The last two John Woo 4K UHD releases represent two extremes of his Hong Kong oeuvre. Bullet in the Head is his most personal and Once a Thief is a total lark. Both are awesome.
Bullet in the Head is Woo’s most tragic, too. On top of the heroic bloodshed, there’s greed and war tearing apart three friends. But, when they shoot their way out of a Vietnam nightclub, it’s pure Woo.
In 4K, Hong Kong and Thailand transport the viewer to 1990, even though it’s dressed as the ‘60s. When Fai Jai (Jacky Cheung) is left on the streets, he’s in pure dark despair. The climax on the Hong Kong docks at night also envelops the surviving friends in bleak darkness.
The third disc includes the festival cut, which is five minutes longer, but Woo and others discuss the much longer cut that was destroyed and discarded, never to be seen. They did get Waise Lee back to discuss his role. Many speakers give the historical context of the 1967 Hong Kong riots and Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square is such a historical event, it’s hard to imagine it was recent news in 1990.
Frank Djeng adds a bit of personal emotion to his usual historical and practical commentary, apropos for the personal epic.
By contrast, Once a Thief is not a tragedy at all. It’s full of elaborate heists, including a dance floor routine to swipe keys, but when there are gunfights, they hold up with The Killer and Hard Boiled. Chow Yun-fat joins Leslie Cheung and Cherie Chung as a trio of thieves and embraces the comedy, a rare tonal shift for Woo but a fun one. Chow is giddy, not brooding.
The French locations looks great in 4K clarity, adding international glamour to the heists. Scaling a cliffside in the deep night sky is beautiful.
Woo relates this film to a story about Face/Off in his interview. Thief makes a good pairing with Bullet also because it’s so tied to the box office disappointment of Bullet, as many of the interviews explain. James Mudge also gives a thorough, factual commentary along with the whole film.