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The Killer (1989 film)

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US theatrical poster
The Killer
Directed by	John Woo
Produced by	Tsui Hark
Written by	John Woo
Starring	Chow Yun-Fat Danny Lee Sally Yeh Chu Kong
Music by	Lowell Lo
Distributed by	Golden Princess Film Production Limited
Release date(s)	July 6, 1989 January, 1990
Running time	111 min.
Language	Cantonese
Budget	HK$ 18,255,083
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese:	喋血双雄
Traditional Chinese:	喋血雙雄
Pinyin:	Diéxuè shuāngxióng

The Killer (Traditional Chinese: 喋血雙雄, Simplified Chinese: 喋血双雄; Cantonese IPA: [tɪp₂₂ hyt₃₃ sœŋ₅₅ həʊŋ₁₁], Jyutping: dip6 hyt3 seong1 hung4; Mandarin Pinyin: Diéxuè shuāngxióng; literally: Bloodshed of Two Heroes) is a 1989 Hong Kong thriller starring Chow Yun-Fat as the hitman Ah Jong, Danny Lee as the cop Li Ying and Sally Yeh as the singer Jennie. John Woo directed the film, which brought him wide-spread recognition in the West. The film was produced by Tsui Hark. The Killer is considered a classic of the Asian heroic bloodshed genre of action cinema.^[1] It is a very popular and well regarded film, not only for its stylised violence, but for its themes of honor, love and friendship, which, coupled with the religious motif of salvation (not uncommon in the heroic bloodshed genre) is used to evoke powerful emotions. The film also asserts a higher morality that is above the law of man, which makes the cop question his motivations. The film is notable for its tense Mexican standoffs, a trademark of Woo. A Hollywood remake has for many years been in development, but various factors have kept it in development hell.

1 Plot summary
2 Alternate versions
3 Influence
4 DVD Versions
5 Box Office
6 Music Cues
7 Trivia
8 Possible Remake
9 References
10 External links

Plot summary

The Killer revolves around the character of Ah Jong (Chow Yun-Fat), a professional killer. During a hit in the opening act, Ah Jong accidentally blinds a young nightclub singer, Jennie (Sally Yeh) with the muzzle flash from his pistol. Driven to help the now near-blinded woman by securing money for a sight-saving corneal transplant, he agrees to carry out another hit. During his escape he is pursued by Li Ying (Danny Lee Sau-Yin), a cop who is investigating his crimes. Ah Jong then finds himself being hunted by his employers who want to get rid of him for being seen "on the job". After witnessing Ah Jong save a dying girl and learning about Jennie's operation, the cop realizes arresting this hitman would not set things right. Together they fight the Triads through amazing action sequences which ultimately climax in an explosive shootout at an abandoned church. There, Ah Jong has Li Ying swear to donate the hitman's eyes to Jennie if something were to happen to him. The ending is tragic, in that Ah Jong dies, his eyes shot out by the Triad boss, Wong Hoi. Jennie is left crawling for him in the dark, her operation unrealized. The boss flees to police custody, but Li Ying chases after him: Li Ying realizes that the law could never give someone like Ah Jong justice, so he acts under his own sense of right and wrong and shoots the boss in cold blood.

Alternate versions

In one scene, Ah Jong and Li Ying are in Jennie's flat, holding each other at gun point; in order not to worry the blind girl, they pretend to be childhood friends and give each other silly nicknames: Ah Jong becomes 'Shrimphead' and Li Ying 'Runt'. Western releases of the film change the nicknames to "Dumbo" and "Mickey Mouse", or alternately, "Numbnuts" and "Butthead" on the Criterion version. The UK DVD release is currently the only English subtitled version to render the nicknames correctly. There is also an extended DVD version, dubbed in Mandarin which contains several minutes of extra scenes, most notably during the final shootout.

Influence

The plot is similar to the 1954 Hollywood movie Magnificent Obsession starring Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman. In that movie, Rock plays a playboy who accidentally blinds a young woman, and through newly found Christian ideals and pity that eventually turns to love for the blinded woman, he befriends her and tries to raise money for an eye operation, all the time not revealing his identity. The Killer was heavily influenced by French director Jean-Pierre Melville's 1967 cult film Le Samouraï. Some of the plot is borrowed (the female pianist in Melville's film is replaced by a nightclub singer), and Chow Yun-Fat's character was obviously inspired by Alain Delon's Jeff Costello ^[2]. In what may be an acknowledgement of this, Ah Jong is called 'Jeffrey Chow' in the English subtitled versions of the film.

DVD Versions

On November 6Th 2007 Dragon Dynasty was supposed release an ultimate edition DVD of The Killer. A two disc set with a newly remastered anamorphic widescreen transfer and a slew of extras including commentary by Woo and Chang. (Davis DVD) But the date has been pushed back to January 8th to get the best picture quality.

Box Office

The Killer grossed $18,355,083 HKD in Hong Kong.

Music Cues

Several music cues are taken from other films, most notably Red Heat, and Hero and the Terror. The songs: "Russian Streets" Composer: James Horner From: Red Heat (1988) "Victor Escapes" Composer: James Horner From: Red Heat (1988) "Bus Station" Composer: James Horner From: Red Heat (1988) "Breakout" Composer: David Michael Frank (credited as David Frank) From: Hero and the Terror (1988)

Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

Excerpts of the dialogue from the English dubbed version of The Killer is used in the album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx by Wu Tang Clan rapper Raekwon.

Possible Remake

A Hollywood remake has for many years been in development, but various factors have kept it in development hell. Director and screenwriter Walter Hill wrote a script ^[3] at one point, which would have had Richard Gere as Ah Jong (renamed "Jeff") and Denzel Washington as Li Ying (renamed "Lee"), with the possibility of changing the police officer to a female, played by Michelle Yeoh. ^[4] It will be directed by John H Lee. Story is set in Los Angeles traveling through Koreatown, Chinatown, and South Central. A Korean actor, unnamed at this time, will portray the killer in the remake. The script is still being written with no set release date — and the longer the better, if not at all, in the opinion of many fans. Several drafts of the screenplay were written, and re-written due to the connection between Jeff and Lee form during the film coming across as homosexual.

References

^ Kupść, Jarek [1989] (1989). The History of Cinema for Beginners. Writers and Readers Publishing Inc. ISBN 0863162754.
^ Bey Logan. The Killer [DVD]. Hong Kong Legends.
^ [1]
^ [2]

External links

The Killer at the Internet Movie Database
The Killer at Rotten Tomatoes
The Killer at the Hong Kong Movie Data Base
The Killer tops the Top 11 Classy Assassins at UGO

• • e

Films directed by John Woo

Fist to Fist (1973) • The Young Dragons (1974) • The Dragon Tamers (1974) • Princess Chang Ping (1975) • Hand of Death (1975) • Money Crazy (1977) • Last Hurrah for Chivalry (1978) • Hello, Late Homecomers (1978) • Follow the Star (1978) • From Riches to Rags (1980) • To Hell with the Devil (1981) • Laughing Times (1981) • Plain Jane to the Rescue (1982) • The Time You Need a Friend (1984) • Run Tiger Run (1985) • Heroes Shed No Tears (1986) • A Better Tomorrow (1986) • A Better Tomorrow II (1987) • The Killer (1989) • Tragic Heroes (1989) • Bullet in the Head (1990) • Once a Thief (1991) • Hard Boiled (1992) • Hard Target (1993) • Broken Arrow (1996) • Once a Thief (1996) • Face/Off (1997) • Blackjack (1998) • Mission: Impossible II (2000) • Windtalkers (2002) • Paycheck (2003) • All the Invisible Children (2005) • Red Cliff (2008)

• • e

Cinema of Hong Kong