I'm new to the work of Johnnie To, the prolific Chinese action director, who made ELECTION, EXILED and RUNNING OUT OF TIME. This film played at Cannes when Quentin Tarantino was on the jury. He's of course a huge fan. It's a conventional thriller that does things in unconventional ways. We've seen lots of films where father goes out to avenge an attack on his daughter, but not like this one.
Johnny Hallyday, known as the French Elvis who starred as an aging hitman in Patrice Leconte's wonderful MAN ON A TRAIN, is Costello, the avenging father, who travels from France to China after his daughter Irene (Sylvie Testud, LA VIE EN ROSE) was mortally wounded and her husband and sons killed by gunmen that stormed their home. Serendipitously, he stumbles upon hired killers Kwai (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, INFERNAL AFFAIRS), Chu (Ka Tung Lam, ELECTION) and Fat Lok (Suet Lam, KUNG FU HUSTLE) and enlists them to hunt down those responsible. All signs point to crime boss George Fung (Simon Yam, IP MAN). Unfortunately, Fung is the trio of killers' sometime boss and Costello is losing his memory.
Hallyday has a face that looks like leather. Think Keith Richards with hair like The King of Rock 'n Roll. He's perfect in roles where he plays a man with a dark past. Here he is a chef in Paris who has a non-specific violent past. He's found peace in his life. Even in his search for revenge, he doesn't blow up in anger, but goes about it as it's the last thing he has to do before he dies. To the killers he has hired, he treats them with respect, gratitude and gives them everything he has for their help. But has he put his trust in the right men? His mind is slipping so badly that he needs to take their picture in order to remember who they are.
The film has its obligatory action sequences like any film of this type, but To makes them special with his unique timing and staging. The first time Costello and his men confront the hired assassins, they catch them at a park at night with their families. They don't go in guns blazing for the sake of the children. They sit back at a picnic table and wait. The tension created is marvelous. But when the wives and kids leave, it's time for men's work. Filmed under the moonlight the shadowy scene ignites in chaos.
Later they're is a shootout in a field where the gunmen hide behind large bales of paper. Killers roll them forward to advance on our heroes in the middle. The end street battle has Costello referring to photos so he can sort allies from foes.
Here is a perfect example of how a filmmaker can take a standard genre plot and make something memorable with unique characters, style and staging. But unlike pointless style, which substitutes for substance in American genre films so often, To's visual flares and iconic action sequences create tension. Hitchcock said that a thriller maker is always trying to find a new way to show a ticking clock. To's clocks are like a cross between a grand classic grandfather clock, a slick digital display and a bit of a cuckoo.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
