The Killer 4K review by Bobby Blakey
Throughout his career John Woo has set the standard for action with some of the greatest action films including The Better Tomorrow Trilogy, Hard Boiled, Face-Off, Hard Target, Mission Impossible 2 and so many more. In 1989 he teamed up with Chow Yun Fat again for The Killer co-starring Danny Lee, Sally Yeh, Kong Chu and Shing Fui-Oh. Now the action classic is coming to 4K for the first time ever.
The Killer follows a Hong Kong hitman who accidentally blinds an innocent woman during a hit. He is determined to get her surgery to help her regain her sight, but he needs to complete one more hit first. He completes the job but then is ambushed as he tries to escape: someone wants him dead. Meanwhile a resourceful, unorthodox police detective is hot on his trail.
You know when John Woo and Chow Yun-fat get together its going to be action magic and The Killer is top tire only surpassed by maybe Hard Boiled. The story is simple taking a similar tone of The Better Tomorrow films but with an intensely more action that kicks all kinds of ass. It wastes no time bringing the coolness of Chow Yun-fat onto the screen and immediately lets the bullets fly like only he can. The over-the-top shootouts are plenty throughout the film with every person getting way more bullets into them than necessary but so satisfying.
All of the usual Woo tropes are here including the doves, the unrelenting violence, love story and heart. It would be easy to get lost in these films with the amount of depth actually to them held together by gun fights and insanity, but Woo weaves in and out to perfection. I have always loved how he infuses
these action spectacles with some sort of love story and bromance that helps to make you care more about the characters and their actions as the chaos explodes around them. This film is no different and still delivers on every level all these years later. It still offers up some of the best gun fu action that has been copied for years albeit never as good.
This new release not only features the iconic film in 4K, but also bonus content including commentary with Director John Woo and Film Journalist Drew Tayler Audio Commentary, The Hero of Heroic Bloodshed: A John Woo Documentary—Feature Length Documentary on the Cinema of Hong Kong's Iconic Director, new Interviews with John Woo, Stuntman Bruce Law, Producer Michael Colleary, Writer Mike Werb, Producer and more, deleted and extended scenes, trailers, image gallery, deluxe packaging, and 52 page booklet with essays and extensive art.
Join in on the barrage of gunfire and grab your copy of The Killer when it hits 4K for the first time ever on December 2nd from Shout Factory’s Hong Kong Cinema Classics collection.
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For more information or to get your copy head over here