Ballistic Kiss
Director: Donnie Yen
Year: 1998
Rating: 6.0
This Donnie Yen
production is an overwrought stab at Heroic Bloodshed gunplay. Donnie
plays a hired killer in Roy Orbison dark rimmed glasses and his isolated
social life made me expect to hear him break into a mournful rendition of
"Only the Lonely". The film is littered with his deep thoughts - "no one
is innocent" and solemn looks. Being a hitman doesn't look like much fun.
Except when he is killing. At the time Yen was trying to be a Renaissance
man by producing, directing, doing the choreography and acting. He didn't
think he was getting a fair shake in his films and wanted more control. He
already had one film that he had directed - Legend of the Wolf - and directed
a few others after this. It didn't really work out and he started focusing
on his acting with some action choreography along the way which has turned
out to be a good thing for him.
In an early scene, he calmly walks into
a Triad punk youth gang headquarters with a brown bag and kills them all
with great bloody efficiency. Looking cool is part of the gig as he
lights up a cigarette in the middle of the killing and lets it dangle from
his mouth. But he spares the molls. This fact greatly impresses the female
cop who is assigned to the case, Annie Wu - the cutie from Jackie Chan’s
First Strike. I think she is quite a doll, but as a tough cop she is quite
unbelievable. As these movies often go, it turns out that Donnie lives across
the street from her and has been secretly watching her. Hong Kong is so small
I guess that happens a lot. His Angel as he calls her when he phones in to
a late night DJ (Simon Lui) and talks about himself. What work do you do?
I deliver. Can you deliver to me? You don't want me delivering to you. Like
pizza? Yes, like pizza. If pizza kills.
But Donnie is not really a bad guy - just
a little lacking in the social graces. He romances her at one point with
"I won’t kill you. But I can break your legs or your arms or ruin your face.
Shhh - just watch the sunset". These types of endearments of course win her
heart and she joins sides with him to kill off the really bad guys. Much
of the film is ridiculous and makes no sense at all like him kidnapping
her in broad daylight. But Yen is often more concerned about how the film
looks than a plot that makes much sense. If it wasn't Yen who takes himself
very seriously, at times I would wonder if this was a parody.
Much of it is filmed in strange shades
of blue and green that only make you wonder why are people are sitting in
blue lightning. Most of the action is of the bullet ballet style rather than
martial arts and there is less shooting in a small war then there was here.
One big set piece takes place in a porno movie theater and a lot of banging
is going on both off and on the screen - but hardly any one is hit - and
then in the climatic scene hundreds of bullets are flying and the main casualties
are the furniture and pillows. It is nearly sexual as the bullets are ejected
in slow-mo. Guns that never have to be refilled.
But I still kind of enjoyed it I have
to admit - no one makes films like this any more. One scene has all the
bad guys facing off against each other with guns in each others faces waiting
for the first move to set them off. Michael Woods is in this scene, but
unfortunately he does not reacquaint himself with Donnie as in their past
classic match ups. And there is also a cameo with Yu Rong Guang in which
he has a short terrific duel with Donnie in Donnie's apartment with hundreds
of shots. Try explaining that to the landlord. And finally Annie is pretty
sweet and the very last scene with her was intriguing. I like the Chinese
title - "Kill Some People Dance a Little" -, which is literally true.
There was one short scene of Donnie and Annie dancing on a rooftop.
