Review of Fulltime Killer (2001) by Michael P — 22 Jul 2007

I would have given this a bit lower rating, since the movie does get a little confusing and the amount of languages used is insane, I think Chinese, Japanese, and English are all used interchangeably, and while the dialogue and writing is beautiful, the English lines fall flat, by way of poor delivery and acting, however the reason this gets four stars is for the solid plot and of course for Andy Lau. I don't recall having such mixed emotions for a character in a movie as I did with him, at one point I am loving him his flair, his personality, and at another I hate him. His dishonor to O is enough to make me want to kill him myself, but then he will do something again where I love him. It's a mixed battle. However it's not that way with Takashi Sorimachi's character, his character O is much more refined, secretive and professional, whereas Tok, Lau's character is much more reckless and show boaty. This leads us to a sort of Assassin odd couple, which is what I thought was cool, add in the awesome gun fu-esque gun battles, and Lau injecting a man with Nicotine as well as one of sweetest endings in film, and you have a pretty awesome movie here. It is a little cheesy, and at some points hard to believe, but hey it's still a solid Hong Kong action flick, and as it may not be as good as any of Woo's films, this is still very solid and entertaining, and although it can get a little confusing at times as it switches point of view's it's still not so over your head. Again, it has some awesome dialogue, great acting (aside from the English delivered lines) and some big name actors, along with some pretty good directing, Johnny To knows what he's doing.

If you're a fan of action movies or Hong Kong cinema, see this.