Fulltime Killer

Rating:

out of

Directed by:

Johnnie To

Wai Ka Fai

Cast:

Andy Lau

Tok

Takashi Sorimachi

Kelly Lin

Chin

Simon Yam

Lee

Cherrie Ying

Gigi

Lam Suet

Fat Ice

Writing Credits:

Wai Ka Fai

Joey O'Bryan

Stunt Coordinator:

Wong Chi Wai

DVD:

From Poker Industries

Zone:

All

Video Signal:

NTSC

Screen Shots:

O, Tok, and Chin (~130K for 3 pics)

I bought this because Johnnie To is usally pretty good and I had heard good buzz about it. I have since heard that To has a Hollywood deal and, with the large amount of English, this definitely has the feel of an audition.

O is a killer for hire and not a nice man. The opening has O walking purposefully across a crowded train station in Malaysia. He is hailed as "Ito" by a passer-by who follows him, reminiscing about their good old high school days. O does his targets and then the man following him. He tells his agent the man was his best friend in high school. On his way home to Hong Kong, O makes sure to pick up a Snoopy figure for his collection. He has a Snoopy from every country where he has made a hit.

Tok is another assassin. He drives up to a police station on his motorcycle with an enormous bouquet of flowers. Using a shotgun concealed in the bouquet, he kills the desk cops and heads down to the cells where he tosses in about fifty grenades with the pins still in into his target's cell. Then he throws a grenade without the pin. When Tok collects his pay, he is pissed off because his pay is so little and O gets the big bucks.

Chin is a woman who works in a Japanese video store in Hong Kong and cleans O's apartment on the side. She is pretty sure he is an assassin and suspects he murdered her predecessor.

As you might guess, Tok wants to be number one and, being a killer, decides to take out the competition. The snag is no one knows where O lives or what he looks like.

Chin starts dating Tok because her relationship with O is going nowhere. Initially, she just knows Tok as some goofy guy who rents videos wearing a Clinton mask (Boy! is she relieved when he takes the mask off and it is pretty Andy Lau). It wasn't clear to me if Tok is aware of Chin's connection to O. He's a movie buff and wants to practice his Japanese so they may have met innocently but Chin lets the cat out of the bag that she thinks she works for an assassin.

This is a fun, goofy movie about people you'd never want to meet because they are cold blooded killers. Andy Lau appears to be having a great time as the psychotic Tok, with his riffs on famous movie killers. This is the first film I've seen Takashi Sorimachi in. He has the less showy role as the more cerebral, but equally intense, O. I look forward to seeing him again. Simon Yam does a serviceable turn as the cop on the trails of O and Tok.