Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18573 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-10-03
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 111 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
John Woo's 1989 Hong Kong action classic, a stylish, bullet-riddled elegy to friendship under fire, firmly established him as the maestro of mayhem. Superstar Chow Yun-Fat, Asia's king of cool, plays the most charming hit man ever (and yes, he only takes contracts on those who deserve it), but when one of his killings leaves an innocent nightclub singer (Sally Yeh) blinded, he dedicates his life to giving her back her sight. Danny Lee is the cop on his tail, but the two adversaries become unlikely comrades when the mob decides to cancel its debt to Chow by taking him out, leading to a beautifully filmed and incredibly violent confrontation. Woo places the showdown in a church and punctuates the acrobatic gunfight with images of religious icons, flying doves, and burning candles. An ode to Jean-Pierre Melville's existential gangster classic Le Samouria, Woo's delirious mix of melodrama and stylized action recalls the balletic bloodletting of Sam Peckinpah, the elegant camerawork of Martin Scorsese, and the operatic, larger-than-life grandeur of Sergio Leone. Woo's love of American musicals (and his own background as a dance instructor) adds a touch of grace to the fluid choreography of the action scenes. In terms of sheer action, Woo topped himself a few years later with Hard-Boiled, his Hong Kong swan song, but most critics still rate The Killer as his masterpiece. Available in Cantonese with English subtitles or dubbed in English. Also available in pan-and-scan and widescreen editions. --Sean Axmaker

Amazon.com essential video
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 City on Fire, is the intense, young officer who fixates on the killer's contradictory personality. --David Chute

Customer Reviews

The Quintessential Action Film
John Woo holds the distinction, not only of being the top director of actions films, probably in the history of the cinema, but of having made the quintessential movie of the genre. "The Killer," made in 1989, is quite simply, the perfect action film. Featuring an outstanding performance by star Yun-fat Chow, as Jeff, the killer of the title, it is a showcase of the specific action sequences by which the standard for the entire industry has since been formulated. But what makes it truly remarkable, is that the story lives up to the action, as well. Chow is a professional killer who accidentally blinds a young singer, named Jennie (Sally Yeh), during the fulfillment of a contract. Filled with remorse over the incident, he befriends her, and ultimately begins to care deeply for her. Up to this point in his life, he has killed people he believed deserving of their fate, but now he's changed; he's beginning to comprehend the sanctity of life. There is one more contract he must fulfill, however, for which he is to be paid one-and-a-half million dollars, after which he will retire from the life and see to it that Jennie gets the cornea transplant that will restore her vision. Further conflict arises, though, when the man who hired Jeff decides to have him killed as well, thereby saving him some money, and tying up what he considers to be some loose ends in the bargain. Never before, or since, has such extreme violence been so well integrated into the story, in any film; and Woo's sense of measure is impeccable. The violence is only as graphic as necessary, in order to be effective in any given scene, and the gunfights are choreographed with such precision and timing that it's like a kind of visual poetry. Woo, in fact, has given a lyrical, almost wistful feel, overall, to the film, which accentuates the contrast between the romance and the violence even more. His deft use of slow motion in the action sequences, and imagery (especially in the scenes which take place in a church), are further examples of the artistry and detail that make this such a great movie. The care taken with the story itself is a rare thing for a film of this genre; not to say that action films, in general, are typically wanting in plot or characterization, but in most cases, more often than not the story does defer to the action. But not in this one. Jeff's epiphany, for instance, and his feelings for Jennie, are played without the least bit of misplaced sentiment or pretentiousness, for which credit must be given to Woo and his stars; in the hands of lesser talent, it could all have easily played out as maudlin and sappy, and been used as nothing more than a framework upon which to build the action. The supporting cast includes Kenneth Tsang, Chu Kong, and Danny Lee, who gives an especially impressive performance as Lieutenant Li. "The Killer," is simply nothing less than the definitive film of it's genre, the "Citizen Kane," if you will, of action films. Even given the subjective nature of cinema, this film is so well done, and Woo has obviously made such an impact in his field, that it must be considered as one among the all-time great movies in the history of film. This is a must-have for any serious video collection.

Awesome BUT
Beware the dubbed version!!!!! Make sure you get the subtitled version, as the dubbed one cuts out OVER HALF of the action. Trust me, I have seen both versions.

WARNING!
Warning, this is a seriously BUTCHERED version of the film. Disny, in all of it's wisdom, has decided to cut over 6 minutes of the film. Do yourself a favor and get ahold of the fox lorber/winstar release, orif you've got the cash, pick up the criterion edition.