The Replacement Killers
John Lee: Chow Yun-Fat
Mr. Wei: Tsang Kong
Meg Coburn: Mira Sorvino
IMDb link: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0120008
other links:
Version reviewed: DVD
Ratings:
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DVD Audio: 10 of 10
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DVD Video: 10 of 10
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Subtitles: n/a
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Story: 3 of 10
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Performances: 5 of 10
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CYF: 8 of 10
There has been much written about Chow Yun-Fat's first foray into
Hollywood film and it is probably his best-known work to those
outside Asia. The Replacement Killers is notable only in
that it stars Chow Yun-Fat; otherwise this would have been a film
which probably should never have been made, at least in this form.
This was the film which served as my personal introduction to Chow Yun-Fat, and
so holds a special significance for me. That does not mean that I liked the film,
nor found it to have a great amount of artistic merit, although technically it
is a very well done, if a little derivative (though it could be argued this
was intentional).
This film had a number of things going against it, a rookie feature
film director with a vision which may or may not be compatible with
mainstream film being the most obvious. A star with an
imperfect command of English, a muddy script and somewhat lackluster
support from the studio did not help matters. On the other hand,
it had two main points in its favor: an award-winning female lead to
supply the box-office, and Chow Yun-Fat to supply the talent.
Not to divert praise from Mira Sorvino, for she does as well as she
can in the skimpy role she is given; Chow Yun-Fat labors under
bizarre direction, which seemed to include the iron-clad demand that
he never even crack the hint of his famous smile. I was at a loss
to understand this particular aspect until a random comment made
by CYF during an interview set me to thinking about the film as a
whole: "The director, he make me look very cool."
Well, yes - yes, he did. At first I believed that Fuqua, out of
a lack of experience, had allowed style to win over substance, had
allowed it to completely trounce its opponent, in fact. Now, however
I am not so sure that is what happened. Antoine Fuqua is (in)famous
for filming the "Gangsta Paradise" music video, which is a symbol-rich
background for a performance of the song by the musician Coolio. I have
read criticisms that The Replacement Killers is simply one long
music video itself and I agree with that, but perhaps not in the original
intended spirit.
Obviously for Fuqua the symbols in The Replacement Killers are
very powerful. While not as blatant as, say, a swastika or
a crucifix, such symbols are a shorthand to describe an entire way
of thinking or a way of life; they represent a kind of fantasy
of power as well as mirror a particular kind of reality. The
symbols in TRK shriek out "danger! high voltage!" to those who
can read that shorthand.
Being pretty bourgeois myself, those symbols didn't
really say much to me when first watching the film. After hearing
Fuqua's comments both in print and on the DVD version of the film,
it seemed as in Fuqua's estimation he had stated quite a lot - stated
it clearly and succinctly - while to me, anyway, the entire thing
had seem disjointed and ultimately vacuous. A tribute to
CYF's skill is that he was still riveting despite a great
portion of the film being essentially meaningless to anyone
not 'clued-in'.
My fault
with Fuqua, who obviously has seen his share of 'heroic bloodshed'
films (since he has lifted wholesale quite a bit of his symbolic
vocabulary from them) is that he didn't give me a glossary as he
lead me into the film, he just shoved it out there and if I could read
the symbols then great, and if I didn't well then shame on me,
I guess. Think of a book like Anthony Burgess'
"A Clockwork Orange" in which you gradually learn an entire
pidgin until you understand the last chapters of the book written
extensively in that pidgin without effort; if you flip to the
last pages beforehand they make no sense at all.
Fuqua could
have mirrored that method but either out of ignorance or arrogance he didn't.
So how does that differ from Chinese films in general? In one large and
specific way: the set of symbols used in Chinese films are well-known
to a Chinese audience and need no explanation. For the vast majority
of Americans (who probably have no idea why a rap artist would adopt
the pseudonym "Ghost Face Killer", for example) they do need an explanation,
or at least a few hints now and then would have been nice. At any rate,
if one looks at The Replacement Killers as a string of symbols
which are assumed to speak for themselves, it becomes a more
effective film, although still basically unsuccessful.
One of the major problems with TRK is that it appears to
have been a much different
screenplay in the beginning but because of concerns
over CYF's linguistic abilities they just cut out great hunks
of dialogue instead of changing anything. You don't tailor a
suit by whacking off the sleeves and the pants with a pair of
pruning shears. So instead of tailoring it to suit CYF and his
learning curve, they just cut out anything bothersome.
Dumb idea. No wonder writers hate Hollywood.
Having said all of that, Chow Yun-Fat's performance was good enough to
warrant critical attention, and admiring attention at that. When
one reads the comments of professional film critics, with few
exceptions they read along the lines of the movie stank, but Chow
was great. While that is probably not exactly what CYF had in
mind for his Hollywood debut, it's essentially the truth.
It seems that CYF's career in American film is, to some extent,
mirroring that of his early Hong Kong days; one can only hope that
The Replacement Killers and Corruptor are simply the
precursors to the upcoming mega-budget Anna And The King, in
much the same way that A Hearty Response and Spiritual
Love came before that historic moment when Mark Gor came to
life on the screen in A Better Tomorrow.
CYF carries off the role as John Lee, the assassin
with a conscience, with panache and brings Hong Kong flair to a drab
and unappealing film. It's worth watching just to see him alone.
Considering that a VHS copy of the film can be bought for under
US$10, this is one for the archives.
For those unfamiliar with the plot, Chow Yun-Fat portrays
John Lee, an assassin out of necessity, indentured for three
assignments to the ruthless Mr. Wei (played with style and
menace by Tsang Kong). When on his final assignment, to wreak
revenge on the policeman who killed Mr. Wei's son, Lee's conscience
does not allow him to carry out his task - thus earning the
enmity of Mr. Wei who is well-known for punishing people through
their families.
While attempting to purchase a forged passport to mainland China
through Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino) so as to
protect his mother and sister in hiding there, things begin to look bad for
John Lee as Wei's henchmen arrive to kill him, as well as anything
else which moves, that including, of course, Meg.
There are many scenes of gunplay, with Mira Sorvino bravely holding
her own in an action flick; most of the moves and atmosphere is
a direct copy of one John Woo or Tsui Hark film or another, we've
seen all this before but never in Dolby Surround Sound and in (undubbed)
English. While still desperate to save his family from Wei's murderous
intent, Lee thwarts Wei's planned revenge against the cop, redeems
Meg's tarnished reputation with the local constabulary and still
manages to make it to the airport on time.
Chow Yun-Fat looks thin and grim in this film, but undoubtedly
that was the intent. Impeccably dressed, we have a return to
the Gentleman Assassin charisma which was so alarmingly stripped from
him in the film Full Contact by Ringo Lam. We see CYF again
as The Killer (though John Lee is orders of magnitude below John Chow in
character or sheer suave quotient), but unfortunately Mira Sorvino
is no Danny Lee (or Chu Kong either, for that matter). Their
pairing has none of the warmth or depth of the two men in The
Killer.
The incidental musics are interesting and make for good atmosphere,
although a bit clipped at times (this could be due to editing - especially
the thematic use of "Makes Me Wanna Die" by Tricky to give us some hint
to Meg Coburn's character). The use of "Keep Hope Alive" by Crystal
Method in the beginning of the film (under the opening credits) is
both clever and sarcastically funny, as the pounding heat of the music is a nice
contrast to the cool first appearance on American film of CYF.
If you try to enjoy this film on any level other than the most
simplistic you're probably going to just end up frustrated, as
this is a film which is simply dumped in your lap without
ceremony. If you can get more out of it, that's great. If you
can't, well then shame on Antoine Fuqua, I guess.
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