A teary breakup between Tony Leung and Fennie Yuen unfolds against a violent late-1960s Hong Kong riot, with Molotov cocktails and police-protester clashes roaring in the background. The lovers' farewell is intercut with a bomb-defusing policeman whose death is shown in elegant slow motion, creating a sequence that is simultaneously absurd, grotesque, sublime, and emotionally affecting. Newly restored, Bullet in the Head is included in a 21-film Stateside rerelease by Shout! Studios drawn from the Golden Princess library. The Golden Princess catalogue spans 1979–1995 and includes landmark Hong Kong action films such as The Killer and Hard Boiled.
Tony Leung and Fennie Yuen are having a teary-eyed breakup; he's tangled with some gangsters and must flee Hong Kong for Vietnam, and even though they're engaged she doesn't think she can wait for him. As they talk, a massive riot rages behind them; Molotov cocktails fly all over the place as police and protesters attack each other. (It's the late 1960s in Hong Kong, a politically turbulent time.)
The two lovers' farewell is intercut with a policeman in heavy protective gear attempting to defuse a bomb. They share one last passionate kiss, then say their final good-byes as the bomb goes off some distance behind them. And as Leung and Yuen walk away in different directions, Woo cuts to pieces of the now-dead bomb-defusing expert falling to the ground, all in elegant slow motion.
Newly restored, Bullet in the Head is one of 21 Hong Kong classics that are in the midst of a momentous Stateside rerelease from Shout! Studios. (Six of them are currently screening at IFC Center, and another five will start this Friday, August 22. Digital and physical-media releases are also in progress; a five-film Jet Li collection debuted on 4K and Blu-ray last month, with more to follow.)
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