America, meet Chow Yun-Fat… Chow Yun-Fat, America

##America, meet Chow Yun-Fat…

I really wanted to like this movie a whole lot. I mean, my
exposure to Chow Yun-Fat has been through several collaborations with John
Woo back in his Hong Kong days. Movies like “The Killer” and [[Hard Boiled]]
set my expectations. Now, don’t get me wrong. Mr. Yun-Fat does an awesome
job playing the oh-too-cool-hitman-with-a-heart. What’s lacking here is a
clear sense of direction for the movie.

One thing is for sure about him, he’s one of the most charismatic actors
around. How many actors do you know that can have an extreme closeup of
their face held on the screen for upwards of a minute and show every human
emotion without looking just plain silly. There’s not many.

##… Chow Yun-Fat, meet America

For a long time, action film stars have been larger than life. Arnold
Swarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone come to ming. Huge hulks of men that
intimidate anyone just by their presence on the screen. Now comes a suave
action hero in the mold of Cary Grant (think about North by Nortwest).

Before filming started on this movie, he didn’t know how to speak a word
of english. Given that, he does remarkably well with the dialog (there’s
only a couple of awkward moments that I can remember) and eventhough he
was acting in a language with which he was unfamiliar, the performance
shone through.