Now that the world has been enjoying Hong Kong filmmaker John Woo’s action-movie aesthetic for years, it’s only right to offer him the opportunity to develop one of his own. Hollywood has been considering an English-language version of Woo’s iconic action thriller The Killer from 1989 for almost as long as the original picture. It has now become known as a cross-cultural translation experiment: Woo’s original Hong Kong script was adapted to a Parisian setting by American writers Josh Campbell, Matt Stuecken, and Brian Helgeland, who then gave it back to Woo for revision. The characters are of English, Irish, French, and American descent. (And appropriately for a project of this caliber, it will only be available on streaming services; sadly, Woo’s lower-budget movies lack the big-screen grandeur.)
In the original movie, Chow Yun-fat plays a master assassin who, while evading other underworld characters and eventually bonding with a local police officer, shields a young singer who was blinded in a crossfire during one of his assignments. The remake’s core structure is the same: Natalie Silvers plays Zee, a local police officer Sey (Omar Sy) eventually teams up with Zee to safeguard blind singer Jenn. The plot has changed significantly, though, with Jenn becoming a more obvious target for unremarkable and drug-related reasons. The most obvious alteration, though, is the assassin’s gender transition. Fans, take note: The Killer has changed!
The cautious handling of the gender transition is a bit disappointing for a level-headed viewer who isn’t offended by seeing a woman of color in a main role. In the end, this avoids (or at least stifles) any genuine chemistry between Zee and Jenn. The assassin and the singer had a love relationship in the last movie, and there are many homoerotic interpretations of the killer/cop interaction as well. Although there are a few chances in the new film to experiment with or flip either dynamic, they are mainly missed. This method is consistent with the entire tone of the movie, which is more focused on the dazzling aesthetics of Parisian devastation than it is on romance or opera, as was the case with Woo in the past. It appears as though Woo is recovering his own material from directors such as Luc Besson by directing it like a late-2000s EuropaCorp production.
That’s where the 2024 The Killer shines. Nobody’s heart will be won over by it, with the possible exception of the families of the actors—after all, is it really possible for Emmanuel’s mother to downplay Chow’s influence? However, Emmanuel (perhaps most recognized for being a later-period addition to the Fast & Furious series) stands out on its own as a menacing action figure who provides the essential killer-with-a-code empathy. With Sy, Silvers has evolved into a likeable enemy-turned-friend, and Silvers has a charmingly unpolished on-screen persona.
But Woo is still the real deal, capable of staging mayhem in a more creative way than a hundred other rising stars in Hollywood, most of whom probably idolize the original The Killer. Silent Night, a dialogue-free vengeance thriller with a holiday theme from 2023, was his prior English-language picture and his first Hollywood project in 20 years. It had a good dose of action movie adrenaline and a lot of that heavy Woo melodrama, but the thinness of its characters made the whole thing risk falling into a dark, genre-specific abyss. The Killer moves more fluidly. This might seem like an unacceptable, shallow transgression against the gravitas of the original in a different setting. But with Woo leading the charge, it turns into a playful experiment: how would this murderous sequence unfold if the killer mostly wielded a samurai sword rather than a gun? How about adding additional motorcycles to the mix? Could Zee adopt a number of chic personas? Of course, there will be slow-motion scenes and doves.
The movie adheres to the now-cliched notion of Woo’s action ballets, complete with typical ridiculous elements like the flurry of vibrant Post-its that fly through the air during a shootout in a hospital hallway. (Of course, in true action-movie fashion, Zee’s choice to defend Jenn ends up killing a lot more people than if she had chosen to ignore it.) This version lacks existential angst, and yes, Woo is now self-imitating the genre of content that is easily accessible from a range of sources—whether it’s the action-junkie DTV cult favorites, the John Wick series, or any of the countless neon-drenched girl-with-a-gun exercises that are available on different streaming services (Powder Milkshake, Kate, etc.). A new iteration of The Killer is not absolutely necessary. It gives the lovely spectacle of seeing John Woo having fun once more in addition to its modest presentation.
