Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for The Killer (1989) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Chow Yun-Fat, Danny Lee Sau-Yin, Sally Yeh, Paul Chu Kong, Kenneth Tsang, Shing Fui-On DIRECTOR: John Woo CINEMATOGRAPHY: Peter Pau Tak-Hai, Horace Wong Wing-Hang MUSIC: Lowell Lo Koon-Ting PRODUCTION: Film Workshop, Golden Princess Film Productions

Box Office Performance

The Killer earned $2,350,174 in worldwide box office revenue.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

The Killer has been recognized as an important and influential film for both Western and Asian filmmakers. Film scholars have noted the similarities between Woo's style and The Killer with the films Nikita (1990) and Léon (1994) directed by French director Luc Besson. Kenneth E. Hall described Léon as having the similar character configuration of a hitman and the person he protects. In Nikita, the main character's crisis of conscience after performing a number of hits is also seen in The Killer. Lucy Mazdon described the style of Nikita as recalling "the work of directors like John Woo. Like Nikita, Woo's films show alienated and often brutal characters and graphic violence". In the United States, directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino developed films that were influenced by The Killer. Rodriguez's films El Mariachi (1992), Desperado (1995), & Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) contain stylistic homages to The Killer. In writing the script for Jackie Brown, Tarantino added dialog referencing The Killer that were not present in the source novel. Asian-based directors were also influenced by the film. Hong Kong director Johnnie To borrows from The Killer's gunfighting style, oppositional character pairing, and parody in his films A Hero Never Dies, Running Out of Time, and Fulltime Killer.

The Killer was also influential on hip hop music. American hip hop artist, and Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon released his critically praised debut album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Pre-Production

The Killer was director Woo's follow-up to A Better Tomorrow 2 which was released in 1987. The first cut of A Better Tomorrow 2 was too long for the studio so the film was edited within a week separately by both producer Tsui Hark and Woo. According to producer Terence Chang, Tsui Hark felt that John Woo ruined A Better Tomorrow 2 and asked Chang to fire Woo from the studio. When Chang refused, Hark began rejecting Woo's new film ideas, including ideas for films that would later be made, such as Bullet in the Head and Once a Thief. When Woo proposed the story of The Killer to Tsui Hark, it was denied; Hark's reaction was that "[n]obody wants to see a film about a killer".

=== Casting === The Killer was not able to be filmed until actor Chow Yun-fat stepped in and enlisted the company he was contracted with, Golden Princess Film, to fund part of the project. Chow had worked previously with Woo on the two A Better Tomorrow films. Woo wanted Danny Lee to play Li Ying, but Lee was under an exclusive contract with Cinema City and was only able to work on The Killer if his production company, Magnum, was involved. John Woo approached his friend, Sally Yeh, asking her to be in a film to play an important female character. Yeh was currently contracted with Tsui Hark and accepted the role but later felt she did not give her best performance. The supporting roles were filled out by friends of the actors and director. Chu Kong was a friend of Chow Yun-fat who had entered retirement and returned to acting in The Killer as a favor. Two of Woo's close friends joined the cast: actor Kenneth Tsang and screenwriter Barry Wong. Wong Wing-Hang was hired to be the director of photography for The Killer but had to leave the set for an extended period of time, so Peter Pau was added to shoot the rest of the film.

▸ Filming & Locations

Woo had over 90 days to shoot The Killer which was nearly double the amount of time that the average Hong Kong film was shot in the late 1980s. Woo went into filming with only a short treatment for the film and wrote the details of the script while filming. During promotion periods for the film, Woo described the film as a tribute to Martin Scorsese and French director Jean-Pierre Melville. Woo also described the influence of a Japanese film, '''', about a killer (Ken Takakura) who only kills delinquents. When a mob tricks him into killing an innocent person, he swears revenge but then meets a woman who has tuberculosis and wants to go home. The killer promises the woman that he will take her home after getting his revenge.

The scene where Danny Lee chases a gunman onto a tram was filmed in Causeway Bay and the crew only had three hours to film. Residents thought it was a real gunfight and phoned the police. However, when the police arrived, Danny Lee talked to the superintendent so they could continue filming. Scenes from the Dragon Boat festival were shot months apart, some footage was of the boat races and rest of the footage involving the actors was shot months later. It was planned for the boats to flip over during the chase, but the owners refused because they felt it would bring bad luck. The scene at the airport were filmed at the Kai Tak Airport. The scenes at Paul Chu Kong's character's house were filmed in Stanley, Hong Kong. John Woo wanted this house to be by a beach, but a suitable location could not be found. The action scene inside the house took 28 days to shoot. The final action scene took 36 days to shoot and was shot at a remote building made to look like a church while the exterior seen from Ah Jong's apartment is a real church. The original ending of the film involved Jennie waiting at an airport for Li to give her the money and for them to travel to the United States.

▸ Music & Score

Tsui and Woo disagreed on the musical aspects of the film. For the opening scene, Woo wanted the singer to perform a jazz song and have the killer playing a saxophone. Tsui rejected this idea as he felt that the Hong Kong audiences did not understand or like jazz. Woo stated that he "had to change it to a Chinese song, the kind of song they always use in Hong Kong movies." Actress Sally Yeh who performed the Cantopop songs did not feel they were appropriate for the film. The songs were requested by the studio and written specifically for The Killer.

The film score was composed by Lowell Lo and edited by David Wu. A recurring motif is a haunting vibraphone theme which is first heard over the opening credits. The harmonica motif in the film was influenced by the soundtracks of Ennio Morricone, specifically the soundtrack to Once Upon a Time in America, and used a bottle blower to give the music a haunting effect. David Wu said the harmonica music in Sergio Leone's western films was a strong influence on his work. During the final action scene when the statue of the Virgin Mary is destroyed, the action music transitions to "Overture" from Messiah by George Frideric Handel. This was the idea of editor David Wu who felt that it would break up the numbing effect of the kinetic violence.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: 2 wins & 6 nominations total

Additional Recognition: ! colspan="4" style="background: LightSteelBlue;" | Accolades

! Ceremony ! Category ! Recipient ! Outcome

CRITICAL RECEPTION

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 45 reviews by critics. Its critical consensus reads, "The Killer is another hard-boiled action flick from John Woo featuring eye-popping balletic violence and philosophical underpinnings."

Stephen Holden of The New York Times referred to the film as "Alternately gripping and laughable" and that "The scenes of gore and destruction are even more spectacular than Hong Kong's fog-shrouded skyline". Variety gave a positive review, describing the film as an "extremely violent and superbly made actioner demonstrates the tight grasp that director John Woo has on the crime meller genre". Kathleen Maher of The Austin Chronicle praised the film stating that it "defies all categorization but demands comparisons, if only to prove that there's never been anything like this before." Hal Hinson of The Washington Post wrote a positive review, describing the film as "like eating popcorn, but it's not just any old brand; it's escape-velocity popcorn, popcorn with a slurp of rocket fuel...[Woo's] ideas overreach themselves with such a virile swagger that they border on comedy. With excess like this you can't help but laugh. This is a rush of a movie".

Later critiques of the film remained positive. The Washington Post stated that "the plot doesn't exactly break new crime-story ground. It's all the Woo flourishes...that elevates The Killer to another level". Empire gave the film five stars and proclaimed that "John Woo's trademark style reached its zenith in The Killer". In 2014, Time Out polled several film critics, directors, actors and stunt actors to list their top action films. The Killer was listed at 24th place on this list.