Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25880 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-10-21
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Collector's Edition, PAL
• Original language: Cantonese Chinese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
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. --Sean Axmaker

Special Features
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1
Feature Length Audio Commentary With Bey Logan
Trailer Archive
Art Gallery
Interview With Producer Tsui Hark And Chow Yun Fat
Interview With Sally Yeh And Kenneth Tsang
Interview With Cinematographer Peter Pau
Gallery Of Rare Deleted Scenes
Fully Animated Themed Menus

Synopsis
In John Woo's THE KILLER, a hired assassin (Chow Yun-Fat) accidentally blinds a beautiful nightclub singer during what was supposed to be his last murder. When he falls in love with her and accepts another contract in order to finance her cornea surgery, the stage is set for a long and bloody confrontation. A boisterous bullet opera from Woo, tempered as usual with his fascination with the notion of the honorable killer and with the doubling of similar men whom circumstances have placed on opposite sides of the law. The film is very heavy on Catholic imagery and redemption motifs.

Customer Reviews

Tribute nonsense
I just read the main review for this title and it fails to deliver on why this film is a unique and genre defining piece of Asian Cinema. The most instructive way to consider this work is through avoiding parallels and influences and tribute spiels, but rather to concentrate on what distinguishes the work from its contemporaries.

What needs to be stressed is that The Killer is a film that could only have been made in Hong Kong. Watch this film to see why people refer to Hong Kong as the very pinnacle of action movie making (especially mid to late 80's). Woo's influences are certainly diverse but this is to overlook the central attractions of The Killer. (of which there are two)

- The Killer perhaps better than any other Woo work manages to blur the line between the cop and the killer (the exact opposite of Face Off - which accentuates the distinction). By the end of the film it becomes clear that what is legal / illegal and what is right / wrong are two different questions. Woo proposes that the moral and legal spheres operate on two disparate levels.

- Chow Yun Fat plays the deadly assasin in this movie. After a hugely succesful career as the hero, the loyal and honourable friend, Woo casts Chow to play the lead lawbreaker. Few actors could effect such a seamless transition in character, whereas others such as Willis have fumbled when outside the 'good-guy' comfort zone.

Watch this movie for powerful yet bloody Hong Kong action at its very best. This film is maturer that the Better Tomorrow series and certainly less corny that Hard Boiled. I have no reservations in classing this the high points of both Woo and Chow Yun Fat. An absolute classic, that's my 'tribute' to this movie!

Excellence is a hail of bullets!
If you’re new to the work of John Woo, or think his career begins and ends with his Hollywood films (Mission Impossible 2, Face/Off, etc), you should see this film without delay. You’ll be in for a treat. Featuring the Hong Kong legend and regular Woo colaborator Chow Yun Fat, The Killer is a story about a nice-guy assassin trying to pay for an operation to restore the sight of a young woman he accidentally blinded whilst carrying out a hit. He teams up with the cop trying to catch him, and together they take on the Triads. To be honest, though, this does not really matter one bit. What does matter is the gunplay, and lots of it. Although the story is a good one and the performances are decent, the point of a John Woo film are the beautifully filmed and choreographed gunfights. On this score, The Killer delivers in spades. The two men deliver carnage that even Arnold Schwarzenegger at his peak couldn’t match. In the finale to this film, the bodycount probably reaches three figures. And these guys don’t shoot their enemies once when shooting them eleven times will do. Their guns must hold about fifty rounds each. Apart from this lapse in reality, though, this is as good an action film as you will ever see, a perfect introduction to the Hong Kong action genre, and far better than anything of its type from America.

To Die For
Chow Yun Fat eats up the screen as the killer with a conscience. As with most John Woo movies its the action sections which catch the eye. But in Chow Yuns performance we get a subtlety which can only be delivered by a great actor. As he went on to prove in Crouching Tiger, Chow Yun Fat deserves to be rated as one of Asias finest actors. The story is simple enough, but the settings and the photography are what distinguish it from formula straight to video fodder. Ultimately this is a buddy movie but the pacing and characters set it apart. Some light comic touches are an unexpected delight from a Woo picture, but the tea scene is a delight of suspense and comedy. Only the 60 shooter revolvers and the willingness of the baddies to die after one shot, while being unable to hit a barn door themselves strikes a discordant note. Extremely violent, non stop action and a lesson in honour, it is a movie to cherish. Top marks.