Rating: 4/5
Criterion Challenge 2024 | 26/52 | Hong Kong Cinema
It’s night in Hong Kong, and neon lights the streets. Tequila pours himself a vodka soda, slams the glass on the table to fizz it up, and takes it down in one gulp. As he smiles, he exhales cigarette smoke and picks up his clarinet. He’s on stage at The Jazz Club, playing in a four-piece band, including Benny. At night, they’re jazz musicians. During the day, they are HKPF on a Special Forces team.
In the early morning, before sunrise, Tequila and his partner, Benny, go undercover to surveil a gun smuggling deal in a teahouse. Like many traditional HK teahouses, folks bring their birds in cages to enjoy birdsong while drinking tea. Tequila’s cage has a hidden mirror that allows him to watch the deal as it happens behind him. By appearances, the men are selling a bird. But when the manilla envelope full of cash crosses the table, Tequila makes his move.
The two charge the table. Tequila forces the birdcage off the table and stomps it, unveiling the guns hidden in a compartment underneath the cafe. A man sitting a ways away, who also observed the deal, stands and draws an SMG. Gunfire and screeching birds fill the cafe.
Dozens fall: police, gangsters, and civilians. It comes down to Tequila, Benny, and the gangster with the SMG. They burst the door to the kitchen open, and the gangster kills Benny. Tequila charges in and gets the gangster at gunpoint. Rather than arrest him, Tequila kills him to avenge Benny. Chief Superintendent Pang arrives on the scene and reprimands Tequila for murdering his key witness. After Benny’s funeral, we learn Tequila also accidentally killed an undercover cop.
Cut to Alan, a Triad assassin who works for Uncle Hoi. At the library, he pulls a copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare off the shelf and sits with a man he claims betrayed Hoi. Alan opens the book to find it cut out, with a silenced pistol in the cutout. He shoots the man in the head and leaves.
The librarian who witnessed the whole event relays it to Tequila. Replaying the events, he finds the Shakespeare book and the gun. The hunt for Alan begins, which pulls Tequila deep into a world of gang rivalries, double-crosses, and an ocean of spent bullets. The police work has made Tequila hard, but the men he pursues are harder.
A recurring theme is loyalty to Hong Kong — the people born there can’t see themselves leaving. Those are the folks who end up dead, not getting out when they had the chance. The film extends that to gang loyalties, undercover cops, and secret codes — how can you be loyal when you don’t know who is on your side? But how can you survive unless you learn to trust?
Tequila has ruined his love life for work and his bad habits. He has to learn to trust others and get outside of his hard-boiled thinking if he’s going to survive.
I’m very annoyed with Amazon’s lazy subtitles. A lot of the plot is conveyed through newspapers that it doesn’t translate, so the plot gets confusing.
Like many great action movies, the relationship between Tequila and Alan takes on homoerotic qualities. I don’t want to say too much and spoil anything, but there is a scene where Alan looks at Tequila in such a specific way chefs kiss
That said, the actual stars of the movie are the action scenes — so many top-notch set pieces, stellar choreography, and squibs for days. John Woo perfected the action sequences that are so good you’ll forgive a nonsense plot.
The maternity ward section of the movie is inspired. Put this in a double feature with The Heroic Trio!
Chow Yun-Fat is great, but I love Tony Leung Chiu-wai. He rules in this.