Tonight I took a bit of a film excursion to what I suppose might be called the dark side. I decided a while back to check out all foreign films that are listed among the 250 most popular films on the Internet Film Database popularity poll. Near the bottom of that list, at number 240, was a film that I would not otherwise have chosen to see: John Woo’s The Killer.

I suppose I ought to mention the plot, although to be honest, it seems largely irrelevant. The obvious point of this film is to create as much high-paced violent action as possible. Jeffrey (Chow Yung-Fat) is a contract killer. In the assignment that serves as the opening piece of the film, he dispatches a roomful of armed body guards to get to his target, but along the way a nightclub singer, Jenny (Sally Yeh), falls in front of his sights and is hit in the head. Jeffrey manages to get her to a hospital. Jeffrey is burdened with guilt about blinding Jenny and watches her from a distance after her recovery, until one night he comes to her rescue to drive off two would-be assailants who are trying to rob and rape her. Thus begins a burgeoning relationship between Jeffrey and Jenny, although she knows him as “John.”

Meanwhile, on the side of law and order, we have Inspector Li (Danny Lee). Inspector Li is something of a maverick cop who doesn’t do things by the book but always gets his man – a Dirty Harry type basically. Li is assigned the job of protecting visiting “dignitaries” at a regatta, including a mod boss. Jeffrey has decided to take one last job for 1.5 million so that he can finance a cornea transplant for Jenny. Naturally, his target is the same mob boss that Li is assigned to protect. Jeffrey knocks off the mob boss from a speedboat but is pursued from the crime scene by Li in another speed boat. Jeffrey out-distances his pursuers and lands near a beach. Unfortunately for him, he has been double-crossed by the man who ordered the hit and numerous killers are waiting for him in the bushes surrounding the beach. A little girl is shot in the crossfire and Jeffrey, after dispensing with a dozen or so killers, rushes her to a hospital despite the fact that Li and his assistant are close behind. Still, he manages to get her there and escape as well.

Jeffrey’s contact for this job-gone-sour was his “best friend”, Sydney (Chu Kong). Jeffrey is quite naturally ticked that he was set up and asks Sydney to bring his payment that night. Sydney shows up with a brief case and Jeffrey pretends to trust him laying his gun down on the table. Sydney picks it up and after a bit of banter puts it to Jeffrey’s head and pulls the trigger. Naturally it was empty. Jeffrey then dispenses with another half-dozen heavies that came with Sydney but lets Syndey himself walk away out of “friendship.”

Sydney’s boss, who hired Jeffrey to kill the mobster, turns out to be the mobster's nephew. This new guy in charge of the Hong Kong mafia is determined to kill Jeffrey and sends about one hundred goons after him over the course of the remaining action scenes that fill out the rest of this nonsense. Meantime, Inspector Li has developed grudging respect for his quarry and has also figured out that he was the one who blinded Jenny. He figures that if this killer was nice enough to save a wounded little girl he’s certainly nice enough to have attached himself to Jenny out of guilt. So, Inspector Li begins to use Jenny as the bait to hunt down Jeffrey. So, now Jeffrey’s got the cops breathing down his neck as well as roughly a battalion of mindless killers. There’s so doggone many killers, in fact, that Jeffrey and Inspector Li have to agree to put their differences on hold and together fight these myriad assassins to try to save Jenny. Bang, bang, ping, boom, pop! After about 30,000 bullets, numerous explosions, and lots of spurts of blood, Jeffrey gives up his life to save Jenny and Inspector Li gives up all semblance of moral authority by killing Jeffrey’s murderer in cold blood in front of numerous policemen.

Themes: It’s simply amazing to read reviews that bandy about words like honor and moral codes and friendship in relation to this film. We are supposed to be moved by the fact that Jeffrey and Li, who are on opposite sides of the law, are drawn together by the commonality of their code of honor. Let’s think about some of the things that are senseless about this film and worse.

Senseless:

1. We’re supposed to imagine Jeffrey as a noble compassionate hero despite the fact that he’s a hit man and that the very people that he “rescues” (Jenny and the little girl at the beach) were nearly killed in the first place because of his violent activities.

2. We’re supposed to be impressed with the quality of the friendship and loyalty between Jeffrey and Sydney, despite the fact that Sydney at one point pulls the trigger of a gun pointed at Jeffrey’s head not knowing that the gun is empty.

3. We’re supposed to buy the notion that Sydney would subject himself to the worst kind of torment in order to get Jeffrey his money even though he earlier showed up at Jeffrey’s apartment with a briefcase full of paper and a half-dozen killers in order to finish Jeffrey off.

4. We’re supposed to take it for granted that the killers out to get Jeffrey can’t hit the side of a barn no matter how many shots they discharge and are so stupid that they routinely run out into the open, especially on high places, so that they can be shot multiple times and die in glorious style. Then, when they die, it’s important that they drop their still loaded weapons where they can be later retrieved by one of the “good guys” when his own weapon runs out of ammo.

5. We’re supposed to overlook the fact that the heroes are always carrying an endless amount of ammo.

6. We’re supposed to believe that Jenny plays along with Inspector Li’s plans to lure Jeffrey into a trap just long enough to get him there, but then suddenly changes her mind once all the players are in place so as to trigger mayhem.

7. The film makes a big deal about how Inspector Li is going to sort out Jeffrey’s finances after Jeffrey dies and take care of Jenny, but, instead, Inspector Li guarantees himself a very long prison sentence by murdering the arch-villain in front of dozens of witnesses. Tough luck, Jenny!

Worse than senseless:

1. This film glorifies mindless violence and reduces human life to so much gun fodder. I know – you’re thinking, “Lighten up, it’s just a film.” Well, quite honestly, while it is just a film, I’m convinced that exposure to this kind of saturation violence subtly or not so subtly affects people’s tolerance for real life violence, such as the kind of military adventurism that governments find so easy to pass off on their respective citizenries as if such actions were necessitated by some supposed moral imperative. Films like The Killer attach false heroic qualities to men who are basically just killers. One such device is the pretense that those killed by Jeffrey were all worthless scum anyway. He’s just cleaning up the neighborhood.

2. The film is despicably sexist in multiple ways. The principal female character is reduced to utmost feminine helplessness by the exigency of blinding her early in the story. She’s mostly there to whimper as the violence proceeds all around her. Then, on the other hand, the film reinforces the all too widespread prejudice that it makes no difference how many men one kills, as long as one doesn’t kill women or children, thus reducing men to a status of worthlessness. I don’t suppose that it occurs to viewers that some of these bodyguards dispatched on the way to a contracted target might have actually enjoyed life or had families that depended on them for support.

Production Values: Despite my belief that all of the production values of this film are wasted on material that is morally crippled and of no fundamental value, it is obvious that a lot of technical skill has gone into creating this film. The special effects and stunts, such as the explosions and gushing blood and men falling through windows is certainly impressive. I also noticed a lot of richness of color in the cinematography.

Bottom-Line: No doubt, this is a highly kinetic action film with lots of superbly manipulated special effects and stunts. Beyond that it’s the worst kind of cinematic garbage. The plot is plagued by hopeless inconsistencies. The characters have no psychological realism. Worst of all, the film reinforces views that are destructive for human society. The Killer is the worst kind of pandering to the lowest common dominator of tastes, values, and the need for high-speed entertainment, presumably for commercial rewards.

The Killers is in Chinese with English subtitles. It has a running time of 110 minutes.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age