Contrary to what the market may dictate when it comes to action cinema - especially anything originating somewhere else besides the States - film is not exclusively a visual medium. And although your stereotypical Ugly American may not like to read and watch films at the same time, the fact that the subtitles option isn’t even offered by Columbia Tristar is an immense disservice to the genre, the actors, and their skills. Bad.īut Contract Killer is a completely different film at the same time, simply because the DVD is dubbed. And, of course, Jet Li still kicks his ass. The same American ass-kicker wearing rings and shoes equipped with flashing lights (in order to blind his opponents) still growls like a dog when he gets pissed. A mysterious Robin Hood-like hitman called the King of Killers lays a bloody hit on a Japanese tycoon/scumbag, inspiring a slew of international professionals (as well as Jet Li’s poor-but-noble mainland solider/neophyte) to roll into Hong Kong looking to cash in on a $100 million reward. It’s the same film: same eye-popping Jet Li hand and foot speed, same breathtaking action sequences, same masculinist super-villain, same Eric Tsang comedy, same shorthaired angelic love interest, same indulgent blood and gore, same Everyman narrative. But if what you want is to watch a Hong Kong action movie made years earlier updated with some contemporary (and sometimes underground) hip-hop soundtracking and hard-to-keep-a-straight-face dubbing, then stick to Blockbuster’s peddling of films like Contract Killer, a diluted reissue of Tung Wai’s Hitman. That is, if you want to see the real film. Next thing you know, you’re burning your Blockbuster card and coming home from your local indie video outlet armed with eight or nine tapes. And once you find them - such as Tsui Hark’s brilliant Peking Opera Blues, or any film starring the magnetic Brigitte Lin - you not only develop the taste, but also the hunger.

Indeed, as with all genres, you have to pick and sift through the lame stuff to dig up the goodies. This despite the fact that recent, mature exercises like Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a film largely rebuffed in China, have upped the storytelling ante somewhat. The genre still hasn’t entirely abandoned cheeseball love stories, melodramatic slow-mo shots, and corny ballads.

Hong Kong action films remain an acquired taste for some.

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