Hong Kong Cinema Classics: Bullet in the Head (1990) 4K Restoration
Director: John Woo Run Time: 131 min. Rating: NR
Starring: Jacky Cheung, Simon Yam, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Waise Lee, Yolinda Yam
Country: Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese with English subtitles
Screening as part of Hong Kong Cinema Classics, eleven rarely-screened, action-packed films from The Golden Princess Catalog. Only at Gateway Film Center in Columbus, Ohio this September 2025.
About the film:
In 1967, on the way to the wedding of a friend a young man is accosted by a local gang member. Later, the three friends administer justice, in the process of which the gang member is killed, so they leave Hong Kong to avoid the police and the gang. They run black market supplies to Saigon and get embroiled in the war, being arrested as Viet Cong, then later captured by the Viet Cong, and find that their friendship is tested to the limits as they try to escape.
About the filmmaker:
John Woo is a seminal Hong Kong film director celebrated as a pioneer of the “heroic bloodshed” genre. He rose to international acclaim through stylized, operatic action films like A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989), and Hard Boiled (1992), renowned for their choreographed “bullet ballet,” dramatic emphasis on brotherhood, and frequent use of slow motion.
His transition to Hollywood in the early 1990s produced major studio releases such as Face/Off (1997) and Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), cementing his global influence on modern action cinema.
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