John Woo’s ‘The Killer’ Is Better and Bolder Than Ever in a New 4K Restoration — Watch the Trailer
In 1989, director John Woo was flying high after the success of “A Better Tomorrow” and “A Better Tomorrow II,” two balletic odes to extreme violence that crystallized Woo’s style after almost 20 years in the Hong Kong film industry. With more clout and control than he had ever had before, Woo knew he was in a privileged position — and he exploited it for all it was worth by following the “Better Tomorrow” films with one of the greatest and most influential action films of all time.
That film, “The Killer,” is a one-of-a-kind mash-up between melodrama (it takes its plot largely from Douglas Sirk’s “Magnificent Obsession”), thriller, and musical. The film follows an assassin (Chow Yun-fat at his most iconic) as he fends off an endless series of foes while trying to raise money to save the eyesight of the woman (Sally Yeh) he blinded in a gunfight. Woo marries relentless sentiment (in both the love story and the male friendships) with kinetic violence that plays like Sam Peckinpah cranked up to 10, and the result is pure cinematic delirium — a movie filled with impeccably orchestrated wall-to-wall action that’s also loopily, gloriously romantic.
To call “The Killer” a musical is slightly misleading, as aside from a recurring song that plays endlessly throughout the film, there aren’t any musical numbers in the literal sense. But Woo stages his action sequences with the grace and fluidity of a great Vincente Minnelli set piece, making the gunfights less acts of violence than of pure aesthetic exhilaration and beauty. It’s hard now, after 37 years of Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, and other directors paying homage to Woo, to recognize just how revolutionary Woo’s style felt in 1989, but even after all the imitations and tributes, “The Killer” hasn’t lost its power to dazzle.
Now “The Killer” is headed for a limited-edition 4K UHD and Blu-ray release from Arrow Video, featuring a new restoration of the movie and an abundance of supplementary features. There are no fewer than four audio commentaries, two archival and two brand new, featuring Woo, producer Terence Chang, critic David West, and journalist Drew Taylor; there’s also a feature-length documentary on Woo and his career, deleted and extended scenes, new interviews with Woo and his collaborators, as well as Woo enthusiast Grady Hendrix, and multiple vintage featurettes.
Best of all, an additional Blu-ray features the Taiwanese cut of “The Killer,” which runs 130 minutes and contains 20 minutes of footage barely seen by American audiences. All of this material is collected in a package that includes six postcard-sized reproduction art cards, a double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella, and a booklet featuring new writing on the film by critics Priscilla Page and Frank Djeng, archival writing by critic Rafik Djoumi, and an excerpt from an interview with John Woo conducted by Stéphane Moïssakis.
“The Killer” arrives on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from Arrow Video on April 20. Watch the new trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.
