I came to John Woo's "The Killer," a Hong Kong production, after having seen much of his American work including the sublime "Face/Off"--a film I love not in spite of it's insanity, but because of it--and the regrettable sci-fi action drudgery of "Paycheck." In my mind, "Face/Off" was the perfection of the Woo asthetic--bullet ballet, good/evil versus evil/good, maudlin sentimentality, gun battles on the beach, gun battles in church, and doves. Lots of doves. Those films that came before it were warm-ups and those after were tired retreads.
But no proper consideration of Woo can be properly made without seeking out his most critically acclaimed works "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled"--we'll get to that one next--starring frequent Woo leading man Chow Yun-Fat. Those critics who came to "The Killer" in 1989 unfamiliar with the director's work were no doubt impressed by his unique action sensibility that lovingly frames bullet wound upon bullet wound as injured bodies fly through the air and through conveniently placed panes of glass. Surrounding the violence is a story that is unapologetically melodramatic acted out by classic types: the renegade cop, the hit man with a conscience and the wilting chanteuse who loves him. In "The Killer," she is blind, but is the only one who sees the good in him.
By 2009, Woo's style has been heavily imitated, parodied, and fully integrated into the American action movie aesthetic. "The Matrix" being a prime example. Watching "The Killer" now is not nearly as invigorating as it must have been to its initial audience. We can't help but see it in part as an artifact. Just as watching "Psycho" won't have today's seen-it-all jaded horror fan fainting in the theater, "The Killer" won't substantially impact those raised on Woo imitators. Woo has done himself no favors by endlessly recycling the same visual tricks in so many of his later films. The ill-placed doves in the climactic moments of "Paycheck" invited derisive howls.
"The Killer" is an exercise in style and as a result fails to engage on a basic human level. The endless parade of canon fodder who continue to fall in lovingly rendered scenes of carnage make no connection with the viewer. They are a means to a bloody end. They arrive in wave after wave never providing a substantial challenge to conscientious killer Ah Jong (Chow Yun-Fat) and arch-rival Inspector Li-Ying (Danny Lee). Jennie is forever helpless, always getting in Ah Jong's way, but providing him with the desire to go straight, a desire which proves problematic.
Ah Jong and Li-Ying are super human taking down wave after wave of machine gun-toting baddies and are only really challenged in the climax when the screenplay demands it. Is such a hero even interesting? When the hero is seemingly invulnerable what's to keep the audience worried and therefore invested in the film. John Woo does spend a fair amount of screen time exploring the fact that good and evil live in everyone and that a hero or villain can be both a good guy or bad guy, but the conversations that spell out this ideas are blunt, repetitive, and uninteresting.
The film does have a dynamite sequence, however, involving a political assassination that is tense and that concludes with a stand-off in a hospital emergency room where a little girl's life hangs in the balance. It's the film's high point and shows Woo at the height of his powers. There's greater economy in these moments. The action is tighter and there is no heavy handed dialogue to weigh it all down.
Did I expect too much from "The Killer"? Was I expecting the wrong things from the film and asking it to be something it was not? Possibly. It's not the first time the melodrama and simple characterization prevalent in many Asian action films have bored me. Two recent examples being "Tears of the Purple Tiger" and the critics' darling "Triad Election." Maybe I am failing to appreciate the genre for what it is. Maybe I'll have a better idea after our next installment John Woo's "Hard Boiled." Stay tuned.
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