Movie of The Day:"The KIller"

From imdb:

In this bloody tale of loyalty and friendship, Chow Yun-Fat is Jeffrey, an assassin who wishes to leave the business so he can take care of Jennie, the beautiful lounge singer who he inadvertently blinded during a previous assignment. Danny Lee is the determined cop who will stop at nothing to bring him in, only he realizes that Jeffrey is no ordinary assassin, and wishes to help him in his quest. Only problem is that Jeffrey's employers refuse to pay him for his last job, money which is needed to restore Jennie's eyesight. Written by Vince at unigx.ubc.ca

Hey, remember when you used to watch action movies and laugh at the fact that the hero seemed to fire 30 shots without reloading? Tell the truth you kind of miss those days. (At least, a litte) Well that's where The Killer steps in to fill that hollow void in your life.

The movie that turned John Woo into an international sensation and subsequently developed his current household name status is the visual template for everything we know love about Woo. It's all here, the slow-motion, the ballet gunfights, the doves flying as our hero walks straight towards us, even the odd religious/spiritual undertones.

In fact the church scene in Face-Off (a masterpiece in a different way) plays out similarly to the one in The Killer. (Although the two lead's in Face-Off don't refer to each other playfully as Disney characters, that's no reason to shit on Face-Off.)

 But what makes The Killer a gem is it's made by a man shooting for the moon. This movie showed the promise of John Woo as the next...I dunno...brilliant action director. It's hard to think of someone to compare Woo to, because most of the immediate names that come to mind have been influenced by him. American action movies where ripping him off  before we even knew who he was.

What I loved about John Woo's films where that sure there was balls to the wall action. But it was action with a heart. As silly as that is. You can see that John Woo loves westerns. He loves film noir and he loves religious metaphor. His movies where a blend of Howard Hawks, Sam Peckinpah, and Martin Scorsese - with Chow Yun-Fat shooting  two .45's in slo-mo.

Now it seems that the Hollywood machine has crushed another artist in it's gigantic  machinations. John Woo has gone from making movies about honor, redemption, forgiveness,  to movies that star Ben Affleck. So until The Battle of Red Cliff comes out. Let's all sit reminisce about the good old days.

If you have seen this film or plan on seeing it, please let me know.

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