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Fulltime Killer by Johnnie To & Wai Ka Fai
In Hong Kong’s 2002 Academy Award Submission, Fulltime Killer written by Wai Ka Fai and Joey O’Brien and directed by Johnnie To and Wai Ka Fai, Andy Lau plays China’s almost-first-time-gold-medal-winner-in-target-shooting-turned-professional-killer Tok who is out to avenge his failed medal attempt by killing China’s number one assassin, O, played by Takashi Sorimachi. Following the two criminals are investigators Lee and Gigi, played by Simon Yam and Cherrie Ying. While O, or Ono, is a quiet killer who prefers to do his business in stealth, Tok is flamboyant, choosing antics and circus act moves to get attention. Tying the two together is house cleaner Chin, played by Kelly Li. Chin, who takes care of O’s flat, becomes romantically involved with Tok after he regularly visits the Japanese video store where she works. On each visit Tok wears a different mask of an American president. Finally he asks her out to the movies and she accepts. When he tells her he is a professional killer she does not believe him, until finally after saying he needs to kill some people, he leaves the café where they are having drinks and his return is marked by a scream of police cars and ambulances. She is intrigued, if not excited by his line of work and it is then that we discover that Chin knows that O is a professional killer as well, for she has been tracking his work since she was hired two years previous.
Both assassins are both haunted and driven by episodes of the past. O by the death of his previous house cleaner, Nancy, who we later learn also happened to be Chin’s best friend, and Tok by his failed attempt at the gold medal. O could not reach Nancy in time to save her from the men who barged into his apartment looking to gun him down. Tok could not hit the target on his last round at the Olympics, collapsing just like his brother had years earlier. Both of these nightmares will play a roll in the two assassins attempts to remain alive and on top.
Battling for the last Snoopy in the collection, Hong Kong Snoopy, O and Tok enter a warehouse set to simulate the popular video game, Metal Slug, which the two know by heart. After the search for weapons and gear, the two battle through exploding fireworks for the girl, the gold and the title, #1 Killer.
Who wins? How will the story end? That is what once-detective-now-crazed writer Lee hopes to uncover as he holds a final interview with Chin. It was his fate to tell the story of China’s two most brilliant assassins, and it had to have an ending. As Chin’s car pulls away Lee starts to wonder. “How much of what she said was the truth and how much was fiction?”
But, “does it matter? [Everyone got what they wanted: Tok his fame, Chin her love, and O his peace.] Who [was he] to argue with them?” The story just needed an ending, right?
Brilliantly executed, Fulltime Killer fulfills your thirst for action while pulling at your heartstrings. Piece by piece the plot comes together as you’re taken through the journey of one man’s search for fame, one man’s search for peace and one woman’s search for love and adventure.
Filmed in Cantonese with English subtitles, Fulltime Killer demands your attention. Shots of subway stations and crowded streets, small shops, libraries, coffee shops and apartment buildings help make Hong Kong come to life for foreign viewers. The city remains free from the filming that could have made it exotic, and instead exists as a relatable backdrop for an exciting film.
For many, the success of a film depends largely on its ability to take the viewer to a place, show them the intricate details of that place and yet leave the subject of place open enough that almost anyone could have been there before or could go there in the future. It is an effort to create a film that is timeless and perhaps placeless in its simplicity. This is not to discount the effect of place on the film, but rather to emphasize that the exquisite simplicity by which it is delivered allows the film to be more accessible, and therefore more successful. Add to this a combination of action and popular themes, those of competition, honor and love, and you have a successful movie. Thus Fulltime Killer to a T.