Movie · 1989 · Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller · 1h 50m · R · CN
Curator score: 9.0/10 (129.8K ratings)
One vicious hitman. One fierce cop. Ten thousand bullets.
Overview
Mob assassin Jeffrey is no ordinary hired gun; the best in his business, he views his chosen profession as a calling rather than simply a job. So, when beautiful nightclub chanteuse Jennie is blinded in the crossfire of his most recent hit, Jeffrey chooses to retire after one last job to pay for his unintended victim's sight-restoring operation. But when Jeffrey is double-crossed, he reluctantly joins forces with a rogue policeman to make things right.
Ratings
Curator score: 9.0/10
IMDb: 7.7/10
Letterboxd: 4.15/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
Metacritic: 82
TMDB: 7.6/10
Director
John Woo
Production
Film Workshop, Golden Princess Film Productions
Cast
Chow Yun-Fat, Danny Lee Sau-Yin, Sally Yip Sin-Man, Paul Chu Kong, Kenneth Tsang, Shing Fui-On, Tommy Wong, James Ha Chim-Si, Ricky Wong Chun-Tong, Barry Wong Ping-Yiu, Parkman Wong Pak-Man, Teddy Yip Wing-Cho, Alan Ng Siu-Hung, Yang Sheng, Lo Hung, Lam Chung, Ng Kwok-Kin, Dion Lam, Ridley Tsui Bo-Wah, Addy Sung Gam-Loi
Where to watch
fuboTV
Curator Review
Verdict
A landmark Hong Kong action melodrama that turns gunfights into operatic emotion. It’s stylish, tragic, and surprisingly tender, with a strong emotional core beneath the balletic violence.
Best for
fans of stylized action cinema
viewers who like tragic crime stories
people drawn to intense bromance and melodrama
audiences interested in influential 1980s Hong Kong cinema
Skip if
you want realistic action choreography
you dislike heightened sentiment in crime films
you prefer lean plotting over romanticized excess
you’re not in the mood for subtitles or older genre cinema
Overview
John Woo’s The Killer is one of the defining action films of the late 1980s, and its reputation is well earned. It takes a familiar hitman-revenge setup and elevates it into something almost operatic, where loyalty, sacrifice, and regret matter as much as bullets and bloodshed. The result is a movie that feels both wildly kinetic and deeply mournful.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is the balance between spectacle and feeling. The gunfights are famously extravagant, but they’re staged with a romantic seriousness that gives the violence emotional weight. The film’s central relationships, especially the bond between the assassin and the cop, give it an unusual tenderness for a crime thriller.
Bottom line
It’s also a major influence on later action cinema, from the use of slow motion and dual-wielded shootouts to the idea that action can be expressive rather than merely functional. Even now, it plays like a fever dream of honor, betrayal, and doomed friendship.
Top Letterboxd reviews
matt lynch (5★) · 2121 likes
Love is blind.
Sean Gilman (5★) · 1388 likes
Every time I watch The Killer, I'm overwhelmed. Words are so inadequate. It's the purest melodrama there ever has been.
A world so intoxicatingly visual, where the ultimate tragedy is the loss of one's eyesight.
A movie so big and bold even the opening credits are huge.
The plotting is denser, with more forward momentum than A Better Tomorrow, while retaining the repetition of flashbacks and theme song. Where Hard-Boiled is all-propulsive, The Killer is caught in-between, forward and back,… more
esther (4.5★) · 1184 likes
I love queer representation in cinema.
CinemaVoid 🏴☠️ (4.5★) · 1018 likes
Love may be blind, but bromance has 20/20 vision.
SilentDawn (4.5★) · 914 likes
89/100
Simultaneously a dissection of the 80s macho-action culture and an enrapturing, intoxicating exploration of those previously surface-level tropes; John Woo's The Killer is a gloriously violent fairy-tale of immense delight and contained insanity. Whether stopping time itself to bask in the beauty of squibs or carefully adjusting the complex character arcs; John Woo released an enchanting new blend of action and story into the world and we haven't been the same since.
It also makes me cry. Every single time. If I could use one word to describe The Killer, it would be pure poetry. Oh, that's two words? Ah fuck it.
Doves.
1997 · Action, Crime, Science Fiction · 2h 19m · R · Curator 6.2/10 (728.5K ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, MGM Plus
Another Woo film that turns action into emotional excess, with operatic stakes and intense personal conflict.