Sat sau ji wong (1998)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Wei Tung

Writers:

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

Release Date:

3 April 1998 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action | Comedy

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Hitman | Yacht | Martial Arts | Sword | Elevator

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 (Hong Kong: English title) (DVD box title) (UK) (DVD title)
The Contract Killer (International: English title) (DVD title) (USA) (video title)
Contract Killer (USA) (DVD title)
King of Assassins (literal English 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:

Iceland:16 | Finland:K-15 | South Korea: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:

This is the only Hong Kong movie where you Jet Li dubbed his own voice

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)

It's not a Jet Li classic, but there's little to fault here.

Hitman is a good solid action comedy which calls upon Jet Li to do a little more acting than usual. The cast is good, with Eric Tsang standing out particularly, and Heiji Sato making a decent debut as the nasty Japanese guy (there seem to be a lot of these in Hong Kong movies). Action scenes are relatively thin on the ground but what's there is of a good standard - although you might expect better from "Hong Kong's greatest action export".

What's most refreshing about this film is its understatement. The plot isn't anything special but it's pretty water-tight, and the action is all pretty believable if unspectacular.

One thing I particularly liked about Hitman was the way that different languages were used throughout the film (without using dubbing as in The Black Sheep Affair). This contributes to the overall realistic feel of the film and is something I would like to see more on screen. This aside, there is nothing particularly innovative here, but nothing worth criticising either - a film I could recommend to people who don't usually enjoy foreign martial arts movies.