By Restless [Originally on goofyblog 10.23.07]
The weekend’s mail brought 2 of the new action films from Asian director Johnnie To. I watched Fulltime Killer (2001) first. Set in Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong and Thailand the dialog is in Cantonese, Japanese and English with a little Korean thrown in for good measure. It’s the story of 2 dueling contract killers, a girl caught between them and the Hong Kong police detectives tracking all 3 of them. The sets, mostly urban, are lit and shot with a clean, sharp definition that draws one in. There are hundreds of these locations all looking pristine-beautiful and that alone would be worth seeing it.
The action never stops though. Fulltime Killer moves like a bullet train, without a second thought, to a final night time showdown at a fireworks warehouse and its double ending.
Next day, time to take in Throwdown (2004), set entirely in Hong Kong and opening at night among the breezy reed beds along the edge of the city. The soundtrack jumps between Cantonese and English as the film features another threesome: an alcoholic nightclub owner resting on his laurels as throwdown champion, the challenger who becomes his partner and the ambitious woman who wants fame and success as a singer. Again, the locations have to be seen. The lighting for the night shots is exquisite. My eyes devoured every scene. And like Killer, Throwdown barrels down the line, weaving multiple plotlines together without pausing once for breath.
Neither film makes standard Hollywood sense: there is little romance, motives are murky. What the characters want to do is all that matters, but why they want to or how they feel as they succeed or fail is never dwelt upon.
Watching both these films I glimpsed a new world — modernist, crowded, a paper thin borderline separating life and death – where no one really cares. In shiny, dense city-jungles where most of humankind now live all that matters is keeping your wits, taking care your physical self, getting money to live well. Check it out!
The action never stops though. Fulltime Killer moves like a bullet train, without a second thought, to a final night time showdown at a fireworks warehouse and its double ending.
Next day, time to take in Throwdown (2004), set entirely in Hong Kong and opening at night among the breezy reed beds along the edge of the city. The soundtrack jumps between Cantonese and English as the film features another threesome: an alcoholic nightclub owner resting on his laurels as throwdown champion, the challenger who becomes his partner and the ambitious woman who wants fame and success as a singer. Again, the locations have to be seen. The lighting for the night shots is exquisite. My eyes devoured every scene. And like Killer, Throwdown barrels down the line, weaving multiple plotlines together without pausing once for breath.Neither film makes standard Hollywood sense: there is little romance, motives are murky. What the characters want to do is all that matters, but why they want to or how they feel as they succeed or fail is never dwelt upon.
Watching both these films I glimpsed a new world — modernist, crowded, a paper thin borderline separating life and death – where no one really cares. In shiny, dense city-jungles where most of humankind now live all that matters is keeping your wits, taking care your physical self, getting money to live well. Check it out!
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