I remember first watching The Killer (1989) thanks to SBS Cult Movie night as well as renting a VHS version with a terrible English dub. Reviving the Dragon Dynasty DVD I owned of this Hong Kong action classic directed and written by John Woo, it was a pleasure to revisit. When I was younger, much like every other action movie fan, it was all about the kinetic ballet of bullets, with Chow Yun Fat as the smooth hitman wielding two hand guns who accidentally blinds a singer (Sally Yeh) who he falls in love with, which is a relationship that has to compete with his budding admiration for the cop out to catch him (Danny Lee). Watching it now, I was more hooked on Woo’s noir romanticism, paying tribute to Le Samourai with soft focus close ups, smooth dissolves and fades, and lingering freeze frames, all to communicate the sense of melodrama swirling underneath and around all of the action set pieces. The violence still astonishes (I’ll always react to when The Killer drives up and shoots off a stuntman’s fake arm, a mistake which was left in) and the major themes developed throughout Woo’s career are potent here, particularly the camaraderie and honour expressed between Fat and Lee, as well as Fat’s relationship with his Triad handler (Chu Kong). Fat is terrific in the lead, charmingly charismatic but also compellingly intense. An influential action classic. Recommended.
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