Though the film still features Woo's signature approach to action, Bullet in the Head dives headfirst into tragedy in unexpectedly affecting ways.
Listen at the podcast providers of your choice.
When I was first jumping into movies, I was obsessed with finding all of the "best action movies of all time" from across the globe. Which, as you might expect, drove me to classic Hong Kong cinema including kung-fu flicks like Fist of Legend with Jet Li, The Legend of Drunken Master with Jackie Chan, and the slow motion bullet chaos of John Woo's collaborations with Chow Yun-Fat including the first two Better Tomorrow films, The Killer and Hard Boiled. But there was one movie, made in that same period of Woo's filmography, that I was never able to find: 1990's Bullet in the Head. It never really hit streaming, and unlike even The Killer or Hard Boiled wasn't easy to find on DVD. Until now. Because now, almost all of Woo's classic period films are available to stream and buy for the first time in decades, and I get the mark one off of my oldest movies from my "Want to See" list. And man this one is something else.
The Setup
Taking place in 1967, the movie follows three childhood friends and gang members who enjoy hanging out and brawling with rival gangs. But when one of the fights goes off the rails and a man ends up dead, the trio will travel to Vietnam to make their fortune in the booming war time smuggling business. But the trip quickly goes off the rails as the friends descend into a chaotic world of violence, money and war that threatens to change their friendship for forever.
This movie is infinitely rougher than I expected. And that's by John Woo standards. John Woo movies is that they're all semi-tragic melodramas about violent men with the level of tragedy expanding or contracting based on the individual movie. All of which may or may not get lost in the hail of bullets flying around in Woo's signature slow motion infused gun battles.
But on a deeper level they're about the connections between our male heroes. Bonds that are either forged through battle or shared goals. And Bullet in the Head takes those bonds...and shatters them. Along with the men's psyche's as they move from light criminal skirmishes to shootouts, war crimes and beyond.
It's kind of fascinating because the film has a lot in common with two films, both viewed through John Woo's lens.
The first and most obvious is The Deer Hunter since almost all of the action takes place in Vietnam, we have a truly harrowing POW experience, and this about how bonds between young men, who have been friends since childhood can be broken by war.
But I actually think the movie owes a lot more to a crime movie with similar themes, Segio Leone's Once Upon A Time in America. Without spoiling too much, America is a crime saga that follows childhood friends whose bonds are tested and frayed through their criminal enterprise, which is where the movie hits on in the front and end thirds.
It's a fascinating blend because we're constantly getting hints that these friends bond is likely toxic for everyone involved, a la America, before they're sent into a harrowing experience in Vietnam that is primed to shatter them as people and friends.
This is also, arguably, the most impactful Woo's approach to on-screen violence has been.
The appeal to Woo's Hong Kong action is that it is chaotic, but often beautiful and bad-ass. It's how a scene like the tea house shootout in Hard Boiled feels triumphant. Because all of the acrobatic gunplay Chow Yun-Fat's Tequila pulls off, in spite of the carnage it ;ooks and feels cool. There is collateral damage, but the people that do perish aren't named characters. And if we've got two protagonists, they're going to work together, even if it doesn't turn out well.
So it is wild to see this chaotic action feel so desperate with named characters regularly being maimed or killed or working in opposite directions. See Waise Lee's manic focus on a chest of gold in the midst of pitched battles where everyone is trying to save lives, including his. Instead of being some kind of inevitable conflict between heroes and evil forces, it's all a giant misadventure that they shouldn't be a part of. It feels pointless, in a way violence in Woo's movies rarely do. Which isn't a bad way to view the Vietnam War either.
If nothing else, I think it's a great demonstration that even a director with such an established style, can take his most familiar themes, visuals and ideas and make something unique and powerful out of it.
As a great example. John Woo is somewhat infamous for his use of the "Mexican Standoff," or when two or more characters pull guns on each other at the same time, which means if anyone fires, chances are everyone is going to die. Most of the time, Woo uses these moments as meet cutes for his disparate heroes. Cop and criminal or cop and cop pull guns on each other and either don't/can't fire for some reason. Which opens up a chance to bond and work together.
Whereas in Bullet in the Head, the standoff is between the three friends because they're fracturing. This isn't a misunderstanding. It's a real conflict that's been brewing the whole time and is primed to explode at any moment.
It's a great reminder that tropes, even a director's tropes, can be used in different ways to tell different stories.
And I'd be remiss if I didn't shout-out the main cast who all perfectly encapsulate their roles both in this group and the movie. The emotional core of the movie is Tony Leung, who is achingly good at conveying conflicting emotions on his face including some scenes where he has to do some awful things and pretend it's ok. Jacky Cheung is an absolute heartbreaker throughout the film as the group's "constantly near a breakdown" guy. And Waise Lee leans into the elements that would make him a prime Hong Kong film villain for years. And then Simon Yam drops in about a third of the way through the movie and fits so snugly into the Chow Yun-Fat style role that you can see why Johnnie To has been using him that way for years.
The Verdict: Harrowing and Heartbreaking
Though the film still features Woo's signature approach to action, Bullet in the Head dives headfirst into tragedy in unexpectedly affecting ways. 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment