R E V I E W
FULLTIME KILLER
PLOT / PRODUCTION / PERFORMANCES / RATING
A post-ironic masterpiece that plays gleefully with reality, FULLTIME KILLER aims to shatter all preconceptions. O (Takashi Sorimachi) is an assassin who prefers to fly under the radar, yet he's quite prepared to shoot an old school chum in the back when he shows up unexpectedly at a train station where O dispatches his latest assignment. On the other hand, professional killer Tok (Andy Lau) is the personification of flamboyance; in his first scene, he strides into a police station like a flesh-and-blood Terminator, sprays bullets like spit, and casually tosses a boxful of grenades into a holding cell, pulling the pin on just one. The tiny bombs scatter on the concrete floor like mice as the prisoner frantically searches for the live grenade. He finds it, but it's too late. "Boom!!!" And we're off and running. In a twisted riff on Branded to Kill, Tok wants to kill O and become the #1 killer in the business. He tries to get to O through Chin (Kelly Lam), a video store clerk who picks up extra cash by cleaning O's apartment. The quiet and self-effacing Chin has been fascinated by O's secrecy, but is quickly charmed by Tok, even after she learns about his professional life. All the while, Interpol inspectors Lee (Simon Yam) and Gigi (Cherrie Ying) chase after the assassins in a vain attempt to bring them to justice.
Some have complained that directors Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai tried to use this film as a calling card to Hollywood. Yet the opposite is true. By openly acknowledging a wide variety of influences, the directors (and their American colloborator, co-scripter Joey O'Bryan), working from a best-selling novel by Edmond Pang, put their cards on the table - and then jerk the table away. Traditional structure falls by the wayside, even as one fever-pitched action scene after another dashes across the screen. The gunplay is filmed audaciously, with balletic camerawork and an eye for the big screen. The crazy cavalcade of interchangeable international locales, linguistic mangling, and wholesale bloodshed reaches a crescendo that makes little sense. No matter - the ride is exhilirating, and you'll either rage angrily at the outrageous antics or buy another ticket for the next screening.
The film is not rated for theatrical play in the United States. It contains a considerable amount of explicit and bloody violence.
REVIEW MEDIUM
Comments on the all-region DVD, released in late 2001 by Deltamac, are available here as part of the original review, published December 18, 2001.
RECOMMENDATION
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Copyright 2000-2003 by Peter A. Martin. All rights reserved.
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