Contractors and Consultants Movie Reviews

Cunning and subtle, yet in love with the subject...usually doesn't work - but while you're being beguiled by the visuals, the story sneaks up on you from behind, and leaves you with a puzzle which rewards the solving.

Michael Nyman's memorable score perfectly complements the gorgeous cinematography, while providing a constant reminder of the enormous underlying tension of the story.

If all of this sounds a little earnest, let me put it another way - it's all about..., and it looks and sounds beautiful - what's not to like?

Nyman wonderfully metamorphoses his music, according to the film. You must also listen to Gattaca, a very realistic view of our future world. In this film, the images of the scenes and the music "inhabit" in a perfect simbiosis. The same as this score.

The first song "Chasing Sheep Is Best Left to Shepherds" is the main theme, from which all the music is developed. This is why it could sound minimal but the lovely use of different baroque instruments (and not so baroque, such us harspichord, horns, electric bass...)smears up any idea of monotony.
Quite right.

Also known as: 'King of Assassins' (1998), 'The Hitman'(1998) and 'Contract Killer'(2002).

This film is in many ways similiar to other HK action drama films however it does have a more unique premise: an aging Japanese corporate magnate and WW II veteran (he boasts of raping Chinese women) is assassinated by a mysterious hitman in black. This hitman, known as the King of Killers, is infamous for both his skill in killing as well as not accepting any payment for targeting people of rather suspect morality to kill.

The Japanese corporate director has established a special Revenge Fund which will pay $100,000,000 (USD) to whoever tracks down his killer.

Fu (Jet Li) is a mainlander in Hong Kong doing errands for a minor triad boss when he comes hears about the Revenge Fund and subsequently comes across Mr. Nor (Eric Tsang) a hustler who takes Fu for a skilled killer and decides to be his agent. He is really trying to cheat Fu out of most of the reward money.

The Japanese director's grandson Eiji (Keiji Sato) is out seeking revenge for his grandfather as well as greedy for the reward.

Kwan (Simon Yam) is the CID inspector who is also tracking down the mysterious King of Killers. Which itself has irony, but I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen the film ;-)

The plot develops as the principal characters above interact in a frantic race to find the King Of Killers.

This was Jet Li (Mandarin name is Li Lian Jie) last Hong Kong film (1998) before he moved on to greater paydays in Hollywood.

I prefer Jet Li's earlier films but this movie had a certain charm to it even though some plot elements were rather formulaic and charcter development was at times only 2 dimensional (Eiji in particular is portrayed rather over-the-top) while others are under developed (KiKi - Nor's daughter). I prefer Simon Yam's performances with Chow Yun Fat though he certainly did a good job in this film.

On a positive note the ending of this film has a nice twist to it. For those not accustomed to watching Hong Kong action/police films you may be a bit shocked by the level of violence. For example in a shoot out scene in a children's amusement park in the film there is a rather high body count as people are shot almost at random in a melee of gunfire. While it is a bit diturbing to see such levels of violence without proper context you must understand that there are different cultural moors at work in HK cinema. Many in the East would be similarly disturbed by the explicit sexual content of many Western films. So try not to let that sour you when watching this film.

Overall I recommend this movie, there is some well done sentimental moments buried inside the action. As a caveat I urge you to NOT buy the dubbed version. Instead, get the original version in Cantonese (with some Japanese) with English subtitles distributed by Tai Seng Video Marketing Inc. at www.taiseng.com

Zach

The film opens quite impressively, with the assassination of a rich Japanese business man; the killer is good, having basically outsmarted and defeated a whole building full of bodyguards. Then we meet up with Fu (Li), a seemingly quite nice but cash-poor ex-soldier whom we find in the strange company of a gang of young assassins for hire. There's never really an adequate explanation for how he got in this unexpected business. Anyway, he's looked down upon because he has never really done a job. When he gets wind of a $100 million reward for the capture and murder of the man soon to be known as The King of Assassins, he tries to infiltrate the proceedings. There, he meets up with a con man named Norman (Eric Tsang), who for some unclear reason brings Fu to the meeting with him and tells him he will be his new agent. Fu is an unlikely choice for such a big job, and his first test shows clearly that he does not really have the heart of a cold-blooded killer. Still, he stays with Tsang and mixes it up with some major league assassins and criminals in an attempt to find the killer and claim the reward. There isn't a whole lot of action until the final third of the film, and only one scene stands out in terms of its impressiveness and length. The identity of the King of Killers did come as a surprise to me, although I'm sure it will be obvious to some. The end of the film, I might add, only further exacerbates my problem with the movie's concept; Fu's occupation just doesn't jive with the character's personality.

This is apparently as much of a comedy as it is an action film, thanks largely to Eric Tsang's character Norman the agent. You can't help but like the guy, especially given the fact that he doesn't seem cut out for the whole business of contract killing; he is pretty funny for the most part, but he does ham it up a bit much in several scenes. I think Jet Li did a fine job of acting here, but the character of Fu is by no means one of his better roles; Fu is just too vague and self-contradictory in nature. This is not really a martial arts film, I might add. There are several hand-to-hand contests, a couple of them involving a bad guy equipped with blinding light beams on his fingers and boots, but this is more of an action flick that just so happens to feature a few kung fu type encounters.

Contract Killer does offer a good view of Jet Li in the time period immediately preceding his jump to American movie stardom, and the contrast between this particular Hong Kong film and his American films is rather striking. You can't get the full Hong Kong experience, however, because of the dubbing and the new soundtrack used in place of the original. Contract Killer is probably best suited for Jet Li fans because the movie itself just doesn't seem to click on all cylinders.