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The Killer - Criterion Collection
Price: $45.95 Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
EAN: 9781559408608
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC
ISBN: 155940860X
Label: Criterion
Languages: Cantonese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0English (Subtitled),
Manufacturer: Criterion
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: Criterion
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 01, 1998
Running Time: 110 minutes
Studio: Criterion
Theatrical Release Date: 1990-09
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Editorial Review:
This 1989 rouser is apocalyptic pulp--the bloodiest, showiest, most shamelessly sentimental specimen of Hong Kong's gangster melodramas. A torch singer named Jennie (Sally Yeh) is accidentally blinded during a slaying in a night club, and Chow Yun-fat's sad-eyed Jeff, a self-lacerating assassin, drags himself out of retirement to take on one last job--rubbing out a major mobster for major bucks--so he can pay for the singer's cornea transplant operation. But Jeff pauses to ferry a wounded child to the hospital during this final outing, and because of this a cop finally gets a good look at him: "He was seen on the job," snarls a saturnine Mr. Big, "and I want him wasted." Armies of thugs converge on the saintly slayer. Some of writer-director John Woo's flourishes are kitsch classics (doves flying upward in a candlelit church), while the action sequences are rapturous. "Life's cheap," a character opines. "It only takes one bullet," but in this case it actually takes about a dozen spewing bullet hits to kill anyone, as soulful triads in mirror shades and duster overcoats blaze away with high-tech weaponry. (A favorite trick involves grasping an enemy by the lapels, pulling him into a waltz embrace, and pumping several slugs into his duodenum.) Danny Lee, Chow's costar in City on Fire, is the intense, young officer who fixates on the killer's contradictory personality. --David Chute
Hong Kong's preeminent director John Woo transforms genres from both the East and the West to create this explosive and masterful action film. Featuring Hong Kong's greatest star, Chow Yun-fat, as a killer with a conscience, the film is an exquisite dissection of morals in a corrupt society, highlighted with slow-motion sequences of brilliantly choreographed gun battles on the streets of Hong Kong.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Absolutely Horrible!!!
I found this movie absolutely horrible--overloaded with gratuitous violence, violence for violence sake. It's for people who enjoy watching people murder people. There were no real characters in this monstrousity of a movie--only killing machine people. No one, that's right, no one was believable. Even the so-called story line--a hitman killing to raise money to enable a blind woman, whom the hitman accidentally blinded, to see, was a farce. Movies like this only raise the potential level of violence ... Read More
Rating:  - The best!
I can't even count how many times I've watched this movie. The action is great, but it's the storyline that just blows me away. It's one of my favorite movies of all-time and I totally recommend this to anyone and everyone. If you haven't seen it, make it a priority to check it out at your earliest convenience. I've seen thousands upon thousands of movies and this one definitely sticks out as a killer. ;)
Rating:  - I Believe In Justice
John Woo:you either love him or hate him but there is no way of looking at him except as a force of nature. The Killer was one of Woo's greatest Hong Kong features; long before he came to America and made films such as Face/Off and Mission Impossible 2.
Made on a small budget this film is an homage to the classic action directors of Hollywood. There are shades of Peckenpah and of Scorsese. The films grainy look makes it almost perfect for this genre.
The story of a killer with ... Read More
Rating: - One of the greatest of the genre
I first got interested in Woo's work after seeing "Broken Arrow" in 1996. I was able to get my hands on a VHS copy of The Kiiler and watched it thinking it would be at least as food as Broken Arrow.
It wasn't.
It was ten times better.
The plot is similar to the Rock Hudson film Magnificent Obsession (although Rock is not an assassin). Chow-Yun Fat is an amazing actor who portrays the title character with great depth and believability. ... Read More
Rating: - RE-ISSUE!!!!!
I don't know much about the secondary "market" for DVD's, but when I look to buy a copy of "The Killer" on amazon, I am filled with disgust. $300.00 for a copy of a !@&%$*@ DVD? It's time that whoever owns the distribution rights to re-issue this film and take control of this situation back from these scalpers.
This comment refers to the "Criterion Collection" version.
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