John Woo’s The Killer on PAL Laserdisc

• Cert: 18
• Running time: 107 minutes
• Year: 1989
• Pressing: 1994
• Sides: 2 (CLV)
• Chapters: 29 (15/14)
• Cat.no: HK 002L
• Sound: Mono
• Widescreen : 1.85:1
• Cantonese language with English subtitles
• Price: £29.99
• Extras : Five deleted scenes, John Woo/Chow Yun Fat booklet

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Director:

John Woo (A Better Tomorrow, Hard Boiled, Hard Target, Broken Arrow)

Cast:

Jeff : Chow Yun Fat (A Better Tomorrow, Hard Boiled, City on Fire)
Li : Danny Lee (City on Fire)
Jenny : Sally Yeh

John Woo’s The Killer reunites the two stars from Ringo Lam’s City On Fire, in one of the classic Hong Kong action films, as two men on opposite sides of the law, but who are about to be brought together with one aim in their careers.

Chow Yun Fat is Jeff, a ruthless hit-man who’ll kill anyone for a price, but is about to take on his last assignment to kill a drugs baron, Tony Weng. The money from the job will go to pay for an eye operation for his new love, Jenny, a nightclub singer who lost her sight when she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, at Chow’s last assignment in the church, and was blinded by the flash from his gun as he made a bid to keep them both alive.

Danny Lee is a maverick cop whose career hangs in the balance after he shoots dead cop-killer Eddie Hung. The female hostage Hung took moments before his death, herself died from a heart attack brought on by the shock of Li’s actions. Now her family has put in a complaint against him, claiming he is responsible for her death. Li’s next task is as one of the men assigned to protect the many VIPs and government officials attending the Dragon Boat Festival, headed by the one and only Tony Weng.

As usual with a John Woo film, stylish slo-mo violent scenes, expertly directed, are the order of the day, with a story which mixes Woo’s abiding themes of honour, betrayal and redemption through violence, culminating in a film which certainly does not disappoint.

For anyone who’s witnessed his recent entries into Hollywood’s film industry, Hard Target (1993, Jean-Claude Van Damme), and Broken Arrow (1996, John Travolta and Christian Slater), will have an idea what to expect, although without a doubt, it’s Hong Kong films where Woo has his speciality.

The picture quality is excellent, and while the soundmix is mono, it captures the essence of the orient. Chapter marks are also aplenty with 28 split throughout the film, plus one on the end for the five deleted scenes cut from this version of the film. A 136-minute fullscreen version of The Killer is out there somewhere, but only the widescreen 107-minute version on this Laserdisc is director-approved. You can decide for yourself though, as the five deleted scenes are taken from that version and also presented in widescreen, but while containing English subtitles, they are dubbed into Mandarin instead of the original Cantonese.