The Killer
The Killer
喋血雙雄
Overview
"Ah Jong, an honorable triad assassin, accidentally blinds a beautiful nightclub singer with the muzzle flash of his pistol during a hit. Riddled with agonizing guilt, he determines to perform one final, highly dangerous assassination to pay for her cornea surgery, while constantly pursued by a relentless and sharply observant police inspector who begins to respect him."
Iconic Tracked Scenes
- ▶
An assassin accidentally blinding a beautiful nightclub singer with muzzle flash during a hit.
"blinding singer""nightclub assassination" - ▶
A tense standoff in an apartment where a cop and a killer hold guns to each other's heads.
"apartment standoff""guns to heads" - ▶
A spectacularly bloody final shootout in a candlelit church complete with flying white doves.
"church shootout""white doves" - ▶
A tragic, heartbreaking finale where blinded characters crawl toward each other but miss in the dark.
"blind crawling""tragic ending"
Why It's Remembered
- ★The opening nightclub shoot out accidentally blinding the singer in the crossfire.
- ★The incredibly tense apartment 'Mexican Standoff' where both men hold guns to opposite heads.
- ★The breathtakingly tragic final shootout in the candlelit church amidst white doves.
Cultural Context
- ◈Solidified the 'Heroic Bloodshed' genre, heavily mixing Catholic imagery (candles, churches, doves) with extreme, highly-stylized gun violence.
- ◈Deeply influenced Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and The Wachowskis.
- ◈Chow Yun-fat's performance became globally iconic, popularizing the aesthetic of the dual-pistol-wielding killer.
About the Action Elements
The Killer is widely celebrated among martial arts cinema fans for sequences involving nightclub, singer, blind, muzzle flash, accident. One of the most memorable sequences features Chow Yun-fat naturally executing blinding singer, where the choreography and unique set pieces become the unexpected highlight of the film.