The Cinematheque

“Starts over the top, then, like some cartoon freak-out, blasts through the roof.”

J. Hoberman, Village Voice

After director John Woo and producer Tsui Hark locked horns over A Better Tomorrow II, Woo drummed up his own financing to underwrite follow-up The Killer, his squib-soaked homage to Melville’s Le samouraï and a bona fide action classic. Here, the honour-bound lone wolf is Ah Jong (Chow Yun-fat), a sartorially suave hitman who accidentally blinds a nightclub singer (Sally Yeh) during a firefight with triads. Guilt compels him to protect her, leading to romance and a lucrative contract—his fateful final job—to pay for her corneal transplant. Their relationship only feigns the film’s love story; the true courtship belongs to Ah Jong and detective Li Ying (Danny Lee), two soulmates on opposing sides of the law whose union is consecrated through ultra-violence and shared admiration (maybe more). Christian symbolism, including the director’s first scattering of white doves, runs throughout. Woo’s 2024 straight-to-streaming remake set in Paris failed to match the original’s ferocity or piquant subtext.

In Cantonese with English subtitles

“The most dementedly elegiac thriller you’ve ever seen … The tone is hysterical from start to finish, but Woo’s lush visual stylings and taste for baroque detail give the whole thing an improbably serene air of abstraction.”

Tony Rayns, Time Out

“John Woo at his pinnacle … A super-stylised explosion of adrenaline that remains one of the key pieces in the jigsaw of today’s action cinema.”

Mark Dinning, Empire Magazine