A blog formerly known as Bookishness / By Charles Matthews

"Dazzled by so many and such marvelous inventions, the people of Macondo ... became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who had paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many ... decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."
--Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

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Wednesday, October 29, 2025

Bullet in the Head (John Woo, 1990)

Waise Lee, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, and Jacky Cheung in Bullet in the Head

Cast: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee, Simon Yam, Yolinda Yam, Cheung Lam, Fennie Yuen. Screenplay: John Woo, Patrick Leung, Janet Chun. Cinematography: Wilson Chan, Ardy Lam, Chai Kittikum Som, Wong Wing-hang. Production design: James Leung. Film editing: John Woo, David Wu. Music: Sherman Chow. 

A harrowing story that begins in a larky mood, John Woo's Bullet in the Head features the usual copious amounts of bloody gunfire, but it lacks the cheeky over-the-top quality of some of his more popular movies. It centers on the adventures of three friends from the wrong side of the tracks in Hong Kong, who think they're going to make big money smuggling stuff into wartime Vietnam, but misjudge the chaotic situation in the country. In Saigon, Ben (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), Fai Jai (Jacky Cheung), and Ming (Waise Lee) connect with the Eurasian Lok (Simon Yam), who works for the gangster Leong (Chung Lam), but wants to escape his control. The four of them make plans to return to Hong Kong, taking with them the nightclub singer Sally (Yolinda Yam), who has been forced into prostitution by Leong. Needless to say, that doesn't turn out to be easy. After a big shootout at Leong's nightclub, in which Sally is wounded. their escape is thwarted by, among other things, the Vietcong, who capture and torture Ben, Fai Jai, and Ming. The friendship of the three is also tested by Ming's greedy insistence on clinging to a box of gold he found in the shootout at Leong's club. Nothing ends well for them. The darkness and seriousness of the story is sometimes at odds with the elaborate action sequences, and Woo was exhausted by the effort to make the film work. It was not a commercial success, but it has moments of real feeling provided by the fine performances of its actors.  

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