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I am an enormous John Woo fan and this ranks at the top of the list for me. It's just 100% absolute brilliance distilled onto celluloid. There are a couple of things that make this masterpiece slightly better than some of John Woo's other works (namely Hard Boiled). First and foremost are the characters. Ah-Jong (or John, or Joe, or Jeff) is easily the deepest Chow Yun-Fat character in a John Woo movie and you can really see him shine alongside the excellent supporting cast. The friendship between him and Danny Lee is genuine and you can see that clearly throughout the film. It's also interesting to see him in such a romantic role, at least inside an action movie (remember, CYF acted in practically nothing but romantic comedies before A Better Tomorrow). It really shows off Yun-Fat's ability to go from ultra-movie-badass one minute to caring, compassionate lover the next. Sally Yeh's casting opposite Chow couldn't have worked better in this regard. The other thing that steps it up above Woo's other works are the gunfights and eye candy. While some say that Hard Boiled has The Killer beat, I believe The Killer has the upper hand with finesse. The gunfights are extremely well choreographed and almost appear as dances. Woo's other films were more heavy on the "go for broke" action sequences, which, while good, aren't as majestic as the ones featured in The Killer. Basically The Killer just takes all of the greatest things about John Woo's early pictures and enhances them into a single movie. Even the code of honor that Woo worked into so many of his films was played up beautifully between Ah-Jong and Sydney, if not a little rehashed from A Better Tomorrow. This isn't to say that The Killer isn't a great movie on its own. It is. It's just that when talking about John Woo movies it's hard not to compare one to the other in various terms. I absolutely could not love this movie more than I do and I recommend it to anyone and everyone. This film epitomizes the fantastic collaboration between Chow Yun-Fat and John Woo and was also one of the earlier Asian films to become a cult hit and open up the Asian cinema market to the US. Everything about this movie is phenominal and if you haven't seen it you owe it to yourself to watch it sometime. 5.5/5 Dr. Gojo Shioji fucked around with this message at 06:54 on Nov 10, 2004 |
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Nov 9, 2004 01:15
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 03:08 |
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