20 Best Cult Movies Of The 1980s
4. The Killer
If Katsuhiro Otomo paved the way for a new generation of animation with Akira, John Woo's The Killer, rounding off the decade with its release in 1989, set a new standard for how to deliver heart thumping action sequences.
Having kicked off to a great start and introduced the world to Chow Yun-fat with A Better Tomorrow, The Killer solidified his inimitable style. Yun-fat plays assassin Ah Jong, racked with guilt after blinding a singer (played by Sally Yeh) while carrying out a hit in a nightclub. He decides to perform one last hit to pay for the surgery, but his employers have a less favourable outcome in mind.
The Killer is where Woo really nailed down his balletic style of action, full of slow motion gunplay as Ah Jong dives through the air wielding his trademark two guns, blasting enemies left, right and centre. While his follow up movie Hard Boiled upped the ante in the action set pieces, the violence in The Killer feels more poetic and graceful, as if in lockstep with Ah Jong's melancholy mood.
Following the ongoing trend for remaking classic 80s cult movies, another version of The Killer is in the works. Fortunately, if the rumour mill is to believed, John Woo himself will be returning behind the camera.