Sat sau ji wong (1998)

Director:

Wei Tung

Writers:

Hing-Ka Chan (written by)
Kam Fu Cheng (written by)

Release Date:

17 February 1999 (Philippines)

Genre:

Action | Comedy

Plot:

Financially troubled, a newbie hitman reluctantly takes the job of finding the plotted killer of a Japanese tycoon...

Plot Keywords:

Broken Sword | Ice Skating | Sword | Ring | Assassination

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Jet Li	...	Fu
Eric Tsang	...	Ngok Lo
Simon Yam	...	Officer Chan Kwan
Gigi Leung	...	Kiki (as GiGi Leung)
Keiji Sato	...	Eiji Tsukamoto (as Sato Keiji)
Paul Rapovski	...	Tall Guy - Eiji's Bodyguard
Kwong Kim Yip		(as Ip Kwong Kim)
Hideri Meiken		(as Hidari Meiken)
Timmy Ho
Chi Hung Ng	...	Father at Amusement Park (as Ng Chi Hung)
John Ching	...	Kau (as Chen Tung)
Kenji Sahara		(as Sahara Kenji)
Minori Ikarashi		(as Ikarashi Minori)
Mika Kawanabe		(as Kawanabe Mika)
Masako Enokimaru		(as Enokimaru Masako)

Also Known As:

Hitman
King of Assassins (literal English title)
The Contract Killer (USA) (video title)
The Hitman (Hong Kong: English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and some language.

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Japanese | Cantonese | English | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Australia:MA | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A | Germany:18 | Hong Kong:IIB | New Zealand:R16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 (video rating) | UK:18 | USA:R

Company:

China Star Entertainment

Trivia:

In the scene where they are buying clothes for Jet Li's character, Jet dresses up as several well known movie hitmen, the most obvious is Leon (the Professional)

Quotes:

Kwan: [sipping some coffee] What's this?
[a secretary says it's decaf]
Kwan: Decaf? What the hell's the point of that?

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Ying hung boon sik (1986)

Style Clash

Jet Li (Hero, Black Mask etc.) and Erik Tsang (Infernal Affairs) star in this wire fu action flick with an identity crisis. We start in kind of Jackie Chan territory with plenty of humour with Li a bumbling incompetent hit-man and Tsang a small time crook getting involved in a multi-million dollar 'hit'. As the film goes on all the comedy moments are forgotten and we begin to move into a serious action flick involving a bit more gun play than the usual Jet Li film, in fact it comes across at times as a cross between a Jet Li film and a John Woo heroic bloodshed type affair.

The action sequences are all to the high standard expected of Jet with a few added gun play sequences. Li is very likable in the lead role and Tsang is very good in his sidekick role showing a different persona to his performance in Infernal affairs.

Overall a fairly good hong kong action flick but the differing styles clash at times 6/10