Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

The Killer Blu-ray Movie Review

One of John Woo's most successful Hong Kong efforts comes to Blu-ray. That isn't necessarily good news.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 7, 2010

There are surprisingly few directors who have initially made their mark in foreign markets whose names become well known in our down and dirty, flash in the pan celebrity culture here in the United States. Even in the halcyon days of the art film, we had a major triumvirate of Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa, and then a somewhat broad, if no less accomplished, second tier that included everyone (rightly or wrongly) from Ophuls to Antonioni. One of the positive impacts of both cable television, with its niche film channels, as well as the ever evolving home theater market, is that a whole new generation of “foreign” directors have been discovered, often, unlike some of their “ancestors” listed above, actually having their greatest successes in the United States marketplace. John Woo had a long and varied career in his native Hong Kong before first coming to notice stateside with such features as Hard Target and Broken Arrow before finally finding firm American footing, both stylistically and content wise, with the blockbuster Face/Off. By the time Woo helmed Mission Impossible 2 his name had become synonymous with over the top action sequences and tightly wound dramatic structures often hinging on hyperbolic setups. The attention that his American success brought also reflected back to his earlier Hong Kong creations, especially to The Killer, Woo’s 1989 opus which had done, well, killer business internationally even if it didn’t quite raise Woo’s public profile as much as it should have, at least in America.

Chow Yun-Fat is The Killer.

The Killer follows the travails of hired hitman Ah Jong (Chow Yun-Fat), who, in an early bloody sequence in a nightclub, seriously wounds an innocent bystander, a chanteuse named Jennie (Sally Yeh). Overcome with remorse, Jong begins tailing Jennie, whose sight has become seriously compromised as a result of her injury. Jong manages to save the lass one evening from some thugs, and a relationship soon blossoms. Of course with her eyesight hampered, Jennie is not aware her knight in shining armor is also the man who created her current predicament. In order to raise the funds for a corneal transplant for Jennie, Jong agrees to take on one last hit, despite his increasing distaste for his line of work. In one of the many spectacularly staged action sequences which dot The Killer, Jong assassinates a politico during a high profile seaside regatta. This soon initiates a cat and mouse game between Jong and a pursuing policeman (Danny Lee). In one of several nice twists, the cop soon realizes that Jong’s heart is in the right place, despite his rather odd way of showing it, and the two start working together to secure an end to a crime spree while also hopefully providing Jennie with the funds for her needed operation. Suffice it to say all does not go swimmingly.

This is a film which nicely balances a sort of movie of the week ethos, wherein a doomed love affair is fraught with conflicting emotions, against a really slam bang series of action sequences. In fact, Woo rarely lets the audience catch its breath for more than a few minutes at a time before another series of shootouts and mayhem occurs. The film barely is a few second old before the first of these, the nightclub scene wherein Jennie is injured, plays out in rather lurid detail, and the ending segment takes the violence to a whole new level as it unfolds in a church where Jong had repeatedly sought solace. The Killer is an incredibly bloody film, something which negatively impacted its original theatrical releases around the world, but in reality this violence plays out in an almost surreal, anime inflected way at times. Squibs (fake blood pellets) don’t just ooze blood in this film, they literally erupt, spewing red goo across the frame like some mad experiment by Jackson Pollock. Chow Yun-Fat’s stoicism through it all helps give The Killer the ambience of a comic book at times, where nothing, not even being shot, can really ruffle the feathers of our hero (or anti-hero, as the case may be).

The Killer shows Woo’s inerrant penchant for staging action sequences still in a somewhat nascent phase, with all the elements there, but few of the whiz-bang crane and dolly shots which became his trademark in later American releases. That said, this film is so chock full of violent action that directorial restraint in terms of camera movement and other gimmicks is actually appreciated. As with a lot of Woo films, emotions seem to be pasted on to the characters in a patently artificial way, but of course most people coming to a film like The Killer are not expecting psychological insight on the level of Dostoyevsky. That said, Woo neatly revises several standard tropes of the genre, or at least tweaks them a little, and without giving too much away, does not give in to the urge to tie everything up at the end with a pretty little bow in order to send his audience out into the grim and grimy word feeling like they’ve experienced some kind of catharsis. In fact, The Killer is a resolutely troubling film on several levels, from its depiction of several innocents getting injured to the dichotomous feelings of Jong to the tragic denouement that provides no easy answers.

The Killer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A lot of Hong Kong film fans have been salivating over the prospects of Vivendi's new Dragon Dynasty branding which is bringing several long sought after films to Blu-ray. Unfortunately, as I discussed in my previous review of 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Vivendi's inexplicable decision to author these in 1080i (via an AVC codec in the OAR of 1.85:1) from what appears to be secondary source material (perhaps converted from PAL) is, well, inexplicable. This Dragon Dynasty is more fragile than a Ming Dynasty vase caressed by a sledgehammer. If anything, The Killer looks even softer than Shaolin, if that's possible, at times not even as sharp as a decently upconverted SD-DVD. Colors are decent, but nowhere near high def standards, and the print is reasonably clean and free of damage, but, wow, what a major disappointment. This is so far from high definition quality that aside from being anamorphically enhanced I can't really say much else recommends it. I know some are saying this is the best the film has looked on home video, but if that's the case (and I haven't seen an SD-DVD of The Killer in several years, so I can't reliably recall), it's damning with faint praise. Haziness and lack of detail make this a murky experience at best. Contrast is way below average, leaving several darker scenes not just crushed but virtually obliterated. Conversely, the brightly lit scenes are badly clipped at times with completely indistinguishable elements resulting from something as relatively minor as abundant candlelight in some of the church scenes. Vivendi really needs to go back to the drawing board on these Dragon Dynasty releases, because the first two have been travesties from an image standpoint.

The Killer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Things are at least incrementally better in the audio department, but once again far less than we should expect (indeed demand) from a high definition release of such a vaunted film. We're presented with either a DD 2.0 Cantonese track or a DD 5.1 English dub. I sampled the 5.1 English track just for comparison purposes, finding the 5.1 repurposing fine, if not outstanding, with at least an attempt at surround activity in the many action sequences. The 2.0 Cantonese track sounds fine, if on an understandably narrow sound field, but it has decent fidelity, if no thundering low end, something this film cries out for and which a lossless audio track hopefully would have provided. There are no anomalies of any note in the Cantonese 2.0 track, and I recommend you stick with that one, despite its lack of surround activity.

The Killer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The best extra on The Killer is a new Interview with John Woo (23:47) which allows the director to place the film in the context of his oeuvre.

Two quite excellent American Cinematique Q & A sessions address Woo's The Killer (35:01) as well as Hard Boiled (11:35).

A bit more standard and EPK-ish are the featurette on The Killer Locations (8:47) as well as the collection of five John Woo trailers.

Also on tap are Five Deleted Scenes totalling around seven minutes of alternate takes and scenes from different versions of the film.

The Killer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A director as lauded as John Woo and a film as viscerally memorable as The Killer deserve top notch efforts on Blu-ray. Unfortunately, Vivendi has once again really dropped the ball and I have a very bad feeling about any future Dragon Dynasty releases unless someone comes to in a big hurry and realizes the disservice they're doing to countless expectant fans.