The Killer (1989)

A Hong Kong hitman (Chow Yun-Fat, Hard Boiled) accidentally blinds an innocent woman during a hit. He is determined to get her surgery to help her regain her sight but he needs to complete one more hit first. He completes the job but then is ambushed as he tries to escape: someone wants him dead. Meanwhile a resourceful, unorthodox police detective is hot on his trail.

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■ John Woo
John Woo is a renowned Chinese-born Hong Kong film director, writer, and producer famous for pioneering the “heroic bloodshed” and “gun fu” action cinema genres. Directed iconic action classics like A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989), Bullet in the Head (1990), and Hard Boiled (1992).

Between Hard Boiled and The Killer, these Hong Kong action films brought director John Woo and actor Chow Yun-Fat to the international stage – and help bringing in a new action genre called “gun-fu”. It should be noted that Woo & Yun-fat already introduced the genre with A Better Tomorrow in 1986, but I felt that first film wasn’t really popular with the American audience (unless you were already into HK films in the 80s). To me, Hard Boiled and The Killer are two very important to me and to the action gun genre… and inspired and influenced such films as The Matrix and John Wick.

As I previously mentioned, Shout Factory, after finding success with importing the Shaw Brothers and dabbing into Golden Harvest, their current project is bringing over the Golden Princess movie library. Their license extends to over 150 titles, but I’m mostly interested in some key titles like Hard Boiled and The Killer. I think eventually I’ll have to get A Better Tomorrow Trilogy and City on Fire series. It’s going to be very expensive, but that’s for future me to figure out my budget…

The 4K of Hard Boiled came out in November, followed by 4k of The Killer in December 2025. Each boxset includes 3 discs: 4k, Bluray, and a Special Features Bluray disc. The box also includes a nice booklet with an exclusive article about the film.

Although you’ll see the 1989 date thrown around, America didn’t get The Killer until 1990 at some film festivals. It got very limited release, except for home video, which came out in 1992 on VHS and Criterion Collection in 1993 (laserdisc). I eventually got the film, along with Hard Boiled at the same time. I no longer had the VHS version, but I still have my DVD (and Bluray) version from Dragon Dynasty from 2010.

Like Hard Boiled, I thought the story wasn’t that compelling. In The Killer, it’s about an assassin who was on the verge of retiring. On his last job, he accidentally blinded a singer. To make up for his mistake, he decided to do “one last job” so he can make enough money to pay for her eye surgery. Where The Killer is best at is the action sequences. We see the trademark of shooting guns (on their back or while falling or in motion), and, of course, the gun standoff (gun-to-face between two adversaries).

I have to say, those 90s HK films are just something else. When both Chow Yun-fat and John Woo came to America to do their Hollywood films, they just weren’t the same. I remember being somewhat disappointed in Yun-fat’s The Replacement Killers (which was kind of a spiritual sequel) in 1998… and Woo tried to revisit/remake The Killer in 2024, but with a girl killer. I don’t think they ever recapture that magic and kinetic energy that they had.

By the way, these 4K re-remastered films from the film’s negatives are the best version of the films I’ve seen. If you must have the absolute best version, these Hong Kong Cinema Classics are it. I love the special features too, for The Killer we get two brand new audio commentaries (one with a new John Woo commentary) and an archived Criterion Collection commentary.

P.S. One thing I’ve learned about The Killer, while listening to the commentary, is that one scene where Chow Yun-fat shoots his gun and the white background explodes in a sea of blood. Well apparently, that scene was stolen from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (that blood gushing out from the elevators scene).

Another thing I learned was that originally, it was a love triangle, but the actress’ contract was only a month for film so they ran out of time.