|
 |
The Killer-Unrated
|
by Fox Lorber
Sales Rank: 29001
Price: $9.98
|
|
|
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 <I>City on Fire</I>, is the intense, young officer who fixates on the killer's contradictory personality. <I>--David Chute</i>
Viewer Reviews
This film has been categorized as an action movie with a great deal of bloodshed. Superficially this is true but Woo's masterwork can easily stand beside Once Upon a Time in the West as a beautifully shot, highly stylized film that reaches far beyond the confines of a mere genre film. The acting is superb and the editing is Academy Award level. Only the score does not quite come up to the level of Leone's films. Don't hesitate to view this movie because of it's violent reputation. It is so much more than that.
Back To Top
|
The Killer-Unrated
Available from Amazon
|
|
NOTICE: All product prices, availability, and specifications
are subject to verification by their respective retailers.
Copyright © 2009, Dominant Systems Corporation
info@HowlingVideo.com
Privacy Policy
Last Modified : 1-7-2009
|
