the ‘Suffering Hero’ theme in John Woo’s The Killer
By Daniel Blumensev
John Woo’s The Killer (1989 John Woo) is an ultra-violent yet melodramatic Hong Kong gangster action film directed by Hong Kong chaotic action pioneer and auteur: John Woo. The picture gained cult hit status in the West and according to Julian Stringer was ‘A high point of the new Hong Kong action cinema’ (Stringer 1997: 27). The ‘new’ in the Hong Kong action cinema refers to the genre’s incorporation of transnational influences, as well as male-oriented stories and masculinist themes (Stringer 1997: 26). Supporting Stringer’s claim: The Killer was in fact a high point of the new Hong Kong action cinema due to Woo, being influenced by Hong Kong’s political uncertainty at the time (Stringer 1997: 26), having created masculine heroes that are both ‘doing’ ones: with energy and kinetic capability, and also ‘suffering’ ones: with feelings of sadness and loss (Stringer 1997: 26). The ‘suffering’ theme is effectively reflected through the filmmaking techniques of slow motion and close-ups and the ‘doing’ through repetition editing and quick zooms: all part of the sequence in which Ah Jong (Chow Yun-fat) simultaneously fights off the Triads and the police, after having assassinated a politician, being the sequence under scrutiny.
The sequence opens with a shot of children playing along a beach, with a young girl in the foreground. We then see Ah Jong: the assassin, having apparently escaped the police, getting off his speedboat and walking along the boardwalk, and then we cut to a car pulling in somewhere near by.
The sequence opens with a shot of children playing along a beach, with a young girl in the foreground. We then see Ah Jong: the assassin, having apparently escaped the police, getting off his speedboat and walking along the boardwalk, and then we cut to a car pulling in somewhere near by.
During these four shots, no musical soundtrack is present, only the subtle and soft diegetic sounds of the sea and children’s laughter. This quietness reflects that everything is at peace for Ah Jong. However, during shot five of the camera panning to reveal a new character in the back of the car, a low frequency morbid soundtrack begins.
This soundtrack represents that the character in the car is a ‘heavy’: a ‘bad guy’, and that danger is present. With the morbid soundtrack still playing, the film cuts to a slow zoom shot into the young girl on the beach, innocently playing in the sand.
This specific cut between these two characters ultimately links them, suggesting the possible upcoming danger to the little girl by the heavy. The danger is not only emphasized by the soundtrack but also by the cinematography, as the zoom onto the little girl intensifies specifically her as the victim. However the edit becomes more complex.
After the zoom on the girl, the film does not cut back to the villain, suggesting his action in relation to the girl, but to Ah Jong.
After the zoom on the girl, the film does not cut back to the villain, suggesting his action in relation to the girl, but to Ah Jong.
The choice of cutting to Ah Jong establishes the film’s crucial connection between three moral archetypes: Ah Jong: the morally entangled assassin, the Triads: Hong Kong’s mafia organization, and an innocent girl. This connection highlights The Killers’ theme of the ‘suffering hero’. This concept was introduced by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith in which he split US popular cinema into the male ‘doing hero’ of westerns and war films, and the ‘suffering female’, of melodramas and women-centered films (Stringer 1997: 29). Julian Stringer then claimed that the action films of John Woo contain both ‘doing’ and ‘suffering’ male heroes (Stringer 1997: 30). Supporting Stringer’s claim: the ‘suffering’ male hero theme was introduced right at the beginning of The Killer when Ah Jong accidentally blinds the innocent singer Jennie (Sally Yeh), and then due to an immense feeling of guilt, ends up taking care of her throughout Woo’s violent picture. Thus the edit choice of having the shots of Ah Jong and the young girl play right after each other, links the two characters, strengthening the ‘suffering hero’ theme, making the audiences hope to God against the harm of another innocent, this time the young girl, by Ah Jong. However the morbid soundtrack on these two shots suggests that harm may well be on its way.
We then see an exchange of greetings between Ah Jong and the girl.
Their relationship is of great importance towards the ‘suffering hero’ theme and this theme is not only strengthened by the two saying hello. Ah Jong and the girl are both shot in close-up, representing their importance to the theme, as the close-up makes their faces huge and the only thing on screen: thus being the focus, and the editing is slow: making the audiences thoroughly concentrate on them longer, understanding the two characters’ relationship towards each other, and ultimately, the ‘suffering hero’ theme. The inclusion of the close-up of yet another threat towards the girl: the Triad sniper, makes one realize that even though the sniper is aiming at the assassin, the destruction of the innocent might still occur and Ah Jong will, once more, be guilt stricken: be the ‘suffering hero’.
Although the girl is indeed harmed by the Triads at the end of the sequence, a curious thing happens. The assassin’s sympathetic awareness of the innocent is ultimately rewarded here as due to Ah Jong acknowledging the young girl, her confused face in close-up informs Ah Jong of the presence of the sniper, ultimately dodging the threat to his survival.
The close-up shot of the young girl’s face in this decisive and crucial moment not only makes the audience physically better see the girl’s narrative-moving face of fear and confusion, but also emphasizes the fact that Ah Jong truly cares for the innocent, as capturing what Ah Jong sees in close-up, makes his focus (the young girl) have reverence. Thus this sequence, constructed of close-ups and precise editing, provides Ah Jong with a small piece of pardon and redemption for his previous destructive actions.
The second part of the beach sequence contains two significant aspects that provide understanding towards the film’s themes and its overall aesthetic. Dodging the hidden sniper, Ah Jong jumps and shoots at him in the air. The assassin’s flight is shown two times, from two different angles.
The second part of the beach sequence contains two significant aspects that provide understanding towards the film’s themes and its overall aesthetic. Dodging the hidden sniper, Ah Jong jumps and shoots at him in the air. The assassin’s flight is shown two times, from two different angles.
Paying attention to the shot of Ah Jong jumping: he is much lower off the ground than in the next two shots.
With the intentional break of continuity, having Ah Jong literally fly through the air (shown twice), John Woo emphasizes the super power ‘doing hero’ side of Ah Jong: the protagonist’s other quality (Bordwell 2000: 99). After having jumped, Ah Jong shoots the sniper straight through the heart creating a small but gory chest explosion: a demonstration of Woo’s Sam Peckinpah goriness influence, resulting in ‘[A] ballet-like orchestration of perforated and pulverized bodies’ (Stringer 1997: 29).
According to Berenice Reynaud, Woo had expressed doubts about his ‘un-Chineseness’ (Reynaud 1993: 22). In the sequence at hand: Ah Jong, after having killed the victim with one shot (supporting the super ‘doing’ hero argument) rolls, twists (with a repetition of his twist from a different angle) and then fires into another Triad member.
With the intentional break of continuity, having Ah Jong literally fly through the air (shown twice), John Woo emphasizes the super power ‘doing hero’ side of Ah Jong: the protagonist’s other quality (Bordwell 2000: 99). After having jumped, Ah Jong shoots the sniper straight through the heart creating a small but gory chest explosion: a demonstration of Woo’s Sam Peckinpah goriness influence, resulting in ‘[A] ballet-like orchestration of perforated and pulverized bodies’ (Stringer 1997: 29).
According to Berenice Reynaud, Woo had expressed doubts about his ‘un-Chineseness’ (Reynaud 1993: 22). In the sequence at hand: Ah Jong, after having killed the victim with one shot (supporting the super ‘doing’ hero argument) rolls, twists (with a repetition of his twist from a different angle) and then fires into another Triad member.
This editing technique of twist repetitions has two purposes. The first purpose is to emphasize Ah Jong’s actions and ‘coolness’ by ultimately repeating the twists. The second purpose is more obscure. Paying close attention to the way the two twisting shots are edited, one realizes that the first twist is cut halfway, leaving the second twist to play the action again, from the beginning until the end. This type of editing was inspired by the work of Jackie Chan: Kung Fu action comedy director from Hong Kong. Studying Police Story (1985 Jackie Chan): Jackie Chan specifically edits all his punches and kicks by having one shot of the punch just touch the victim and then immediately cut to the same punch, from a close up and slightly different angle, repeat the same action but all the way through, thus emphasizing the hit: making it seem more painful. John Woo does the same, except not towards the illusion of pain but towards the illusion of the ‘doing action hero’. There are multiple shots in this sequence in which a quick zoom is used into Ah Jong firing.
This quick zoom technique makes these shots more dynamic, another stylistic aesthetic Woo picked up from Kung Fu movies such as Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (1978 Woo-Ping Yuen). Ultimately, due to these Kung Fu inspired filmmaking techniques, Woo not only ‘…recreated traditional martial arts genres by replacing swords and knives with guns’ (Reid 1993-4: 30), but also is truly a Hong Kong filmmaker at heart, and not Chinese, going essentially against Woo’s doubting previous claim.
A poetic yet terrifying shot of the children on the beach running away from the Triads’ bullets aimed for Ah Jong, plays, once more, with the assassin’s guilt.
A poetic yet terrifying shot of the children on the beach running away from the Triads’ bullets aimed for Ah Jong, plays, once more, with the assassin’s guilt.
The effect of the slow motion in this shot and in the shortly preceding one of the young girl, bloody, falling down to the ground due to being harmed by the Triads, lengthens the action, putting emphasis on Ah Jong ultimately harming innocent lives, once again.
According to Li Cheuk-to, the international success of John Woo’s gangster movies was due to audiences’ sympathy towards Chow Yun-fat’s character (Li 1994: 174). The cinematography, editing and sound in The Killer’s beach sequence ultimately demonstrates Ah Jong’s complex relationship with the innocent and supports Li’s claim. Juxtaposing intimate and focused close-up shots of the innocent girl with shots of the assassin, adding a morbid low frequency soundtrack to the edit that foreshadows destruction, intensifying the victim factor of the girl through the zoom on her, and the slow motion in order to physically lengthen Ah Jong’s guilt, not only shows the destructive relationship between Ah Jong and innocence: being the young girl, but also that due to understanding the film’s narrative, destroying innocence is the last thing the morally entangled assassin wants, making him the ‘suffering hero’ with which audiences’ empathize.
Bibliography
Bordwell, D. (2000). Planet Hong Kong. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Li, Cheuk-to (1996) ‘The Return of the Father’ in Browne, N (eds) New Chinese Cinemas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 160-179
Reid, Craig D. (1993-4) ‘Fighting Without Fighting’, Film Quarterly, 47. 2. 30-35.
Reynaud, Berenice (1993) ‘John Woo’s Art Action Movie’, Sight and Sound, 3. 5. 22-24.
Sandell, J. ‘Interview with John Woo,’ Bright Lights Film Journal 31 (January 2001): www.brightlightsfilm.com/31/hk_johnwoo.html (accessed 31 October 2016).
Stringer, Julian (1997) ‘Your Tender Smiles Give Me Strength: Paradigms of Masculinity in John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow and The Killer’, Screen 38. 3. 25-41.
Li, Cheuk-to (1996) ‘The Return of the Father’ in Browne, N (eds) New Chinese Cinemas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 160-179
Reid, Craig D. (1993-4) ‘Fighting Without Fighting’, Film Quarterly, 47. 2. 30-35.
Reynaud, Berenice (1993) ‘John Woo’s Art Action Movie’, Sight and Sound, 3. 5. 22-24.
Sandell, J. ‘Interview with John Woo,’ Bright Lights Film Journal 31 (January 2001): www.brightlightsfilm.com/31/hk_johnwoo.html (accessed 31 October 2016).
Stringer, Julian (1997) ‘Your Tender Smiles Give Me Strength: Paradigms of Masculinity in John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow and The Killer’, Screen 38. 3. 25-41.
Filmography
Police Story (1985) Directed by Jackie Chan [Film]. Hong Kong: Golden Way Films Ltd..
Snake in the Eagles Shadow (1978) Directed by Woo-Ping Yuen [Film]. Hong Kong: Seasonal Film Corporation.
The Killer (1989) Directed by John Woo [Film]. Hong Kong: Film Workshop.
Snake in the Eagles Shadow (1978) Directed by Woo-Ping Yuen [Film]. Hong Kong: Seasonal Film Corporation.
The Killer (1989) Directed by John Woo [Film]. Hong Kong: Film Workshop.