'Have you thought over that... what exactly are you going
to do next? I really don't know what I am going to do at this point. I only
know that I am confused. People contradict themselves all the time. Have you
really asked about yourself? if these people that were your friend, whether
they're guilty or innocent? No one is innocent. Look right out there. Everyone
is sleeping now. It seems so quiet and peaceful. But if you really look at
each home, each windows and look inside those ordinary lives, selfishness,
fighting, arguing, backstabbing, betrayed... All of these you accept, because
you never have to confront it. We hide it away and call it innocence. Innocent
or not is set by society standard, there is no good or bad in this world, just
weak and strong. But in life, you'd find other things as well, good things.'
For this quote, I found Ballistic Kiss, extremely
meaningful. It is not a straightforward action movie or and typical urban thriller, with gunplay,
but a movie that shows the life of someone without a future. It strikes the
audience, of whether a killer is actually wrong when killing people that are
meant to be killed. It challenges the world view of the fact that no one is
innocent, but rather innocent or not is only a disguise of a human being. This
Donnie Yen directed feature is extremely dark and visually stunning. There are
also many Matrix- style elements in the movie (but this movie was made in 1998
which means Matrix probably copied it as it did to numerous of HK movies) The
action sequence is visually stunning and extremely brutal with blood flying
out, neck cracking.
The lead is Donnie Yen and without doubt one of his best
acting performance since the classic Iron Monkey. In this movie, the action is
rather lowplay and probably play as second class citizen to the Yen's theme
and message of the movie. His presence is shown here and his scenes with Annie
Wu is actually quite believable, despite being slightly underdeveloped. The
performance of crying expert - Annie Wu is most likely the best crying actress
in the history of HK movies haha :P. Although the cover may have pointed out
for a sex scene, those who were looking forward to it would be very
disappointed as there is no such scene. Not that I am disappointed as you see
that I loved the movie. :P
This Donnie Yen directed flick is not just a normal
action-modern-romance-thriller, but a story and a film that show the other
side of the story, the story of an assassin, a killer without a tomorrow, a
human being without a future, an outclass, a bulletproof appearance with a
kind hearted inside, betrayed by his best mate, betrayed by the people who
hired him, helping to solve problems in society in ways that causes
misunderstanding, loses his true love for that matter and eventually causing
his own downfall. It is a challenging and thought-provoking movie, that
actually points out the problems in our society and how 'no one is innocent'. (Andrew 2003)
P.S. 'No one is innocent'
93%
=
3.5