Killer comeback

>> The Parc screens an extended mix of John Woo's breakthrough bullet ballet

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

A decade ago, I was among perhaps four or five curiosity-seekers at a screening of The Killer, a hitman drama by then-unheard-of Hong Kong director John Woo. We were going on nothing more than a newspaper blurb that promised hoary melodrama and ridiculous violence. What we saw blew us away, raising the bar for action flicks the way James Ellroy has for crime fiction--to damn near insurmountable heights.

At the time, the term "Hong Kong pop cinema" meant, to Western ears, little more than kung fu. Woo, who had previously tackled kung fu as well as staid dramedies, set about changing that with the one-two punch of The Killer and then Hard Boiled. Built on high-contrast moralizing and male bonding, his films began showcasing heartstopping ultraviolence unparallelled by any American director short of Sam Peckinpah, whose influence could be felt throughout.

This upped the ante for Hollywood, who began borrowing first Woo's super-stylized "bullet ballet" approach, and then Woo himself (first for a Van Damme vehicle, then for Broken Arrow and MI:2). His favourite leading man, the unsurpassable Chow Yun-Fat, was imported as well. At the same time, other HK talent like director Ringo Lam and actor Simon Yam developed cult followings, riding Woo's coattails.

Kudos to the Parc Cinema for scrounging up a Taiwanese cut of The Killer, boasting an extra 20 minutes of footage. "It's so different," says the Parc late-nite cult-flick programmer Mitch "Mr. Enthusiasm" Davis. "There's lots of extra dialogue, and many more subplots."

Yeah, the Chowster horsin' around with co-star Danny Lee is pretty classic stuff, but what about the violence? Davis assures me there's plenty more of that too. Much of it is edited differently, as is the music, and Woo's use of slow-motion (his trademark, and Peckinpah's as well) is applied differently also. All in all, essential viewing for Woo fans--and you won't find this on video.

The Killer (Taiwanese cut) plays at Cinéma du Parc. See repertory listings for showtimes