelt ballad. For an instant their eyes meet, then Ah Jong moves away to the back of the club and as the song ends he enters the rooms where his targets are. What follows is legend.
Ah Jong, wipes out the target and his men, is wounded and accidentally hurts Jenny. In a few minutes Woo gives us violence, bloodshed and tragedy. Wonderful movie making.

The following story gives us the relation ship between Ah Jong, Inspector Li and Jenny. A triangle of mixed emotions and loyalties, honour and the need for justice. What should be sickly sweet is in fact expertly handled. We care for these people, and we move within the plot with them.

The action is, of course, superlative. Where Woo (to his own admission) went overboard into self-conscious parody with the famous "A Better Tomorrow 2" finale, here he shows us how good he REALLY is.
The blood is plentiful (the wonderfully OTT, multiple bullet hits that are so noticeable by their absence in his Hollywood output, are here in all their gory splendour) and the body count delightfully obscene, but he has still maintained a realistic discipline. The many shootouts are all great, but the two that stand out are the one at Ah Jong and Jenny's house where white clad assassins are mowed down with brutal efficiency, with white becoming red, and the Cop and Killer standing together…. Two sides of the same coin. Two men of honour. It's blood spattered and jaw dropping in its artistic mayhem.

The other is the church bound finale. Bloodshed has never been so heroic (hence the British naming of the whole nu-wave HK action genre as 'Heroic Bloodshed' by 'Eastern Heroes' honcho Rick Baker in the glory days of the 90's) and true, powerful emotions have never been so expertly crafted as in this outstanding set-piece.
As Li and Ah Jong face the army of Triads, each to avenge the killing of a close friend, each to protect and help Jenny andeach to uphold honour, we are treated to one of action cinema's finest moments.
Cool, extreme, exciting, powerful and yet so effectively emotional. It IS the very essence of Hong Kong action movie making.

The wonderful score by Lowell Lo also deserves a mention. Although some of the more action-themed music is in fact 'borrowed' from "Red Heat" (where it is far less effective than it is in "The Killer" strangely enough) his original compositions are fantastic, emotive works.
The opening pan pipe theme just adds so much to the atmosphere...and the romance/harmonica track is used (music editor was the amazing jack of all trades, David Wu) perfectly, just staying on the right said of sweet. And the grander tune used especially well when the Virgin Mary statue is destroyed simply makes that whole sequence come alive. Add to that the lovely songs and you have one of the true greats of Hong Kong soundtracks.

And of course, the other major player in ANY action scene is the Editor. Here it's Fan Kung Ming...and he must take some of the credit for the success of Woo's hyper kinetic set pieces. The editing of the shooting, the victims being hit, the stunts and explosions is stunning. Just take a look at the Dragon Boat assassination where Chow is seen picking up the rifle in 3 separate angle shots, mixed with the music and Chows sheer presence...it's a perfect example of Director, Star and Editor creating something special from the simplest of sequences.

The actors are all in fine form with Danny Lee (who would become a director of numerous CAT III films like "The Untold Story") shining through the shadow cast by Chow Yun Fat. He gives Li a real sense of honour and yet confusion as he battles with his own emotions and the upholding of the law.
Sally Yeh sings like an angel (the lovely songs especially written for the film, so not available on any of her albums) and gives her best with a limited role.
Kenneth Tsang (later to appears in the Bond film "Die Another Day" and chow's underrated U.S. intro "The Replacement Killers") does a wonderful job as Li's partner. Giving a noble air to his role as the guiding, moral force in Li's life.

But it's the iconic, the God like, Chow Yun Fat that dominates the movie. From his opening conversation in the candle lit church to the night club assassination' to the gut wrenching finale he grips the viewer. Holds the audience expertly in his characters hands. Ah Jong is one of Cinema's finest tragic characters.
Chow really exploded on to the HK Cinema World as Mark in Woo's sublime "A Better Tomorrow", with another grand and tragic heroic role, after a number of acting plaudits but low box office returns.
But it's in "The Killer" where we really see what he can do. He handles the action like NO OTHER actor can and at the same time delivers a truly gripping portrayal of a complex man. From his opening walk into the nightclub, to his noble stand at the church, we are gripped by him, drawn to him. We share every emotion with his character. The love, the guilt, the betrayal, the confusion…the sacrifice. And those in The West that first saw Chow's portrayal in such a masterful piece of film making that "The Killer" is (as the film exploded onto cinema screens via film festivals and TV screens via home video, and now DVD), knew that they were witnessing something truly special, truly ground breaking, and somehow action cinema would, and could, never be the same again.

All hail Chow Yun Fat, all hail John Woo and all hail "The Killer".