Director: Shing Hon Lau
Writers: Shing Hon Lau and Cheuk-Hon Szeto
From: Cult Cinema
Watch: archive.org
A Vietnamese soldier works as a mob hitman in Hong Kong. He wants out, but problems arise when a reporter starts investigating his boss and a comrade from Vietnam arrives seeking revenge.
Much like Messiah of Evil, I don’t want to say too much about this movie because I liked it and don’t want to spoil anything. Also like Messiah of Evil, you kind of know what’s going to happen as soon as each part gets introduced.
Chow Yun-Fat plays…
Oh yeah, the movie stars Chow Yun-Fat. The “watch” link is right up there ↑↑↑.
Anyway, Chow Yun-Fat is Andy, a Vietnamese vet who now works as a hitman for the Hong Kong mafia. He’s haunted by flashbacks of the atrocities he committed there. He wants to stop being a killer, but his boss has promised to bring Andy’s family to Hong Kong from Vietnam if he just does a few more jobs.
Meanwhile, a female reporter is covering the various murders committed by Andy, but really starts catching the mob’s attention when she starts investigating a gas leak that poisoned an entire elementary school. The leak involved sarin and she starts to find a connection between the chemical and the front company run by Andy’s boss.
On top of all this, a man who had been Andy’s comrade in the war, but was abandoned to the enemy when he fell into a trap, is in Hong Kong trying to get revenge on Andy.
The various plot elements come together the way you’d expect, but they’re handled well. This doesn’t feel like an 80’s action cheapie, it looks like a real movie. Plus Chow Yun-Fat, even when dubbed, is a great actor and just brings charisma to the whole enterprise.
One criticism I do have is that the pacing is very strange. The first third is mostly just Andy performing hits (one done with real visual style), so it wasn’t clear what the plot would be. Then the reporter stops being just a background character, but that’s the moment Andy disappears from the film for 15-20 minutes. Now it’s all about her and her investigating this gas leak. The guy chasing Andy doesn’t show up until about halfway through if not later, so it’s hard to feel like there’s a developing tension or inevitability to these storylines coming together.
One other warning: there is a scene of gendered violence. Andy smacks his girlfriend (who’s only present in one scene earlier in the movie) and his friend tells her she was asking for it. Then she goes home and is raped and murdered. The assault isn’t shown in this cut of the film, but it’s still there and strikes a real sour note.
If you’re still into it, though, the film, at least the English dub, is in the public domain in the United States. Even better, my copy was in widescreen. I’ve uploaded it to the Internet Archive here. The print’s a little muddy, but it’s still pretty good. I’d say give it a watch.
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