A crime thriller set in late-1960s Hong Kong and Vietnam follows Ben, Frank, and Paul as they move from a gang war into a crooked contraband job. After a wedding-related confrontation, they accept a smuggling scheme that collapses into anarchy in Saigon. They are arrested under suspicion of Vietcong involvement, then shift to cynical arms smuggling for North Vietnam while stealing gold from a local mob figure. The story includes a macabre semi-survival after a literal bullet lodged in a skull, symbolizing violence taking root in the brain and dehumanizing its victim. Sad music and harmonica contrast with brutal action to emphasize poignantly futile, pathetic outcomes.
"The title of this 1990 John Woo extravaganza might lead the uninitiated to expect a chillingly focused, targeted assassination. Actually, there are innumerable bullets and innumerable heads in this over-the-top gonzo spectacle. It is a crime thriller, a wartime action film set in Vietnam, but it offers something other than the usual Hollywood perspective; it is a parable of greed comparable to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and even a kind of romantic melodrama."
"There is, however, one key bullet in a head, a literal bullet lodged in the skull of someone who achieves a macabre zombie-like semi-survival, the bullet being symbolic of the way violence takes root in the brain, dehumanising its victim. The final boardroom scene disclosing this image is toweringly mad and strange. Yet in this movie, as in so many other Woo films, we can see how the director counterintuitively uses sad music harmonica, woodwind over grisly, brutal action sequences, as if what he wants us to register is not the violence or the shock but just how poignantly futile and pathetic it all is."
"The setting is initially late 60s Hong Kong; Tony Leung plays Ben, a young guy getting married to his sweetheart Jane (Fennie Yuen), and on hand are his buddies Frank (Jacky Cheung) and Paul (Waise Lee). This trio are involved in a gang war with a rival mob who corner Frank when he has gone to get cash from the local moneylender to pay for the wedding. The confrontation ends in violence and, simply to get away and avoid the heat Woo has a cameo as a police inspector the three guys accept a crooked job from a local gang boss smuggling contraband pharmaceuticals in Vietnam."
"In Saigon, all their plans explode in pure anarchy; they are at first arrested under suspicion of working for the Vietcong, then upgrade their strategy to cynical arms smuggling for the North Vietnamese, and stealing the gold belonging to the local wiseguy who was supposed to be distributing their drugs. They make contact with a wor"
#crime-thriller #wartime-action #greed-and-moral-decay #violence-and-dehumanization #hong-kong-and-vietnam-setting
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