My buddy Kelly Greene and I saw THE KILLER last night in the theater for the first time since we saw it on original release back in 1998. We couldn’t agree on where we saw it. I thought it must have been at Hogg Auditorium on the UT campus because a lot of contemporary Hong Kong cinema was being shown there. Kelly believes we saw it at the old Dobie Theater in Dobie Mall.
Regardless of where we saw it first, watching it again last night after all these years was like seeing a new film. Oh, sure I remembered the basic plot but there were a lot of details that I did not recall.
THE KILLER is a super-charged action epic centered on a paid assassin (Chow Yun Fat) and a doggedly determined police detective (Danny Lee). The assassin wants to do one last kill and use the money he’s paid to restore the eyesight to a pretty young lounge singer who was blinded in a shootout by Fat. He’s wracked with guilt and seeks redemption and salvation.
The theme of salvation is introduced right from the opening scenes which take place in an isolated church. It is there that Fat and his underworld friend meet to arrange a killing. Woo returns to the church in the third act in which any hope of salvation is completely destroyed in, what I consider to be, the single greatest gun battle ever seen on the big screen.
Previously, Sam Peckinpah’s epic shoot out at the end of THE WILD BUNCH, was widely regarded as the best gun fight ever. But Woo, Fat and Lee blow that sequence out of the water in an incredibly well choreographed fight which sees hundreds of rounds of lead disbursed at any bad guy that gets in their way.
Of course, by this point in the film, the cop and the assassin have developed a relationship of mutual respect. They both live by a code of honor, loyalty and friendship and even though they are on opposite sides of the law, they are determined to stand together and go down in a blaze of glory. This relationship is more than just a little homo-erotic as the two look knowingly and longingly at each other several times during the fight.
John Woo combines the heady, soap-opera fireworks of Douglas Sirk (especially his MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION) with the kill-everything-that-moves ethos of Peckinpah’s WILD BUNCH. The action sequences (of which there are many) are brilliantly choreographed and absolutely breathtaking to watch.
THE KILLER is the film that made an international film star out of Chow Yun Fat. It’s easy to see why. He’s a good-looking guy who oozes charisma and charm. And the film cemented Woo’s reputation as well as a master of emotions writ large and gun battles that are even larger.
THE KILLER is a stone-cold masterpiece in my book, and gets my highest recommendation. If you love action movies, if you like Hong Kong cinema, if you just want to see what all the fuss was about back in the late ’90s, then you must see this film.
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