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Great moments in movie history

I agree with the comments in the poster blurbs-- Chuen jik sat sau, aka Fulltime Killer (Hong Kong - 2001) is all of those things, plus laugh-out-loud funny.

It's the story of Asia's number one hit man and the eager nutcase who wants to replace him. (Japanese actor Takashi Sorimachi plays the former, and Andy Lau is great as the latter.) Even though they never meet face-to-face, they start showing up at each other's "jobs" to watch the other guy in action, the better to kill him later.

The film was co-directed by Johnnie To, one of Hong Kong's best and most energetic action filmmakers (he directed and co-starred in the HK classic, The Heroic Trio), and it shows especially in this scene: The Japanese assassin 'O' poses as a tourist so he can take pictures of his rival, Lok (Andy Lau), rubbing out a carful of gangsters in the middle of a busy street. The scene's master touch?-- Lok's disguise!

(And yes, that's Spanish being spoken toward the end-- the only version of the clip on youtube-- and there's no translation. Basically, Lok tells his victim that death can't be much worse than having a mouthful of teeth like his. It'll make sense when you see it.)

Send Steve an email at couchpundit@yahoo.com.

Posted by Steve Monaco at August 20, 2008 1:21 AM

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