#7 — The Killer
This is part of an illustrated countdown of my 49 1/2 most essential action movies. Last week I talked about a Jackie Chan masterpiece, Police Story.
If you watch action movies, you’re gonna bump into a lot of people that want out of their job, but gotta go on one last mission before they can quit. Actually, you don’t even have to watch movies to be familiar with that one, but I’m talking specifically about folks that pay for their Netflix by shooting people in the head. I don’t personally know anyone that does that, but I guess they raise the price, and then it’s “Now I gotta kill the Prime minister of Malaysia, I gotta get out, I gotta get outta this life, man”.
Hollywood cinema is good at this if it’s a straight crime film, because they don’t feel as embarrassed about making things really dramatic (Michael Mann is a master of this stuff), but they often shy away from combining melodrama with the brand of heroic bloodshed reserved for John Wick. John Woo, being a more advanced species of director, isn’t afraid to sprinkle half a dozen electrifying shootouts into a movie that also revolves around a tragic love story involving singer Sally Yeh — who performs the heartbreaking opening song before getting injured in the crossfire of one of those last jobs.
That song used to be the only thing about this movie I didn’t love, but now I see it as one of the most important elements that I can’t be without. Apparently both Woo and Yeh did not agree with the choice, but higher powers demanded the more generic Cantopop ballad be written for the film. This is a rare moment where I side with the studio, and I can’t fully explain why. The song plays at several points throughout the movie, acting as a reminder to the killer, like “hey, remember when you shot the sight right out of that woman’s eyes, you feel bad about that right?” They really lay it on thick, but I approve.
The opening is so perfectly sad and beautiful, setting the stage for the kind of emotionally driven action experience that you usually have to build up to. Here they just dive right into the feelings. An elegantly dressed Chow Fun Fat accepts his mission in a candle-lit church, then walks down the aisle to a rainy future. He dons a hat before entering the night and there’s this melancholy tone that envelops the film and never lets go.
It feels like a funeral, a failed romance, and a crisis of faith all at once. I guess it sounds miserable in a way, but it’s tuning itself to my wavelength with a specificity and lack of restraint that I really take to. Woo’s spiritual background resonates with me, and a movie where he can balance the allure of kinetic violence with the burden of guilt and consequence is usually one that I’m going to love.
It’s right there in the title. The movie isn’t trying to inform us of what he is, it’s a reminder to him as he seeks to escape the consequences of it. He might think he’s found a way out, but he’s still a killer. He might think he’s found someone he can love, but he’s still a killer. He might try to compensate with good deeds of caring for innocent children or nightclub singers caught in his crossfire, but it doesn’t change what he is. It’s a story about honor, friendship, and ultimately penance.
I like how every step of the protagonist’s unraveling comes from an effort to do the right thing and correct his mistake. It’s like one of those Coen brothers setups where somebody steals a pizza, but they later realize they stole pizza from the local mob boss — but then they also realize that the pizza contains a special recipe called “Pepperoni Gold” that’s worth millions on the black market, so they try and keep it. The main difference here is that John Killer is trying to do the right thing with this particular pizza, but everything continues to get worse. His close friend even tries to steal pizza from him (in a metaphorical sort of way) only to return it later, getting himself into the same situation. I hope I’ve crystallized things for you.
John Killer doesn’t get to be quite as cool as John Boiled (from the other Woo masterpiece, Hard Boiled), but that’s because you sometimes have to make an artistic choice between conveying the moral consequence of accidentally making your Tinder date go blind and the action cop antics of telling jokes to the baby you just rescued from the guy who’s brains you just splattered all over the hospital floor. I agree with the choice, and it’s impossible not to root for the killer, even while understanding that his own choices led to these unfortunate circumstances.
The final shootout is a fitting return to the church where it started. It’s a great set, and easily one of the best gunfights ever constructed — operatic, destructive, and emotionally overblown in a way that I feel is appropriate. It’s beautiful to watch, and it also hurts.
This is my favorite “last job” action feature. I think it reaches the emotional ideal the John Wick films can and should aspire to while compromising nothing on the action front. The sincerity of its tragic storytelling feels lost in time now. Even the revenge of murdered puppies seems compelled to achieve some level of darkly comic catharsis for audiences to fully accept it, but The Killer is gonna rub your face in a doomed love story being shot to pieces by a hail of bullets without even a wink.
The movie ends with a final shot of the killer playing a harmonica variation of the song that haunts him. AGAIN with the music. From start to finish, I’m always feeling when watching this. That’s the John Woo experience.
