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For a long time now, Asia Extreme cinema has been ripped off by Hollywood hacks looking to spruce up their second-rate action movies with some snappy John Woo camera moves or some of the hyperkinetic energy of the Pang Brothers' editing.
In Johnny To and Ka-Fai Wai's actioner, though, it's Western cinema that gets looted. "Fulltime Killer" references everything from "Point Break" and "Terminator 2" to "Rear Window" and, in a surprisingly subtle gag, Alain Delon in "Le Samourai".
Aside from the throwaway nods to other movies, what really stands out in this tale of the rivalry between two professional killers, O (Takashi Sorimachi) and Tok (Andy Lau), is its mix of locations (Kuala Lumpur, Macau, Singapore, Hong Kong), languages (English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese), and characters (two assassins, one girl, one Interpol cop).
Showing little regard for the conventional demands of narrative storytelling, "Fulltime Killer" piles on the illogical leaps that Asian audiences apparently don't consider an impediment to a good action movie. As Tok admits in one of the film's self-reflexive moments: "I like action movies as long as they're not boring and have fresh ideas."
Whether its breathless - and completely illogical - narrative jumps are the sign of such a fresh perspective is another matter entirely.
As it stands, "Fulltime Killer" is a completely psychotic movie. Not because of its bloody mayhem (though there's a good deal of that), but more in the sense of that bloke who talks to himself at the back of the bus and can't string a coherent sentence together.
Enjoy the action set-pieces (especially the moment where Tok battles the cops using two bucking water hoses), but be prepared for several dull interludes in which the attempt to draw out the philosophical seriousness of the killers' relationship scales the heights of outright tedium.
In Cantonese (mainly!) with English subtitles.
