Director: Stephen Tung Wai
Year: 1998
Rating:
7.0
Jet Li seemed to be trying to reinvent himself here as an action/comedy star, but I had a muffled reaction to it. Basically positive though. I thought the premise of the story had definite possibilities, but then it never really followed through as well as it could have. In the opening scene a disguised assassin kills a Japanese Yakuza head. The mysterious killer is known as the "Killer Angel" because he accepts no money for his many killings of criminals - so he must be doing it for God. Seventeen suspected kills so far. God is busy. The dead Yakuza had the foresight to set up a fund of $100 million to revenge his possible death. I thought this was going to lead up to every hitman in the world showing up for the reward and total bloody chaos occurring, but that just never came close to happening. In other words they could have made John Wick before John Wick. Still, there is a fair amount of action and its seriousness is polar opposite to the comedy. The action is not done for laughs. People get killed. Lots of them. And then the next second is light and jokey.
Jet Li plays a mainland yokel who comes to HK to earn money for his family
as a professional killer and Eric Tsang mentors him and is his agent. In his
first attempt, he proves to be too kind hearted. But is this really a front
- or is he in fact the "Killer Angel"? Jet Li is definitely making an attempt
to do away with his serious image by doing a lot of comedy bits. And some
of it is quite funny and he has certainly never smiled so much as in this
movie. Time is spent trying to build up his character and creating a relationship
between Jet and Eric. Eric as always is a joy to watch being devious, gentle
and fatherly to his daughter played by Gigi Leung. When Jet sees her, he
asks Eric incredulously "She is really your daughter?' It almost becomes
a buddy comedy film about two killers.
A lot of this was enjoyable - but at times it caused the film to drag a bit. In fact it seemed that Jet Li's character was secondary to Eric's. Till the final third when Jet and his physical skills take over. In that third there are three excellent set-pieces. One in which a bunch of killers are after a poor old man thinking he funded the initial killing and Eric and Jet have their reasons to save him against a bunch of Yakuza, a killer priest with hand grenades and a giant Gweilo (Paul Rapovsky) who uses these bright lights on his rings and shoes to blind his opponent. Then another in Eric's apartment when two killers come well-armed because they now think he is the Killer agent. It shifts from the apartment to the elevator shaft brilliantly. And then finally the big blow-out at the end. The scene where Eric shoots while flying in the air - ala Chow Yun Fat - only to realize he is out of bullets is hilarious. Simon Yam has a role of a cop looking for the Killer Angel.
Very enjoyable mix of action and comedy. It
is directed and choreographed by Stephen Tung-wai which is a guarantee of
sorts that the action will be great. Combination of gunplay and kung-fu.
A couple drawbacks - there is no great villain for Jet to have that one great
drag out over the top fight with. Where was Billy Chow or Ngai Sing? Still
the second fight against the giant Gweilo is good as well as against the
sword-wielding Yakuza. There are some long stretches in between the action
and you have to wonder why Gig Leung is in this film. Yes she is very attractive
and was a big star at the time, but her role and her relationship problems
were just a distraction and served no purpose. It was a medium sized hit
at the box office coming in 7th but it was far below The Storm Riders, Who
Am I and The Lucky Guy. Jet was in transition mode and this was to be his
last Hong Kong/Chinese film till Hero in 2002. In the meantime, he made his
bid for Hollywood. His next film was as the villain in Lethal Weapon 4 which
he followed up with three straight Hollywood films.
