:
Jet Li,
Jet Li,
Eric Tsang,
more...
:
Stephen Tung Wai,
Stephen Tung Wai
see all cast/crew...
: Not Rated
: Tai Seng
: Foreign, Hong Kong, Martial Arts
: 104 min.
: Cantonese, Mandarin
: English
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The narrative of The Hitman unfolds following the assassination of a sleazy Japanese businessman in Hong Kong. Various groups come together at a meeting held by the administrators of the dead man's Revenge Fund, which offers a $100 million reward to find the killer. Fu (Jet Li), a penniless mainlander, walks into the meeting by accident and is taken under the wing of Ngok Lo, a smooth-talking agent for professional hit men who proposes Fu help him track down the killer. Some of the funniest scenes are when Ngok Lo buys Fu new clothes and coaches him in Hong Kong ways. Ngok's daughter, a young lawyer who is unhappy with her father's background, seems to fancy Fu. Fu and Ngok are busy trying to stay one step ahead of the psychotic son of the murdered man, who is also after the assassin -- a reputed mythical Killing Angel. A genre film reflecting the current zeitgeist in Hong Kong following the Chinese take over, The Hitman was screened as part of the International Forum of New Cinema section of the 49th Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
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| Lightweight but ultimately rather charming
by mason
January 22, 2003 - 2:08 PM PST
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4 out of 4 members found this review helpful
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I was pleasantly surprised by this one; I'm always a fan of Jet Li, but I'm also generally leery of the lighter side of Hong Kong film. Nothing against it really, but I'm not much of a comedy fan anyway, and there's something about the goofiness of most HK comedies that simply doesn't work for me.
In this case the comedy is handled deftly and integrated into the movie enough that it offers brief breaks rather than derailing the plot as happens so often. Li nearly always by choice plays likable characters, and this is no exception. The hitman who doesn't want to hurt anyone is a perfect opportunity for him to play a sympathetic character who keeps getting put in the position of having to fight. And of course when he does, he's beautiful to watch, as usual.
The interplay between Li and Tsang (playing Li's agent) is wonderful, as Tsang's bluff exterior begins to crumble until he tells Li the truth about what's going on. His conversion from untrustworthy and barely likable into an entirely sympathetic character is one of the movie's best attributes. That and the action, of course.
While this doesn't approach the level of, say, Fist of Legend or the unbeatable Swordsman II, Hitman is far better than Li's unfortunate recent American excursions like The One. Check it out. |
| A Funny Thriller
by tboot
June 24, 2002 - 5:42 PM PDT
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6 out of 6 members found this review helpful
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| A terrifically funny thriller with Jet Li as a shy bumpkin from the mainland trying to make a living in a crew of low-rent hitmen. When a mysterious super-hitman known as the "King of Killers" assassinates a Japanese magnate, the magnate's "Revenge Fund" of $100 million kicks in, to go to the man who kills his assassin. One of the movie's very clever riffs is the corporatization of killing-for-hire -- the Tsukamoto Revenge Fund is run just like an investment portfolio, with a fund manager and board of directors. Li joins in on the international race to win this prize, aided by his new agent (every assassin has an agent, of course), played by Eric Tsang, a rascal who wears eight pagers and thinks like a Hollywood player. The movie does plenty of plot backflips and has some positively ingenious action sequences, and Li has a low-key charm, but Tsang, as he often does, simply takes the movie and runs. He's grown into one of Hong Kong's great character actors, and he swaggers through Hitman, with tremendous relish. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.79)
14 Votes
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