Latest / Fumbling Through Film / The Shaw Brothers Wildcard: The Killer (1989)
Transcript
- 0:00Gather together from the cosmic reaches of the universe. Here in this great screening room with comfortable recliners are the most powerful forces of good ever assembled. Keith,
- 0:15Terry, things are getting a little hard boiled in here. Pun intended.
- 0:19Derek, killer of a lonely heart. Much better than the owner of a broken heart. And the power twins, Zap and Jordan with their magical lemur snort, dedicated to fumbling their way through movies one forgotten gem at a time. This week we watched the 1989 Hong Kong gun fu classic the Killers Is
- 0:40fumbling through fail on Wang's case.
- 0:44Nope, not a peep. Damn near got the suspect, but he escaped.
- 0:49I thought you had raised a sharp intuition, Dan. A lot of people want to see me fail. And so that makes this case real important to me. I don't need you letting me down, right? You always were a pain in the ass as far as I'm concerned. Just do me a favor and prove me wrong.
- 1:08Listen, Lim, I ain't doing nothing for you. I'll catch this guy, you can be sure of that. You'll get your promotion. I just hope when you do, you'll remember who helped you reach the top. Hello and welcome to another one of a kind genre finding. Brand new episode of Fumbling Through Film. The only show that dares to bring together three dudes to talk about movies. These aren't just any movies, though. No, they may feel that way because these are the ones we've missed, overlooked or feel are simply worth revisiting. It feels like any movie feels like it.
- 1:50But sometimes feelings could be false.
- 1:52Feelings can be deceptive.
- 1:54I follow my gut every time.
- 1:58Anyway, my name is Derek and I'm a Fumbler. Joining me here in the Fumble Dome, where he proclaims that it is any movie. And he's probably right. It's the prime minister of fumbling and film, Keith.
- 2:08Hey. Hey, what's up, everybody? KG Fumbler extraordinaire and gut following experts
- 2:17gut Keith doesn't eat yogurt with probiotics in it that clear out all that gut bacteria. He lets that gut bacteria tell him what to do.
- 2:28If I took. If I ate the probiotic stuff, I would never know if we're watching any movie or not.
- 2:33Yeah.
- 2:34So thanks to the symbiosis of the gut, bacterias that are helping symbiosis of the gut. I feel like I've got some bs. My gut too.
- 2:45That other one with the black suit spider gut is the Dr. Dre, Kansas. Terry.
- 2:52Hey, guys, if you think if I sound more aggressive or anything like that, it's Just my black suit spider gut. That's connecting up.
- 2:58If you start dancing, Black suit spider gut is like. It's a good collection of words.
- 3:04I like the way it sounds.
- 3:05Yeah.
- 3:05And it, I mean, it's fun to say.
- 3:07It is fun to say. You know what else is fun to say?
- 3:10This podcast.
- 3:12The words that encompass this podcast.
- 3:14Every single one.
- 3:16Every single word.
- 3:17Not just, not just four. Black suit spider gut. But all the words.
- 3:22Not just any word.
- 3:23Not just any words. Every word. So because it's such a joy and a pleasure for all, let's tell people what it is they're in for. Sure. This, this joyous occasion. Every week we watch a movie, but not just any movie. One of us chooses a theme, a genre, Guiding light, some sort of police sketch. Police sketch, yes. All sorts of police sketches that we adhere to. We choose movies that align with it. And then on the fourth week, we truly fumble because we watch a movie that's been randomly selected for us.
- 3:59We bring all the movies together into a one way mirrored room that we can like make them recite lines to make sure it matches.
- 4:07We line them up next to each other.
- 4:09That's what we do. This month was a Terry month, and Terry bestowed upon us the guiding lighter. Please.
- 4:16Sketch of Shaw Brothers movies.
- 4:19Shaw Bros. That's right.
- 4:22That's right.
- 4:23Hong Kong production company.
- 4:25They.
- 4:25They still don't make movies, do they?
- 4:27Do you think they broke up or were dissolved or bought up by somebody else at some point?
- 4:31Probably bought it by somebody.
- 4:33Yeah. I' ma tell you what that's ruining everything in the world is the, the private. What do they call them? They just ruin all the restaurants and everything. They just.
- 4:44Yeah, yeah, yeah. I bet you. You know, Netflix couldn't get Warner Bros. So they got Shaw Bros. Instead.
- 4:51Yeah. And the Shaw Bros. Sister, Dot.
- 4:54Oh, yeah, don't forget about the shop Rose Sister.
- 4:58And the Shaw Bros. Water tower. I get it. Makes sense. I'm glad they did that. So Shaw Bros. Hong Kong movie production company. And that Terry, to kick us, kick us off for the month, you gave
- 5:14us the super Inframan.
- 5:16The Super Inframan, which was Ultraman Ish. Man in suit, fighting man. Men in rubber. Well, I. Superman, but could be women as well. In rubber suits. I'm not gonna gender the beasts because we saw no genitalia.
- 5:32That's true.
- 5:33They were just weird monsters. They could be.
- 5:35That was a flaw of the film. We didn't see any genitalia.
- 5:40I agree. I. I said that about most movies. When I'm done watching like, where were. Where were the nerds?
- 5:46How do. How do I know what they are?
- 5:49How do I know if there was a man or a woman? Tentacle beast. God.
- 5:53Ever. Ever since you and me were little Derek looked. We learned that the Wolf man had nards. And now we need that. Like I need insurance.
- 6:01Every movie needs something's got nards or whatever.
- 6:04Right. They have to drop that line.
- 6:06They have to drop that line.
- 6:08The 36 chamber has NARS.
- 6:11That's.
- 6:11That's the 36 chamber.
- 6:13Well, that's a. Yeah, the fully descended testicles. Oh, chamber.
- 6:19Yeah. You got to really like, pull those things down.
- 6:22Yep. That's what I chose to do. I pulled down the 36th Chamber of Shaolin for week two.
- 6:29Yep.
- 6:29And then Keith came up with week
- 6:31three with Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires.
- 6:35Legend. This, which was a Shaw bro copro with Hammer Films. Hammer. Yes, Hammer. I am Hammer. Hammer.
- 6:43There once was a production company.
- 6:46Production. Who had some musical shoes or magical shoes and musical as well.
- 6:51Yeah. How lucky. It was both.
- 6:54So lucky. And then those three movies gave us a big, big pool of movies to choose from. We spun that wheel and we got Keith's pick, which was the Killer. The killer from 1989. 89. Yes. The killer from 1989. John Woo's the killer from 1989.
- 7:13Not to be confused with David Fincher's the Killer or John Moose.
- 7:20Oh.
- 7:20Oh, that's funny. Okay, sorry, I know too much.
- 7:26No. Yes. Heaven forbid someone else deep dive into
- 7:32a deep dive just off the top of the dome.
- 7:35Off the top of the dome. Well, before we let Keith, you know, unanurism his brain and do. Do his deep dive, did any of us have any previous knowledge or prior experience with John Woo's the killer from 1989?
- 7:51Yeah, absolutely. To learn about it from the Wu Tang Clan. Again, like, we have a lot of these movies, but also like watch this one numerous times when we were younger and I had it on DVD already. So there you go.
- 8:06There you go. Yep. I've seen this several times. I have it on Blu Ray. It's one of those ones I revisit every once in a while.
- 8:12And I'm going to tell you what. If you would have asked me if I had seen it, if I said, yeah, I had seen it, I don't think I'd seen it prior.
- 8:18Oh, really?
- 8:19Yeah, really don't think I had. And if I had, I may have fallen asleep while watching it. That happened a lot. Like, let's watch this movie at 1:30 in the morning.
- 8:29All right.
- 8:30And then next thing I know it's 6am and I missed all of it
- 8:33done that number of times.
- 8:35So I would have said yeah, I seen it. But after watch it today. No, I hadn't seen it. Okay, well, you know what we need to do, Terry, you and I, we need to relax because Keith is going to take over and he's going to take us deep and close to the killer. Closer than we could ever imagined in another patent pending fumblers deep dive.
- 8:56Okay. Okay. Well, Derek you already mentions came out in 1989.
- 9:01I didn't step on the deep dive.
- 9:03Can't help you. Didn't I notice he didn't yell at him about that?
- 9:05Yep.
- 9:06No. No.
- 9:07Rated R. 1 hour 51 minutes. Delusion assassin accepts one last hit in hopes of using his earnings to restore the vision of a singer he accidentally blinded. Taglines. There's only two that really were on here. This film will blow you away. I don't know why anybody would even bother to put that on there. I Sometimes I think IMDb taglines put anything that's on the poster and they're not all taglines.
- 9:32Isn't that a tagline though?
- 9:34I don't. One vicious killer, one relentless cop. 10,000 bullets. That's a tagline.
- 9:39That's good.
- 9:40I like that.
- 9:41Yeah, I don't think some of these extra little things that I guess they are taglines but like they're not the official one.
- 9:48It's not a good one.
- 9:49Yeah, that's for sure. No, not a good one at all. But that other one is. Hey, by the way, this episode probably coming out right before the weekend. The first weekend of April.
- 10:01Oh, okay.
- 10:02April 5th. This will be at AMC.
- 10:04This will be.
- 10:05Yeah, they're re releasing it for a little bit at least that the AMCS will start showing it on April 5th I guess.
- 10:10Really?
- 10:11I'm sure some other theaters as well. Yeah, they're doing a re release. I think they just did Hard Boiled previously before that, but yeah. So good timing on this episode as well.
- 10:24Nice, nice. It all works out, doesn't it?
- 10:26Now this was directed by John Woo. I'm not going to go super deep into him because I think there's a lot of John Woo stuff out there and I don't want to dive too deep in him when I know he might come up again at some point in the future.
- 10:40Oh really?
- 10:40Granted by. Granted. By the time he comes up again, we probably. Well, no, not, not. I'm not saying I'm playing it. I'm Just saying.
- 10:47Keith, did you open the envelope? I told you not to open that envelope.
- 10:50No, I did not open the envelope.
- 10:52Okay, good.
- 10:52In fact, thank you.
- 10:53Hold on.
- 10:54No, I have to go find. I have to go get the envelope from upstairs still. It's upstairs. But no, I was just thinking. I was just thinking that. Possible. He's a big actor and it's a genre that we probably could hit again. I would rather not use it for just a wheel. Deep dive.
- 11:10What?
- 11:10Can't go on the wheel.
- 11:11It is tied into the Shaw Brothers, though, because.
- 11:14However, I will say this, and I'm glad Keith brought this up, and we're usually really good about this, but I'm going to start cracking down if we mention something on this podcast, we can never repeat it again. Words can never be reset once they've been said within the confines of an episode. They are not fair game to be reset in the future.
- 11:36Give me.
- 11:37I mean, that's you on everything.
- 11:38So I'm just telling you new rules. We cannot revisit a topic ever.
- 11:47No more new. We can't go back to.
- 11:49Okay, we can never say anything we've already said previously.
- 11:53If anybody has listened here, they know Derek has a short term memory also.
- 11:56So I. I just. I. I just don't understand why you're so worried about. No, I.
- 12:00No, I. I don't want to go. I don't want to go super deep into him.
- 12:03That's why. That's why you got so upset that you mentioned a different killer movie. Because.
- 12:07God, that. Come on, you guys are killing me here. Pun intended.
- 12:13Oh, you intended that pun.
- 12:15Oh, anyway, the first. Only once I said it. Okay.
- 12:20Things are getting a little hard boiled in here. Pun intended.
- 12:24Anyway, he's first shot.
- 12:26This episode's a mission impossible to the finish.
- 12:31Is that intended?
- 12:33No. Does that make. Does that any relevance to anything?
- 12:36Man, when I get done with you guys, it'll be a better tomorrow, man. It's really quite a bullet in the head here. Look, just being. Want to tear my face off.
- 12:47Pun intended.
- 12:49This episode will be a big hit with the. The kids.
- 12:52Oh, come on.
- 12:53I can't wait to throw this episode down a big red cliff. Sorry. Yes.
- 13:04To make this whole thing very relevant. In addition to this coming up, in the first episode, when we did Inframan, John wu's first job was working for the Shaw Brothers studio as an assistant director to Chiang. Okay. He is the first Asian director ever to make a mainstream Hollywood film, which was hard target, 1993.
- 13:26Oh, John Claude Van Damme. Oh, God.
- 13:30We're trying to convince Universal, get him to direct John. Claude Van Damme, Choppy championed Wu as the Martin Scorsese of Asia.
- 13:39Wow. High praise.
- 13:40That is high praise. Have you ever seen John Wu? Does he have the eyebrows to back it up?
- 13:45No, he does not.
- 13:46Oh, yeah.
- 13:47No.
- 13:48It's a missed opportunity by him.
- 13:50He did not attend film school and also corn MD IMDb he's never owned a car. Wow. But he was asked. Asked to direct Golden Eye. He turned it down, but was honored to be asked at the time.
- 14:04That's amazing.
- 14:05Yeah.
- 14:06I wish he would have missed opportunity.
- 14:08Yeah.
- 14:09But then he went to the other spy thing.
- 14:15He's known for things such as A Better Tomorrow and A Better Tomorrow Too, Not a better tomorrow 3.
- 14:21Now, if you would tell me A Better Tomorrow was a James Bond movie. I always said, all right, yeah.
- 14:27Better Tomorrow Never Dies.
- 14:29Yeah, it makes sense.
- 14:30Bullet in the Head, Hard Boiled, Face Off. Those are some of his movies.
- 14:34Face off, of course.
- 14:36But in 2024, he directed the Killer. Her Master Delusion, Assassin takes one final shot with the intention.
- 14:45Oh, that's right. You mentioned this, Keith, that they redid.
- 14:48Yes.
- 14:49For Netflix. I forgo.
- 14:52Yeah.
- 14:52And I thought I was gonna slip this in there and be kind of funny for me to say, in 2024, you direct the Killer.
- 14:59Hilarious.
- 15:00So, yeah, it stars Nathalia Emanuel, who's Misandry from Game of Thrones.
- 15:09Who?
- 15:09Omar Missandry. Missandi. Sandi in Game of Thrones. Daenerys is.
- 15:17Oh, yeah.
- 15:17Okay. Well, I. I didn't know.
- 15:20She's also. She's also. She's also in the Furious franchise. Omar Sai, he plays this guy Barry Se S in the Jurassic World trilogy. He's also Bishop in X Men Days of Future Past.
- 15:35Oh, yeah.
- 15:35Okay.
- 15:36He's Lupin in the Netflix TV series. And Sam Worthington is also in this.
- 15:44So it's an English remake.
- 15:45Yes, it's this. A Peacock original. Now, there was an American remake that was originally planned in 1991 with Walter Hill directing and. And Richard Gear and Denzel Washington starring in it, but it never came to fruition, thank goodness.
- 15:58Yeah.
- 16:01So, no. Now, all right.
- 16:03I assume Richard Gear would have been the assassin, and it would have been terrible.
- 16:07Yeah, probably. I tried watching the 2024 version of this on accident.
- 16:13Did you get confused? Okay.
- 16:15Nope. Couldn't get through the whole thing. Oh. I turned off after. I was like, this just isn't. I don't know why he would just redo his own movie. I don't it seems.
- 16:26I don't know. Why does anybody redo anything? I'm sure they. They wield a big boat of money in front of him. He said, probably, yeah, I could do that. Sure.
- 16:34I could do it again. Even, you know, you. I'm like, I did it once, I'll do it twice. Yeah.
- 16:39Don't threaten me with a good time. There's. There's so many of the killers. There's The Killer from 2023. There's the Killer from 2024. There's Memory of a Killer, which is a TV series. There's Killers of the Flower Moon. There was like the Tick Tock Killer. There's all sorts of killer. The Ritual killer. Ichi the Killer. Oh, Clove Hitch Killer.
- 16:58Oh, that's good. I like that one.
- 17:00Clove Hitch Killer.
- 17:01Really? That one is really good.
- 17:02Never heard of it.
- 17:03Sleeper hit. Sleeper hit.
- 17:05Sorry, Keith, did I just.
- 17:06No.
- 17:06Did I just step in on your. Your.
- 17:08No, you didn't. No.
- 17:09Okay, good.
- 17:10I feel like Joe was kind of like. I don't know, I watched. What was that movie he did there's. A couple years ago, the Christmas movie that was not very good at all. Silent Night.
- 17:17Oh, with the. Joel Kinnaman.
- 17:19Yeah, it was not good.
- 17:20Yeah.
- 17:21Guys, we've talked about this movie before.
- 17:23Oh, yeah, I'm. That's all right.
- 17:27Shut it down, Terry. We can't talk about.
- 17:30No, I. No, I think. I. I don't. I didn't think we went into too much John Woo before, but I guess we probably stumbled on that time people all the time. I know, I know. We've talked about Chow Yun Fat before.
- 17:41The fat.
- 17:42The fat man. Yep.
- 17:43Is back.
- 17:44Yeah.
- 17:45Which sounds like a title of movie too.
- 17:47Batman's Back. Well, that's probably the sequel to that Mel Gibson thing.
- 17:50Now he is a consistent co collaborator with John Wu consistently. Yeah. He's in a lot of John Woo movies.
- 18:00Nice.
- 18:00Including A Better Tomorrow and a Better Tomorrow 2.
- 18:03Bond.
- 18:05Now he also stars in the Better Tomorrow 3.
- 18:08Not Bond, though.
- 18:09But that is not directed by John Woo.
- 18:12Oh, traitor.
- 18:14It was being directed by Hark Harold Angels Singh psui. How would you pronounce that, Sue?
- 18:21P S, U, I, T, T, S, U, I.
- 18:25All right. Yeah. So A Better Tomorrow 3 was directed by Hark Sue. It was being worked on simultaneously to this to the killer arc. Sue is also one of. Is also a producer for the Killer.
- 18:39Which one? The 2024 killer?
- 18:41No, the. The new one. Not the new one. No, the original one.
- 18:44Yeah.
- 18:44No, the original one. So Better Tomorrow 3 was being filmed at the same exact time as the Killer.
- 18:51He was directing and producing that.
- 18:53Park sue was directing it and then he was producing the Killer.
- 18:58That's a lot of work. Yeah, that is a lot of work.
- 19:01Better Tomorrow 3. A man travels from China to Vietnam on a brink of war with America to retrieve his uncle and cousin. But finds complications when he falls in love with a female gangster with a dangerous ex.
- 19:12Oh, yeah. So when you say X, do you mean ex or like the letter X? Exactly. Got a dangerous X.
- 19:21Like a triple X?
- 19:23Yeah. Oh, thank God. This is the end of the cycle. We don't have to worry about that. He was also in a movie called God of Gamblers.
- 19:33I like the sound of that one.
- 19:35Yes.
- 19:35Yeah.
- 19:36A master gambler loses his memory, is befriended by a street hustler who discovers his supernatural gambling abilities.
- 19:43Supernatural.
- 19:44Yes. I like that.
- 19:46Sounds awesome.
- 19:48Is it like God isn't like Zeus is like a. Yeah, I. I think, yes.
- 19:54He is actually a God of some sort. I think.
- 19:57Loki, the trickster God of gambling.
- 20:00Quote from Chowing and Fat. In the West. In the west, audiences think I am a stereo typed action star. Or that I always play hitmen or killers. But in Hong Kong, I did a lot of comedy, many dramatic films and most of all romantic roles. Lots of love stories. I was like a romance novel hero.
- 20:19Wow.
- 20:20Good for him.
- 20:20He's a wide ranged actor.
- 20:22Now this also stars Danny Lee. That's how we got this onto the wheel in the first place. Because he was an inframan. He was the inframan.
- 20:31I wish he was that in this too.
- 20:34If he was Superman in this, that would be amazing.
- 20:36For man versus the Killer.
- 20:37Oh, that'd be great.
- 20:42Flying in with his explosive kicks and blows away Chow Young Fat.
- 20:47Chow Young Fat throws him down to a bottomless pit, which isn't bottomless, but has actual visible lava bottom that you can see from the top of the pit.
- 20:56Forgot the information. Fly. And he flies out. Yeah. Fat turns giant and starts trying to kill him. And then they have to a giant Kaiju battle.
- 21:03Oh, there's a fat kite. Like a. Like a fatty monster rubber suit. Like just gross.
- 21:12It's a rubber suit chowing fat.
- 21:14But he's just. Emphasis on the fat part.
- 21:20You've unlocked my true power.
- 21:22It's Chow Yun Fat in the Cha Yun Fat suit.
- 21:28If you say Fat three times around him, he transforms.
- 21:30Yeah, but it's. But. But it's also spelled P H A T. Yeah. Danny Lee was also in a movie. We talked about last week called King of Fists and Dollars.
- 21:41I don't remember that. But we talked about that.
- 21:43We did. We did. So I can't talk about it anymore.
- 21:46Okay. Keep it under your hat. He's in a movie called I think it's Funny. Keith's like, we talked about it like we did.
- 21:53I forgot.
- 21:55I have no idea what we're talking about. So even though we have a rule where we can't repeat ourselves, I don't remember anything.
- 22:02We just got to sneak it past Derek.
- 22:04Yeah. Which is quite easy. I am like. I am the guard of this. Much like. Like the old security guard that's in the toll booth. You know, he's like, napping with his feet up. And he just, like, break through these. I don't need to lift a wooden arm. You just smash through it with your car. I'm like. I stir. That's. That's how. How closely I guard this.
- 22:27You're just tiptoeing by as you're snoozing. Yeah.
- 22:30Turn down the tv. Martha. And I pull my hat down over my eyes a little bit further.
- 22:36We hear Keith whisper something about gremlin meat, and you wake up in a startle.
- 22:40Keep that under your head.
- 22:43I don't remember us ever talking about Daniel Lee being in a movie called Ninja in the Claws of the CIA.
- 22:49What? That's a movie title.
- 22:51C L A W S or C L A U S or it's not a Christmas movie. Or K L A U S C
- 22:59L A W S. Now I kind of wish it was the, like Santa Claus. Ninja in the claws of the CIA. It be kind of funny, but in. In 2000, he was in the Killer of the Lonely Heart.
- 23:16Oh.
- 23:16Oh, boy.
- 23:18He's got a type.
- 23:20Yep. A Hong Kong action film featuring a policeman investigating an underworld boss. I could not really find much out about this movie.
- 23:29More than I could find out.
- 23:30But the fact that it was called the Killer of the Lonely Heart, I thought it was kind of fun to put in there.
- 23:38Lonely Heart. Much better than the owner of a broken heart.
- 23:45The only way the. The. The cure a broken heart is to hire the killer of the broken heart.
- 23:49Oh, yes. Cupid. Yeah.
- 23:53Cupid will kill that thing.
- 23:54Yes, he will.
- 23:55Now this also stars Kong Chu. He's in a 1978 TV series called the Romantic Sword.
- 24:04Who is Kong Chu in this movie?
- 24:06He is the killer's friend.
- 24:09Okay.
- 24:10Ah, yeah.
- 24:10The Handler.
- 24:11Yep.
- 24:12Yes.
- 24:13And he started originally in a TV series in 1978. This list has two separate TV series in 1978. But it's the romantic swordsman and the romantic swordsman two.
- 24:23I like that.
- 24:24He was also in danger has two faces.
- 24:29It does. Yeah. I've seen Danger.
- 24:31Yeah.
- 24:33He was in Once a Thief.
- 24:34Huh?
- 24:35Which is, I do believe, a John Woo movie. And he was in the Raid.
- 24:39Oh, I love the Raid.
- 24:40Not a John Woo movie.
- 24:42However, Kong Chu was a friend of Chow Yun Fat who had actually entered retirement and returned to acting in this film as a favor.
- 24:50Okay.
- 24:51Oh, cool.
- 24:52He was retired and came back.
- 24:54Yeah.
- 24:55For this movie.
- 24:56Yeah.
- 24:56Chow Yun Fat was like, dude, come hang with the fat man. Come on.
- 25:00This movie's almost 40 years old.
- 25:02Hong and the fat man. Let's do it.
- 25:03Yeah. Might as well. I would. I'd do it. Yeah. If Chow Yun Fat came to me and said, get him out of retirement. Star in a movie with me, I'd
- 25:10say, okay, yeah, sure.
- 25:12I'd be like, excuse me, Mr. Yun Fat. I haven't even been an actor yet, so I will just get into it. I don't even need to unretire.
- 25:20Now's the time.
- 25:21Let's do it.
- 25:22I've been waiting by the phone, just begging. Yeah, exactly. I'm waiting for Chowing Fat to finally get my acting.
- 25:29I've been waiting for him to call and then me apologize for us calling him Fat Man.
- 25:34Yeah, I. I mean, that episode's been up for about almost a month now. I'm surprised he hasn't contacted us.
- 25:39Now we're gonna get a season to
- 25:40stick via lawyers or something like that.
- 25:42Yeah, yeah, we're gonna.
- 25:43They're like, yeah, they did it once. If they do it again.
- 25:46Oh, if there's two episodes, guys.
- 25:49That's why I put in that we can't repeat ourselves, because I have been contacted by the fat man's lawyers.
- 25:56Oh. And they said we couldn't bring up things from past episodes anymore.
- 26:00Just specifically that. And I'm just umbrella Ing it to make sure we, you know, protect ourselves.
- 26:06Yeah. Makes sense.
- 26:07I mentioned that Hark sue was the producer on this one. He was extremely unhappy with this film. I wanted to have it completely recut. He felt the focus of the movie should be on the cop instead of the killer.
- 26:21Even though it's called the killer.
- 26:22Yep. He didn't want. He didn't want to be about the killer. He didn't think people would go see a movie for that. He thought that when the killer blinds Jenny in the movie, he thought that should be completely cut and just inserted into flashbacks later into the movie.
- 26:37Really?
- 26:38They didn't have time to do that, to do any changes. They were getting ready to be into a film festival and so he didn't even have time to look at it and do anything with it. So they just stuck with what it was and it became big hit for him.
- 26:49Nice.
- 26:50The shootout at the beach house. They had 20,000 rounds of ammunition were fired.
- 26:55Dang.
- 26:56The final shootout at the church had 40,000.
- 26:59Wow. That's a lot.
- 27:00Now this John Woo had over 90 days to shoot the film. Nearly double the amount of time that typical Hong Kong movies would get. The final action scene took 36 days to shoot.
- 27:11I believe that.
- 27:12Yeah. It was shot in a remote building to made to look like the church. But then like everything that they look out and see though is then like clips of an actual real church. So when they would see it in the distance and stuff like that.
- 27:25Well, the. The movie opens up with an exterior of the church and it's clearly a model. Is it? Yes, yes. There's it. It reminded me of Beetlejuice. It was clearly a model, but I dug it. I'm like, cool, go.
- 27:41Why not throw it in?
- 27:42Yeah.
- 27:42Miramax originally bought the rights to this film as well as Hardboiled and Bullet in the Head release on dvd. But apparently they scrapped it because John Wu didn't want to approve Miramax's version to be released in the cut. In which it could have made an uproar with HK films being edited in the US release. All the guns in this movie are real. There's some very strict gun laws. They had to be specially imported. Their use onset was closely monitored. A lot of the gunfights in the streets of Hong Kong would draw complaints from the residents.
- 28:18Imagine living next to that where they're shot, firing 40,000 rounds.
- 28:23So many rounds.
- 28:25Many local police officers, however, were big John Woo fans. And they would just be like, yeah, just keep filming. Don't worry about it.
- 28:30Really?
- 28:31That's nice.
- 28:31Yeah, yeah.
- 28:32You know what wasn't real in this movie besides the church? The money.
- 28:36What?
- 28:36When he opened up that briefcase with that. Those American dollars in there, it's like,
- 28:41oh, it was fake.
- 28:42Those were clearly Xeroxed.
- 28:44Yes,
- 28:46they're all hand cut out too.
- 28:48That's how they cut money sometimes with scissors.
- 28:52Scissors.
- 28:53The factory was down that day. They had to use scissors.
- 28:56The scene where Jeffrey beats up Jennings would be attackers in the alley was apparently tough for Chowie on Fat to do because he doesn't like violence.
- 29:04What about the rest of the movie? Was that tough or.
- 29:06Yeah, I Mean, I feel like there's a lot of. Part of this version.
- 29:09I found that very, very weird that. Because I think, like, this and like, Hard Boiled and like, Better Tomorrow. I think they're all, like, pretty big, like, action final action movies. So I guess they had to kind of muster up some anger to make the scenes more convincing.
- 29:24Yeah, he's in a lot of violent movies, so that's surprising.
- 29:27Yeah, that's weird, right? Like, I can't even think of a movie that has chowing fat, doesn't involve, like, guns or fighting or something in it.
- 29:34Apparently the stuntman had to tell Chucky and Fat to pull his punches a bit after one of them got hurt.
- 29:40Because Chuck Fan was, like, dicking people.
- 29:43Yes. Once he got going. Maybe that's the problem. Like, he doesn't want to do violence. He just can't stop. He's like.
- 29:49Like, he won't like me when I'm violent.
- 29:50It's like berserker mode.
- 29:52No, I don't think I will. Someone came up and told me that I would be like. Yeah, I believe you.
- 29:58Violent. You won't like me when I'm violent.
- 29:59Okay, I won't. Sorry.
- 30:01Yeah, you're right. I. I don't really like violent people. It's like.
- 30:05Do you think this is, like, some sort of special rule you have? I think that's pretty universal generally.
- 30:09You won't like me. I'm telling you, this guy over here,
- 30:13I wouldn't like him either if he was violent.
- 30:16No, you won't like me when I'm violent.
- 30:18John, John, listen to me, buddy. I don't want to be violent. No, child, we need you to be. Come on, fat man.
- 30:26That's it. Say it again. Say it again.
- 30:30The director saying, people will like you when you're violent.
- 30:33All right. Sorry, fat man. That's it.
- 30:37Like the Marty McFly, the chicken thing. Yeah, he just loses it.
- 30:41Mr. Mr. Wu, you would like me last little.
- 30:48You whispered so effectively, I can't understand what you said.
- 30:51Oh, instead of, like, from the Hulk, who's like, Mr. McGee, you wouldn't like me when I met. Angry is a. It's a ch M. Have you ever seen the. In The Incredible Hulk TV show? That's one of the things. Mr. McGee, he's the. He's the. Mr. McGee is the. Is the reporter who's always trying to chase the Hulk down. So one time he turns, he's like, Listen, Mr. McGee, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry. He's like, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. So I was like. Exactly.
- 31:21I literally made that reference earlier, but just not Mr. McGee.
- 31:24Okay, yeah, look, I. I probably missed it.
- 31:27Sorry, Mr. McGee.
- 31:30I thought you just made that up on the spot.
- 31:31I thought so, too.
- 31:33It's like, wow.
- 31:35I immediately thought of Mr. Magoo.
- 31:36That's what I was thinking.
- 31:37Well, yeah. Mr. Magoo don't make me angry either, buddy.
- 31:40He would make me mad after a while.
- 31:41I think Mr. Magoo is infuriating.
- 31:45Yeah, he's like. He's not even trying to.
- 31:47No, it's just his nature.
- 31:49I know he's got problems, but, like, he's not even trying.
- 31:52Well, his problems are mostly eyesight related.
- 31:54And he still gets in a lot of mischief.
- 31:56Too much mischief for a blind man.
- 31:58Speak. Speaking of mission, like this movie. Speaking of mischief, the last little note I'll tell you guys here is it was so hard to get permits for doing the footage during the. The boat race. So some of the footage for that assassination scene were shot under the pretense that John Wu was doing a documentary about the annual Dragon Boat race.
- 32:21Guerrilla filmmaking. Yeah.
- 32:23He shot the bulk of the footage five months earlier and then brought in a small crew later to fill in the gaps.
- 32:29Wow.
- 32:29He edited the scene himself, I guess, as well. It says the other note here says he's a huge fan of musicals and tried to think of the sequence as a musical number or dance sequence. That sounds very weird.
- 32:41The boat sequence.
- 32:43Yeah.
- 32:43Sequence.
- 32:44Yeah.
- 32:45Because he. Mostly because he had a mustache on.
- 32:47He looked great with that thing.
- 32:48He did. What a killer mustache.
- 32:50The killer mustache.
- 32:51Yeah. It's another movie.
- 32:54Yeah.
- 32:54I almost made me want to shape my beard and just have a mustache. But then I was like, I don't think I'd look like Chun.
- 33:00If you can pull it off, then go for it.
- 33:04Yeah.
- 33:05There's a certain. Certain type of face that sports a mustache.
- 33:08Well, yeah, it's not mine. I don't know what's under the spirit anymore, and I don't want to know.
- 33:12Chowie on fat, though. He is.
- 33:14He was a mustache.
- 33:15Mustache.
- 33:16Yeah.
- 33:16Yeah, yeah.
- 33:17God damn it, Keith. That was close. You didn't intend for it to be close, but we got so close to the killer.
- 33:22Yeah. And you don't want to get that close to the killer. You never know what's going to happen.
- 33:25The thing we were so close to the killer that even if we were mostly blind but could still make out shapes, we would be able to tell was the killer when we were so close.
- 33:34Mustache or not, we could tell.
- 33:35Mustache or not. No fooling me.
- 33:37You get that close, you can tell that's a fake mustache.
- 33:40I couldn't tell it was a fake mustache at all. It was very well done.
- 33:43We either have all the lights on, or we've had, like, a hundred candles lit up all around.
- 33:47I really wish he would have wore more costumes to disguise himself instead of just different suits. Instead of just different suits. And a mustache here or there.
- 33:57And a goatee.
- 33:58Goatee like.
- 34:00Oh, yeah, the one. The one he does at the end of the movie when he's at the train station thing or the. Or the airport or whatever. Is. That's pretty cool.
- 34:06Oh, yeah, the airport disguise. I love the disguises. It was great.
- 34:10Yeah, he's a master of disguise. And he's a killer.
- 34:13Uhhuh. I don't think the two are mutually inclusive. Like, you have to be great at disguises and to be a great killer, but if you are both things, they. Each one enhances the other.
- 34:26Yeah. They're like. They're meant to be together.
- 34:28Yes. Like peanut butter and chocolate.
- 34:31Yeah. Yeah. Killing and disguising. Peanut butter and chocolate. They're the same.
- 34:34Disguising is clearly the peanut butter. Killing is clearly the chocolate.
- 34:40Yeah.
- 34:40Yeah.
- 34:40Both great on their own. Yeah.
- 34:45We can all agree.
- 34:46Both equally great wearing a disguise.
- 34:49Wouldn't you think that'd be the opposite, though? Because. Because really, I mean, you're putting a disguise around the chocolate. I mean, around peanut butter.
- 34:56Very literal about the application of disguises. I'm just talking about the flavor. Disguising is clearly peanut butter.
- 35:04Yeah. I mean, really, chocolate. I could taste it now as I'm, like, putting a hat on my head. Yeah. Tastes like.
- 35:10Yeah. You know, like, sometimes you get that coppery taste in your mouth because when you see, like, blood or, like, an accident, you know, you're like, yeah. When I put on a wig, all I can taste is Peter.
- 35:25That makes sense.
- 35:27And I'm always wearing wigs. That's the thing.
- 35:30Every. Every time I see Dirk, he has a wig on.
- 35:32I'm always wearing a wig. And what's weird is, if you gave me, like, two minutes, I could go get a couple of them because we have, like, a cabinet of wigs.
- 35:40You have a cabinet of wigs from.
- 35:42From past Halloweens and kids dressing up as stuff. Okay, I can go get the kids Raven or Starfire wigs and put them on.
- 35:53Sounds like he's. Sounds like Derek's kind of already a master disguise. I'm starting to get worried he might
- 35:58have other skills that went hand in hand.
- 36:01Yeah. You go to that lock picking convention, you'll never know it's him.
- 36:06I think you're saying I kill everybody
- 36:07in the room because we're not gonna talk about lock picking anymore.
- 36:11Nope.
- 36:12You're killing everyone in that room. So we'll never discuss it again.
- 36:17We need, we need to talk about the killer from 1989.
- 36:22Probably should.
- 36:23It's the only way we close this month out.
- 36:24It is the only way this month closed out.
- 36:26It's discussing this with my wife a bit. After I watch it, I kind of want to know more. Maybe this is like just a thing of like the Hong Kong cinema a bit. There's a couple of things in this movie that I find to be like, super cheesy, but I think it's just the way that they make their movies.
- 36:43I think it's the way John Woo makes them for sure.
- 36:45Like there's a couple like, weird, like freeze frame things by the end.
- 36:48Yeah, there's a few of them.
- 36:49Yeah, yeah. Or even like the two people crawling right past each other.
- 36:53Oh, and they're blind. They're both blind though.
- 36:56But there's one, there's one other like, weird thing that I, man, I can't remember exactly. So there's something else weird that happens earlier in the movie where I'm like, well, that's just like a, like a thing that people are just used to in like, you know, Hong Kong cinema. As opposed to it just being such an odd option of something other than that. Like, I mean, this movie starts off very fast paced and keeps it up pretty well throughout the whole thing. I mean, this is a solid movie.
- 37:20I like the style of this that you're talking about. I think it is a kind of a John Woo thing. Like you'll see that when he does like his Mission Impossible movies as well. You know, it's something that comes around and, but, and this, it works really well. I feel like it's almost like soap opera almost. A little bit very dramatic. Over the top. Everything that's going on, it's like high emotion and high, like, intensity, but in a good way. I, I, yeah, I really enjoy it.
- 37:46There was that moment towards the end of this movie where the gun's on the table and he hits the table, the gun flies up and he catches it and shoots people. Which reminded me of admission possible too. There's. Wasn't there like a gun in the sand? Yes. And doesn't he stomp in the Sand. And the gun flies up into his hand. God, I hated that movie.
- 38:06You should rewatch this kid.
- 38:08Maybe.
- 38:09You know what? I might rewatch it and love it. But boy, I hated it when I originally saw it. This movie, I think it was last week. And I hate to bring up stuff we've previously talked about, but I have to.
- 38:19Okay.
- 38:20And it was about the way they made movies in Hong Kong is where they filmed the movie and then they came back and dubbed in all the sound post. No, that was clearly done in this movie. Clearly done. And I understand that it is the method and the mode of creation for Hong Kong cinema up until a point. I don't know when they stopped doing it. But they were clearly still doing it in 1989. That makes this movie less to me because it's very difficult because the sound effects are so canned and unnatural.
- 38:58Doesn't feel like it fits with what's going on.
- 39:00Yes. The breaking of glass. The same screams over and over again. You know, it's. It's like hearing the wilhelm scream over and over again.
- 39:10Ah.
- 39:11Like it doesn't make the movie bad. It just makes this movie not be peak for me.
- 39:18Gotcha.
- 39:18Very, very good. But if they had the original audio from recording, I'm sure it would been a thousand times better.
- 39:25Yeah, I didn't really notice the sound effects.
- 39:26Oops.
- 39:27Too much. But.
- 39:28Well, maybe it's my ultimate edition. That's why this says on DVD or the Blu ray.
- 39:32Oh, maybe. Maybe the. My edition re dubbed the redub.
- 39:35I don't know.
- 39:36Like Terry said. I. I mean I didn't get. I wasn't bothered as much by. By that. I mean I. I just like this movie is kind of the equivalent to what we watched in the previous movies were like there's just these big huge battle scenes. Only they replace swords and kung fu with just bullets. Lots and lots of bullets. Like it just.
- 39:55If Inframan had as much kung fu as there were bullets in the killer, Inframan would have been one of the best movies I've ever seen in my life.
- 40:05It would have been like two hours long too probably at that.
- 40:07It would have been outstanding. This movie has got so much action
- 40:11in it and I'm cool with that.
- 40:13That's great.
- 40:13It does. Yeah.
- 40:14I. And I know like every now and then, especially like at the end he gets. He gets shot and killed.
- 40:21Is he killed? I thought he was just blinded.
- 40:23Oh, I thought he dies at the end. Like he kind of just kind of
- 40:25like maybe he probably. Yeah, he kind of falls down at the end. But he was blind, which would have been the great irony of it all.
- 40:31Yeah. Especially weird the way that his eyes almost look. He was wearing sunglasses.
- 40:38Yeah, he wears his sunglasses that night.
- 40:43They should have played that then.
- 40:44They should have. Even though the song probably didn't exist yet. Oh, you're right, it may have.
- 40:49But like, like they. They get. They all get shot every now and then. Like, nothing seems to like, really be anything like, to where they're gonna like, be seriously killed until that thing at the end. But the amount of people they shoot and kill compared to the amount of people that are trying to shoot them and not even like getting close to hitting them.
- 41:10Is Stormtrooper Ian?
- 41:13Yes, yes, very much so. Like, it's. It's just like there's hundreds of people all like running up and shooting at them, yet they're still picking them off left and right and then maybe getting grazed or hit by one here and there right up until the very end.
- 41:27Yeah, they got some plot armor for sure.
- 41:30I've got crazy news about sunglasses at Night. All right, it came out in November of 1983, but not just November, on Veterans Day, November 11th of 1983.
- 41:43Wow.
- 41:44The ultimate honor to veterans.
- 41:48And it's out of respect for the veterans, we're all gonna wear our sunglasses at night today.
- 41:53Corey Hart from his debut album, First Offense. Wow.
- 41:59So that could have been in this.
- 42:01It could have, yeah. Should have been a missed opportunity.
- 42:05That could have been what that girl was singing in the karaoke bar the whole time.
- 42:10I hate to be a back seat director, but God bless it, they could
- 42:13have done that when he did the remake. He probably did add that.
- 42:17I bet you did.
- 42:18I think it's weird that the one guy is like hiring. Supposed to be paying the main killer 1.5 million.
- 42:24Uhhuh.
- 42:24To kill, I guess to kill his uncle.
- 42:26Yeah.
- 42:26Y plus then he was paying the guy to, you know, betray the killer. But then that other guy comes along, the other assassin guy comes along. He's like 100,000 now, 100,000 later. And he's like, yeah, sure, like, wait a minute, you just threw about like 1.5 million at somebody earlier. Now just.
- 42:43He's gonna steal.
- 42:44You're bringing in like another guy to come in, and you're gonna give him like a hundred thousand right now to do it.
- 42:49And this, this guy's hiring these people. He's. They kind of, I think, make a point of making that. He's kind of a. He's not respectful. He just kind of doesn't know he's doing. He's just power hungry. He's just throwing money at his problems and he's worrying about things he doesn't even need to be worried about.
- 43:02Like with that, with the exception of them saying, hurry up and give him the guy the 100,000, I think everybody else, he's like, yeah, when it's done, I'll give you the money. And then he keeps telling people that, no, never mind, I'm not giving it to you now.
- 43:12Yeah. There's a lot about honor and loyalty
- 43:15and can you be a killer and still be a good man?
- 43:18To be an honorable person? And like, so there's a lot of themes and things that happen in this movie that I think have become tropes since then. Yeah. But I still dig them. Right.
- 43:33No, it's still good.
- 43:34The, the bad guy with honor, which, which has always been kind of a thing, but I think is really like this, the gangster mafioso type with honor. He's an assassin with honor. He's gonna kill anybody, but he won't kill that.
- 43:49Yeah. There's always a line that you won't cross.
- 43:52I like that. I like the, the two sides of the same coin. The cop and the assassin sort of thing. The Batman, the Joker, the, the, this movie reminded me. Heat clearly got a lot of inspiration from this movie. And I, I, I noticed it and I appreciate it and I think both are outstanding for what they did. But it's. Yeah, yeah. It's clearly that. Yeah.
- 44:19That it does all the tropes very well, I think. And I think.
- 44:22Or it originates the tropes. One of the two.
- 44:24I can't definitely. Yeah, I think it was pretty influential. Yeah.
- 44:27For sure. There's a, there's, Go ahead.
- 44:30Terrence the cop, like going into the, he's like almost becoming the killer in a way.
- 44:34Like, I mean he flat out becomes the killer at the very end.
- 44:37Yeah. He joins the side. But like, you know, when he's like, starts to like, he's like getting into his head and he like pulls, he does pulls the same move as the killer on his friend on accident.
- 44:45Yep.
- 44:46Yeah. Like there's a lot of. I really like the, like the chase between the relationship between the cop and the killer.
- 44:51Yep. So my favorite scene this whole movie is the, the standoff in the girl's apartment.
- 44:59Yes.
- 45:00Gun to their head and a shrimp head and little beef shrimp.
- 45:04That's so funny.
- 45:05And they're talking like they're long time friends. I, I love that. And they always have Guns at each other's heads. And then when she comes in to, like, touch him, they move their guns down to the chest level. That is done so well. And then the dude's partner's trying to sneak up to the back. You know, there's so much going on in that. And I love that scene. It's high tension. But there's also a level of levity to it because they're both smiling. Yeah.
- 45:34They're both amused by the situation. I feel like.
- 45:37Yeah.
- 45:37Like, God, I love it. Like, she. She says, my tea. So they actually go. They go sit down on the couch, but they still got the guns.
- 45:44Yeah.
- 45:44Yeah. That. That's probably one of the best scenes in the movie. That's not. That. That's not an action base scene. It's like a straight up. Just all dialogue.
- 45:57Oh, yeah.
- 45:57Back and forth type thing.
- 45:58Yeah.
- 45:59There were like three or four moments this movie where, like, to me, they're top tier. They're. There's that scene. I love, the boat assassination.
- 46:10Yep.
- 46:10They don't waste a lot of time with things either. Like.
- 46:13No.
- 46:13Like, he gets an assignment from that guy right away. He walks in, shoots up people, blinds the girl, and then, like, he's kind of sorts out what happened to her, and then he has to take another job right away. And it's the. Immediately they're like, okay, well, here's your thing. And he's right there to do the assassination right away, and then gets away on the boat. And they really pushing it along very fast. Yeah. This one been on my rewatch pile for a while.
- 46:41The rewatch pile. That'd be a good name for a podcast.
- 46:45Oh, yeah, Yeah.
- 46:46I mean, the Fumblers present the rewatch pile.
- 46:48That spin off.
- 46:50It could really involve any movie as well. I mean.
- 46:53Well, not any movie.
- 46:54It's gota be.
- 46:55Oh, no, that's seen. Yeah.
- 46:57He's revisited specifically. Yes.
- 47:00No, I got. I always have, like, a little setup of movies that I'm always like, oh, I need to rewatch that at some point. And I never get around to it. And until I find, like, a reason, like this podcast. So. And I'll be honest, Terry, as soon as this came up during Infran, when you were doing the deep dive there, I knew that's this is what I was gonna pick for the Wheel.
- 47:18Nice, Keith.
- 47:19And thank God the Wheel didn't screw me over.
- 47:22I should have vetoed. God damn it.
- 47:25We really should have watched Kung Fu Zombies.
- 47:28I wanted to watch the Sherlock Holmes movie, Grandma Turkin.
- 47:33Oh, yeah.
- 47:36And Speaking of, there's no Star wars characters and, or Indiana Jones people in this movie.
- 47:42Yeah. Which we did mention previously that we only watched.
- 47:45Yes, I should. I brought it up. I broke my own rules. Damn it.
- 47:52It's okay. Look, it's okay. I, I, It's a young. Derek would never have watched this.
- 47:56No, I would have been 8th grade in 1989. I would not have. This would not have interested me in eighth grade.
- 48:05Really?
- 48:06Yeah. No, this would not.
- 48:08What is the, what is the, the one test that they give movies like the Bechtel test. Yeah.
- 48:16Can two women talk to one another and not be about another man or about a man?
- 48:21Is there more than one woman in this film?
- 48:23Yes, but no. Like we, we have a separate. Like there's the, there's the glass cocktails. It's the. Does it have Star Wars?
- 48:31Does it have a Star wars or
- 48:32Indiana Jones or Indian Jones right now? Okay. Does it have it like we go through all. What was. You had a third thing, right, Keith?
- 48:42I do not know.
- 48:44They're probably.
- 48:45I really shouldn't be bringing up again anyway.
- 48:47That's a lot of that stuff. Yeah, it's. It's rooted in some fact, but it's very spur of the moment. I don't remember what I said. I could have said anything for all I know. But I do know that, yes, I did stand outside a movie theater and cry because of Grandpa.
- 49:02Very vulnerable. Very vulnerable.
- 49:03It's very vulnerable. It's a very vulnerable moment.
- 49:08It happened again with the killer.
- 49:09It could have happened if he would have maybe. I, I was a sensitive young man. Especially like pre 8th grade and stuff. Like some 8th grade. I just. Prepubescent. I would have just been like. Would not have interested me now. Like a sophomore in high school probably would have been interested.
- 49:29Post pubescent.
- 49:30Post. Like during pubescent. A zit covered freak. Let's watch the killer.
- 49:40Okay. Why is he putting a wig on? That's odd.
- 49:46Peanut butter.
- 49:51A lot of things happen when you, when you're. What is the word? Like curve. Pubescence. All the weird things happen and they kind of.
- 49:59Yeah, you're confused. I'm putting on wigs, watching Hong Kong shoot them Ups.
- 50:07Present. Pubescent, I guess would be the right word. Yeah, pubescent kids do.
- 50:13It's just a passage, A rite of passage.
- 50:16We all have those phases, I think.
- 50:18Yeah, we all got the wearing wig, squash and Hong Kong flicks phase.
- 50:22Peanut butter in our mouth for some reason. Hopefully the child never answers there. But sometimes.
- 50:29Yeah. Two great things that go great together. Did that.
- 50:37Wigs and Hong Kong films and murder.
- 50:39Do we have any other killer things we need to talk about?
- 50:43I think this is my favorite John Woo movie. It's really good.
- 50:46I've only seen a handful of John Woo movies, and it is definitely my favorite.
- 50:50I've seen a few. I wouldn't say I've seen all of his greatest hits, but I've seen most of them, I think. And. Yeah, this is. This is up there.
- 50:57No, this. This movie was. Okay.
- 50:59Did we do a couple other ones? I got a couple other ones of his that I need to see, but this is definitely right up there with me. For. For.
- 51:06With you. Where are you at, Keith? That's. With you.
- 51:08I'd say with you guys.
- 51:10Okay. Up there at the top of. Where? The top of Bumbler Peak.
- 51:17I really do like Face Off a lot.
- 51:19Oh, good point.
- 51:22Freaking awesome.
- 51:23I. I have not seen it since theaters. I will never see it again unless I'm forced.
- 51:29I've seen it. I've seen the last six months.
- 51:31It's really.
- 51:32Yeah, that's another one. They're gonna make something like a sequel
- 51:35or something for unnecessary.
- 51:38Yeah, I don't need to see a sequel to it.
- 51:40They're gonna call it Face On, I think
- 51:43now. Derek's in.
- 51:45Yeah, I made for Face On. Face Off. No, thanks. Putting on extra faces. It's like wearing a costume. I'm in for it.
- 51:52Yeah.
- 51:53Kind of tastes like peanut butter. More like Nutella.
- 51:55Yeah, that's it. Oh, hazelnut spread. Dig it.
- 51:59Putting faces on makes me feel like Nutella.
- 52:03Wigs and peanut butter faces is Nutella.
- 52:06It's concerning.
- 52:08What gets you to the marshmallows left. That's.
- 52:11Yeah, well, that's. You're tucking it back and you're dancing
- 52:14in front of a mirror and throwing lotion down.
- 52:18Put some lotion in the basket.
- 52:20Yeah.
- 52:23They all go really well together, though.
- 52:25They all go.
- 52:26Oh, great things.
- 52:28It puts the marshmallow fluff in the basket. I'd fluff me.
- 52:39Oh, God, that is disturbing fluff. There's too many entendres for that one, Keith.
- 52:53Wow.
- 52:54Did we do it?
- 52:55Yes.
- 52:56Did we get through John Woo's the killer from 1989?
- 53:01I think we did.
- 53:02We did.
- 53:03Yes, we did. What did we think?
- 53:09We thought it had a lot of good tastes to it.
- 53:12It's a tasteful film. Is that for taste loving folk like us?
- 53:18I really enjoyed it. Yeah, it is. It is not like I'm. I'm very particular and it's not a 10 for me, but it's up there. It's close. The audio thing is really hampered my enjoyment to the point where I'm like, ah, God, I can't love this the way I want to love it. Because that scene where they got the guns at each other's heads in. In there talking about having tea and Shrimp Head and Little B, and they call each other Little Bay at the
- 53:54end when they say it. That's so awesome.
- 53:56Yes. He doesn't even know you're watching.
- 53:58If you're watching the English dub version, they are Mickey Mouse and Dumbo.
- 54:03What?
- 54:03What's lame? No, Shrimp Head's way better.
- 54:07No way. Mickey Mouse and Dumbo. God, no. It's Shrimp Head and Little B. That sounds like a rap duo.
- 54:19Yeah. Who gets to be shrimp Head? I'd like to be Shrimp Head. I think.
- 54:22Yeah.
- 54:23The Dr. Dre of Kansas. I think we have to.
- 54:25Can I be the shrimp head of Kansas? You can be shrimp head of Kansas as well.
- 54:28People do say I have, like, a shrimp like head.
- 54:31It's. Yeah, it's. It's the exterior mandibles.
- 54:35Yeah, it's all those little legs I've got.
- 54:37It's got so many legs. You're translucent.
- 54:41I curl up. My face is kind of curled like a crescent moon.
- 54:47You're more prawn like than you are shrimp. But we'll let it go.
- 54:52I'm prawn head.
- 54:53We call you shrimp head. We let it go. We let it slide. Shrimps and prawns are kind of the same. It don't matter. It's like crayfish and crawdads. Yeah. Oh, boy. Well, we know what we thought. What did the Internet have to say? And we know they can't be wrong.
- 55:14They're never wrong.
- 55:15On September 26th of 2006, Ronin170 had this to say. A dark masterpiece. And unlike any other review I've ever read on here, it has a spoiler tag on it.
- 55:35Really? That's nice of him.
- 55:37It says spoiler. I love John Woo. Spoiler. I love John Woo films. Parentheses. He's gone a bit off since moving to Hollywood, although I still think there's life in him. But I digress.
- 55:55He hasn't seen his latest work.
- 55:57This film was no exception. In my opinion, this is not only his best film, but also my favorite action movie.
- 56:06Nice.
- 56:07Everything about it is stylish and well executed. The directing, the acting, the script, the music. Parentheses. Even though it sounds a little dodgy, it does almost add a nightmarish Feel to it. And parentheses, period.
- 56:23Okay.
- 56:24The whole film feels like a Shakespearean tragedy, I'll give him that. I can't argue.
- 56:30I agree. Shakespeare would be jealous to see the script. Yes, but she read it himself. Hmm.
- 56:37Shrimp head. What is that?
- 56:42Was to call me shrimp head.
- 56:44The gunfights. Don't get me started on the gunfights.
- 56:48All right, I won't.
- 56:50From the opening scene. That's literally it.
- 56:54This is 75% gunfights. How can we not get you going about the gunfights?
- 56:58Hey. From the opening scene to the awesome end shootout, which features the two heroes standing off against near endless army of triad gunmen in a church, John Woo's the Killer does not fail to disappoint. Four dots.
- 57:16That's a lot of dots.
- 57:17One, found it helpful. Two, not so much. 10 out of 10.
- 57:23High praise.
- 57:25High praise. I will say though, to go the gunfights. Don't get me started in the gunfights. And then just. And the. There's so many good. It's nothing but gunfights.
- 57:33Just casually mention it. You don't have to go hole in. You can just say a little bit. It's fine.
- 57:39I do appreciate. I did appreciate this movie that when they're fighting off the hordes, the hordes of henchmen that come flipping in and coming out of cars, I appreciate that. They're all wearing the same outfit.
- 57:54Yes.
- 57:55And there it was, a white outfit. And Chow Yun Fat was wearing a white suit at the time. And like, oh, no, he's gonna get accidentally shot by the cop. That was my first fear. But then it never happened.
- 58:10Yeah, I like a evil organization having a dress code.
- 58:14Yeah, there is dress code. They're like, here's your henchman suit. Make sure you wear it before you get killed. What?
- 58:20Put that last part. No, just wear the suit. You're good.
- 58:26Not to be outdone, on July 30th of 1999, just a mere 10 years after this movie came out, Richard Hyphen 149 had this to say. And this is. This is a killer opening title. I don't know what the rest says. A bad imitation of Miami Vice.
- 58:48Wow.
- 58:50What?
- 58:51Hold on. Well, let's see what he. Let's see what Richard149 has to say. Hard to believe the ratings and the positive comments on the this movie. Except if we account for sarcasm. Of the few people who stayed in the theater yesterday, most of them were there to laugh at the movie rather than enjoy it. So it is hard to believe in the parentheses tiny subplot about loyalty and friendship when the story is about killing 145 people to find a pair of cornea for a lousy cabaret singer. Lousy parentheses. A great feminine role, by the by the way. Makes you think that feminists might have a cause after all.
- 59:41Wow.
- 59:43I. I do see his point. There is only one woman character.
- 59:47There is only one woman character not
- 59:48really doing a lot of integral stuff besides being the motivation for the male character.
- 59:53But I don't see his point. But he did get it right. The Miami Vice was 84 to 89.
- 59:59So the main problem is that someone should have tell them that an important ingredient of a movie is a screenplay. But the producers appear to have decided to invest instead in some special effects. Parentheses. There's a lot of presses going on. Gun sparks and gore and princes have that make you regret the average episode of Miami Vice.
- 1:00:30All right, enough with the Miami Vice,
- 1:00:32which was a TV series. Should I remind you? Semicolon.
- 1:00:37Don't.
- 1:00:37Not a full feature movie. 8 found it helpful. 15, not so much. 1 out of 10.
- 1:00:47Just go watch Miami Vice then.
- 1:00:49If you love Richard hyphen149. What's the deal?
- 1:00:52He loves that. Sounds like this is very similar. Yeah, unless he hates that too for some reason.
- 1:00:57He probably does. Unless you talk about the Michael Mann movie that didn't come out for another 15 years.
- 1:01:03You might have been talking about starring
- 1:01:04Colin Farrell and somebody else.
- 1:01:07They're making another one too.
- 1:01:08Oh, it was Jamie Foxx, wasn't it?
- 1:01:11Yep, that one was. Yeah. The new one is Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler.
- 1:01:16Oh, that's.
- 1:01:17I'll watch that. Those are two people I really enjoy.
- 1:01:19They're both great.
- 1:01:20They're both great.
- 1:01:22All right.
- 1:01:23Is it Michael Mann again? Not Michael Manigan, but Michael man.
- 1:01:27Michael Manigan himself.
- 1:01:30Oh, by the way, just to. Just to like this guy. So this one I don't get. People write these reviews, but they. They don't bother to read anything else on IMDb about this stuff. If they would have. There was some. Some trivia. I actually kind of left this one out in the deep dive, but it says John Will went into filming with only a short treatment for the film and wrote the details of the script while they were filming.
- 1:01:53Oh, wow.
- 1:01:55That's a tough way to make movies, I would think.
- 1:01:57Yeah, I'd rather have it all planned out right away.
- 1:02:00But I'm gonna say, knowing he comes from a Shaw Bros. Pro perspective, I bet you they did a lot of that.
- 1:02:08Yeah, they were. They were Kind of moving quick and fast.
- 1:02:12Yeah. We haven't.
- 1:02:13Sounds like they could have done let's Make a Move. Tomorrow Never Dies. They probably could have. He probably would have been a really good director for that.
- 1:02:19Oh, God.
- 1:02:19Yeah.
- 1:02:21Then. Then we would have said John Wu was the director that chased off Sir Anthony Hopkins.
- 1:02:26Oh, yeah. That'd be sad.
- 1:02:28And we. I don't know if we can live with those words.
- 1:02:31Yeah. I don't think I could ever forgive him.
- 1:02:34I couldn't.
- 1:02:37Joseph. Joseph Kaczynski.
- 1:02:41Huh.
- 1:02:41Is gonna be the director of this.
- 1:02:43I don't know who that is.
- 1:02:45Okay. Joe Kazinsk.
- 1:02:48He just did F1.
- 1:02:51Don't know it. He never saw it.
- 1:02:55I don't know.
- 1:02:55I mean, Top Gun, Maverick.
- 1:02:58Oh, God.
- 1:02:59Don't know.
- 1:02:59I did not enjoy that movie in the Tron Legacy. Will not watch. Which one's Tron Legacy? Is that the new one with. God, I hated that movie, too. I did. I. I don't like Tron though, so. All right. We did Boyos.
- 1:03:19Yep.
- 1:03:20We got through the Killer, which was a really good movie. I was.
- 1:03:23I agree.
- 1:03:24I. I know it's. I know it's fun to, like, point out foibles, but did enjoy this movie quite a bit. Just the sound if it.
- 1:03:32No. So you should redub it.
- 1:03:34I. There was a point. I'm not even joking. When I was watching this, I'm like, God, I wish I could redub it.
- 1:03:42You should.
- 1:03:44But I don't have that. I don't have that skill. I say this knowing I have no ability to, like, do better.
- 1:03:52Just bust out your own Casio keyboard.
- 1:03:59Play Axle F that and chopsticks. I just pressed the demo button and green sleeves.
- 1:04:13Those are three iconic songs.
- 1:04:15I'm just hitting the demo button on it for the most part.
- 1:04:20It's a Wesley Willis. Oh, my goodness. Batman got on my nerves. Do you know Wesley Willis?
- 1:04:28No.
- 1:04:29You don't know Wesley Willis?
- 1:04:30I know. Oh, boy.
- 1:04:32Oh, my gosh.
- 1:04:35Wesley Willis was Chicago street performer, and I say that in the nicest way possible. He was an unhoused individual that was not. Would have benefited from medication and doctoring. Okay. But he had a Casio keyboard. He would give people headbutts and he would sing songs, and he became notorious in the best way possible. And he had a recording career where he did songs.
- 1:05:06He went viral before going viral.
- 1:05:09Before viral was a thing. And he had albums and he went on tour, and every song was essentially the same game, but. And it was hitting the demo button on the Casio keyboard. And just talking.
- 1:05:24Oh, whoop. Superman's ass.
- 1:05:33One time I went to Taco Bell and he would just scream into the microphone. That was it.
- 1:05:38It was like spoken word over Casio keyboard demo.
- 1:05:41Pretty much. But he was a Chicago icon, and he still lived on the streets, unfortunately, until the day he died.
- 1:05:48Really?
- 1:05:48Oh, yes.
- 1:05:49That's too bad.
- 1:05:50So ultimately, even though he had a recording career, I'm sure he was being used. And, yeah, he was the victim of some making money, probably. Unfortunate. Welcome to America. This is America. All right. It is the end of a month, and it also ends with me on. America is going to be the death of us all diatribe. We also have to do this. Keith is a master of spreadsheets, the taker of lists. He loves to rank. So what we're gonna do is we're going to talk about the movies we watched, and we're gonna rank them.
- 1:06:32Keith.
- 1:06:32What? Refresh us on what the movies were.
- 1:06:34We had super infamous.
- 1:06:36Yes.
- 1:06:37We had 36 chambers of Shaolin.
- 1:06:41Yes.
- 1:06:42We had the seven golden vampires.
- 1:06:44That's the one I keep forgetting about. Yes.
- 1:06:45And we had the Killer.
- 1:06:48Huh.
- 1:06:48All right, I got my list. I don't know if we're so ready.
- 1:06:51I got mine as well, so.
- 1:06:53Yep, I'm ready as well. Wow. Okay. Well, I think, obviously the number one slot goes to the Killer.
- 1:07:08It's the best. I happened to cough. That wasn't me. And like, hey. Like, oh, my God, I sounded like a gas.
- 1:07:16I was like, oh, very surprised.
- 1:07:18I had, like, a burp cough. You never have that where, like, the carbonation comes out your nose and makes you cough. That's what happened to me.
- 1:07:25Right. You know, it's like when you, like, make a big announcement, and then it's like, you just, like. There's no reaction. There's like, a little cough in the audience. That's kind of what I felt like. I was like, oh, did I say something wrong? No, it's the Killer. Obviously, this is the pick to pick. And then. Then everything else after that's kind of on the same level. Killer's obvious pick.
- 1:07:41Yeah.
- 1:07:42But now I'm going down. I'm trying to debate in my head what I like the most. Well, I think that the obvious choice for number two is not that obvious, but it's the one I'm gonna go with. My gut. 36 chamber Shaolin's probably number two. Enjoy that. For the most part. It's a little slow. Definitely missing some character beats, but that's okay. Then tied closely to it. Is the Super Inframan. That's something that's just close to my heart. I like that kind of stuff. Has a lot of similar issues as 36 Chamber Shaolin, honestly. And then lastly, but not that far behind is the seven Golden Vampires. Same. These three movies here have all the same vibe, the same issues, but have some fun stuff inside. So you could really mix and match any of this.
- 1:08:29I. I'm in. My order is exactly the same. And here's why it goes Killer. Clearly it is a top. Is a. One of the better movies we've watched in the last year. And a third. A year and a quarter. Just really good. Enjoyed it quite a bit. Then 36 chamber. It's a steep drop between killer and 36 chamber. And I think I'm almost biased because it's the one I picked. Possibly. I don't know. It was fine. Right. Then it goes Inframan. Only because of the suits, because the other one has Grand Moff Tarkin in it. So it's a. It's a tough. Those. To me, they're like dueling each other. Cool rubber suits, Grandma Tarkin. Cool rubber suits. Grand Muff Target. In this. This case, cool rubber suits wins.
- 1:09:22I'm gonna go with the killer number one.
- 1:09:25Yes.
- 1:09:26I think that's the most. I think, actually, so far this year, that might be the most potential for something to fumble before you tumble into the grave.
- 1:09:36Yeah.
- 1:09:37Yep. And then after that, I'm gonna go with 36 chambers as well. While we all thought it was slow and everything, I just. It. The other two movies are just too freaking goofy and odd to watch.
- 1:09:52You don't like. You don't like goofy or odd, though, so.
- 1:09:54No, I. I don't mind goofy and odd. I. I don't like things where, like, it just. I have trouble watching them because they're intensely bad, which I found both.
- 1:10:06Intensely bad.
- 1:10:07Yeah. I found both of the other two to be, like, a struggle to watch more. Were like, if I'm watching, I'm like, oh, my God, what the hell is this? Number three for me, though, is going to be the seven Golden Vampires because it brings Dracula into the mix. It was Black magic versus.
- 1:10:28All right.
- 1:10:28Black spells versus Black magic.
- 1:10:30That's a very good line, though.
- 1:10:32It had a Star wars person in it.
- 1:10:35Grandma Tarkin.
- 1:10:36Yep. And. And then the last one, I'll take Gus supreme for man for number four.
- 1:10:44All right. All right.
- 1:10:46It's tough, those three. I think Shaolin's the best of them all, but they're all in the same Bowl.
- 1:10:53Yeah.
- 1:10:54Like, it feels like, you know, after you go trick or treating a divvy it all up, it feels like, oh, I got the full size Kit Kat. That's the killer. And then over here we got a pile of Tootsie Rolls, Milk Duds and bit of honeys. I'm like, yep, reaching and grab one.
- 1:11:14Yeah. Or it's like a box of Whoppers,
- 1:11:17but Whoppers are good. That's malted milk balls, Gary. Don't badmouth those things ever. I don't.
- 1:11:22I don't have a problem with any of the other three either, so.
- 1:11:24Me either. That's what I'm saying. They're fine, but they're not a full size Kit K. You know what? The.
- 1:11:29The other ones also, though, have to be like, really, like good and fresh.
- 1:11:33You need a fresh bit of honey. Otherwise it's like chewed into like leather.
- 1:11:37Bit of honey. If you. If it's not good and fresh, then it's. Then it's just junk.
- 1:11:40Yeah, that should be a commercial for a bit of honey. If it's not good and fresh, then it's just junk.
- 1:11:47If it's over two hours old, donate it.
- 1:11:51Might as well kill yourself.
- 1:11:54I would rather do that than eat some of that. Yeah. All right.
- 1:11:57Well, there we go though.
- 1:12:01DTF Y2M3 is complete.
- 1:12:06SB.
- 1:12:07Very nice.
- 1:12:08Shaw Bros. Is done. It's Jawbro. No bow.
- 1:12:13Close the. The chapter on that.
- 1:12:15Close the book. That means the next chapter falls upon my shoulders. Yes. All right.
- 1:12:21My black envelope here.
- 1:12:22So there's a lot going into this. There's a lot going into this. So let me, let me, let me see. Set the stage.
- 1:12:29Okay.
- 1:12:30Last week I sent out envelopes to the two of you. Inside of that envelope is a Blu ray. Oh, okay. Now I told you, you can't open it till today, which is fine. We have to go on the way back machine to February of this year, which was a while ago. It was February 6th is the exact date I'm going to pull up the conversation that I had.
- 1:12:53Damn near two months.
- 1:12:55Damn near two months. So it's been a while.
- 1:12:57Yeah.
- 1:12:58This. This topic wasn't. Is totally because of this happenstance that occurred on social media. I don't know what my algorithm is to produce this, but I saw a thing in my feed on threads about this. This person, his name is Justin. He's very excited and he said, attention everyone. So this is. I'm paraphrasing. I don't have the. I don't have the. Posted my first Feature length film is releasing today and available on Blu Ray.
- 1:13:40Oh, okay.
- 1:13:41And I was like, well, hot damn. I messaged the dude. I said, hey, I'm not sure how I'm gonna read this. Hello. Not sure how, why you popped up in my threads today, but how Can I get three Blu Rays? This is on February 6th at 12:56pm he's like, Hey, I can send out a copies either on Blu Ray or vhs. Blu Ray or vhs. I opted for Blu Ray because I know I could watch that. Appreciate the support a ton. And if you're ever looking for an indie filmmaker guest, I'd love to come on and chat. I was like, oh, here we go. So the theme for this month is Indie af.
- 1:14:27Yes.
- 1:14:28You have got to find indie movies, man. I'm not. There's nothing. Just not distributed by Warner Brothers, not distributed by Disney, not distributed by mgm. Nothing. Like, this has got to be. This person loves and has dreamed of making movies, has made a movie. You can only get it from Redbox, which doesn't exist anymore. Right? Like, that's what I'm looking for. So this guy made a movie. It's a monster movie, I think. Some sort of like horror movie. Open up your envelopes, boys, okay? Because we're watching Big Bad Betty.
- 1:15:05Big Bad Betty.
- 1:15:06Big Bad Betty. I don't know, it's like a werewolf maybe. I haven't seen it yet. Don't know. He sent me a box full of things, these Blu Rays. He sent me like a pickle, like a crocheted pickle. And he sent me like a prop, severed tongue. And he said, I promise that this prop will make sense.
- 1:15:32You got a prop, severed tongue from this guy?
- 1:15:35Yes.
- 1:15:36Wow, that's awesome.
- 1:15:38So we're watching for the. It's. This is not for the love of the game, but for the love of the game. People that have dreamed of making movies and they have cobbled together their funds to make a movie. Now I'm not saying you guys got to go out and find people to sign DVDs. Like, this is just totally. I like, I opened up Threads. That was the top thread. It was like, it was destiny. I'm like, well, now I gotta do this. And this was. This was still while we were recording my first month. Wow, we might have just started Bond. I don't remember. But like, like this is. I've been sitting on these Blu Rays for a hot minute. I'm like, I can't. I've been wanting to send them out, but I'm like, I can't send them out too early. That's what we're doing.
- 1:16:30They can only. They can only resist not opening it for so long.
- 1:16:33Exactly. I was staring at that all week looking at it. I wish I knew I was in here.
- 1:16:38So India's man, that's what we're doing.
- 1:16:40Okay. Nice. I like it. That's a great idea. I love it.
- 1:16:44This is awesome. I've. I'm, I've got. I've got one idea in mind right now already.
- 1:16:50So that's what we're doing.
- 1:16:51Exciting.
- 1:16:52Awesome.
- 1:16:53We got through it. We got through another month. We. We're so DTF it hurts.
- 1:16:58Yeah.
- 1:16:59I've never been so dtf.
- 1:17:03I guess that leaves us with nothing to do but the end this the way we end everything. Batman got on my nerves. He was running me a mock. He ridiculed me, calling me a bum.
- 1:17:25I whooped Batman's ass. I whooped Batman's ass. I whooped Batman's ass. I whooped Batman's ass.
- 1:17:42I whooped Batman. I whooped Batman's ass. Thanks for listening to fumbling through film. New episodes drop every Thursday. Got feedback or questions? Email us@fumblingthroughfilmmail.com you can see our films to fumble before you tumble into the grave and other musings on Letterboxd at Fumble Through Film. The through is T. HRU. You can also follow Keith on Instagram at kg3030lives. And on Letterboxd3030, Terry is on Letterboxdary2099. Derek is on Letterboxd at Derek the Number 9 and then the word 9. All original music is done by the Dr. Dre of Kansas, Terry. So hit him up for them bangers. Our new podcast logo is done by the delightful and talented Sanjay Vicky Nayak. You can find her on Instagram at Einstein. That's Einstein with a K in there. We'll see you next week as we keep on fumbling. I love, I love how Keith got so early on. And that's because I was, I was
- 1:18:48going to bring up the thing about
- 1:18:49the remake of Huge Bombshell.
- 1:18:52I thought it would be fun the way that I had it set up as a deep dive.
- 1:18:56I'm gonna be honest.
- 1:18:57I think you.
- 1:18:57You've mentioned this movie to us before. I'm pretty sure.
- 1:18:59Yeah. So the fact of me, like, doing the deep dive and like mentioning movies they did and then bringing up the other version of the killer they did is deep dive. I thought it was funny. Yeah. I've been pretty tired today. I haven't got Gary.
- 1:19:14You it up big time, buddy.
- 1:19:16The rest episode, I won't say a word.
- 1:19:18I'll be honest. I'll be honest. I probably wouldn't have reacted like that except that, like, you started jumping in on me last week, too.
- 1:19:26He's been rehearsing this killer. I don't remember last week. So he's been.
- 1:19:32Yeah, we can say anything from last week.
- 1:19:35I don't remember his goddamn thing. When I edit, I'm like. I am sometimes flabbergasted because I'm hearing things for the first time.