Bullets of Love (2001)

Bullets of Love (2001)
Chinese Title: 不死情謎
Translation: Immortal Riddle

 

Starring: Leon Lai Ming, Asaka Seto, Terence Yin Chi-Wai, Michael Chan Wai-Man, Frankie Ng Chi-Hung, Saki Hayawaka, Richard Sun Kwok-Ho, Ronald Cheng Chung-Kei
Director: Andrew Lau
Action Director: Lee Tat-Chiu

 

Well, what do you know? An Andrew Lau film I actually liked! I generally don't care about his movies, as they are all style and no substance, from the story to the action sequences. Legend of the Fist was an exception to the latter thanks to Donnie Yen, but that film's story was just not very compelling. Conversely, Infernal Affairs had a great story (probably due more to the writers than to Lau), although its nomination for Best Action Choreography is probably the biggest head scratcher in the history of that award.

Then there are his infamous CGI fantasy films. The Storm Riders is just okay, with a couple of a decent wire-assisted sword fights in the beginning and the rest of the film being digital nonsense. The story is convoluted, but not presented in a compelling manner (except, perhaps, to fans of the comic book source material). A Man Called Hero find itself on similar footing, compounded by its wasting Yuen Biao. I liked the final swordfight on the top of the Statue of Liberty, but the plot refuses to find a sensical conciliation between the characters’ kung fu superpowers and the so-called “Real World” that it inhabits. And Initial D ruined itself by having the main character reject Anne Suzuki, which is just wrong. And don’t me started on the crappola that was The Guillotines.

Then there’s Bullets of Love, which actually manages to have a heart and compelling characters.

Leon Lai plays Inspector Sam Lam, who's trying to bust a pair of human-and-drug trafficking brothers Wong “Night” Po (Terence Yin, of Black Mask 2 and Skyline Cruisers) and Wong “Day” Fung (Richard Sun, of Bride with White Hair 2 and Gen-Y Cops). He manages to catch Night after a pitched gunfight inside of a nightclub that leaves a few officers down and his best friend with knife wounds in his back. Careful viewers will note that one of the participants in the gunfight is a woman in a leather jacket and sunglasses (Saki Hayakawa), who we saw in the very first scene executing a man in public with a sniper rifle.

Inspector Lam’s prosecutor girlfriend, Ann (Asaka Seto, of One Missed Call 2 and the Death Note movies), is the one on the case to put Night behind bars. The trial has this particularly amusing scene where the prosecution accuses Night of drugging six illegal immigrant women with the intent of raping them. The defense attorney objects with the argument, “Six women? In one night? Yeah, right!” to which Ann responds, “My boyfriend has taken me six times in a single night, so what’s your point?” The judge overrules the objection. In the end, the prosecution wins and Night is sentenced to five years in prison.

At this point, Sam and Ann decide to celebrate and go to Paris on vacation. During the trip, Sam proposes to Ann, and she accepts. However, Day has the aforementioned female assassin to take Ann out the game. The hit occurs in an outside elevator in Paris, in which Ann is shot in both shoulders and then in the throat—the assassin’s modus operandi. Years later, Sam has retired from the force and is living in the New Territories with his two Uncle Ox (Michael Chan Wai-Man, of The Shaolin Heroes and The Club) and the intellectually-disabled Uncle Tiger (Frankie Ng, of Young and Dangerous and Bio-Cops). There he meets a Japanese woman, Yu (also Seto), who looks exactly like Ann. The two gradually fall in love, although we the audience know that Yu is the assassin. Before she killed Ann, we the viewer were treated to a scene of her rubbing her breast and whispering Sam after eavesdropping on them having sex. The question then remains: how long can she keep up the charade?

The first and last twenty minutes of the film are heavily stylized, while the middle act, where Sam and You get to know each other, feels like an entirely different film in terms of tone, editing, photography, etc. It is interesting that the plot structure of the film feels very chiasmatic, with something close to series of concentric plot themes. The first part of the film is a crime thriller, followed by a romantic segment, followed by a “slice-of-life” portion, which then becomes another romantic segment, and then finishing off as a crime thriller. Parts 3 and 4—the “slice of life” and Romance #2 portions—are more or less intertwined, but it is still a unique approach to the story.

The performances are also generally good. Leon Lai has often been considered the weakest actor of the Four Kings, although he avoids the overwrought emotions that ruined Aaron Kwok’s performance in Divergence. Asaka Seto does a decent job, considering that she was acting in English or dubbed in Cantonese (by Sandy Lam, who does a lot of Cantonese dubbing for non-Cantonese speaking actors). Most importantly, Seto is extremely beautiful and I sort of hoped things would work out for her and Lai on account of her beauty. Yes, not a strong foundation for a relationship, but this is film. The final series of tragedies suggest the polar opposite of how Reign of Assassins ends.

Despite having a credited action director (frequent Lau collaborator Lee Tat Chiu), there is little action and nothing very flashy. The gunfight in the opening portion is pretty standard stuff—you could find the same thing in a Hollywood film. The same goes for an assassination attempt on Day and Night during the third act, which has Leon Lai crashing his car into the brothers’ and opening fire. Things get extremely bleak and bloody in the last ten minutes, which is sad, because I genuinely liked the characters. Lots of people get shot and stabbed, Michael Chan throws a few punches, and Asaka Seto performs a wire-assisted jump kick. That said, I felt myself caring about the characters and anxious about their fates. Very novel for an Andrew Lau movie!