Fulltime Killer

Fulltime Killer, an import from Hong Kong, desperately tries to be the next Hard Boiled but sadly it falls short. Where that movie had an incredibly charismatic lead character and a compelling storyline, Fulltime Killer has two indistinguishable central characters and a non-existent plot.

The movie revolves around two assassins, top of the line assasin O and newcomer Tok, both considered to be at the top of their game. O has an excellent reputation and it makes Tok bitter about being the number 2 assassin. Tok vows to kill O and take his place at the top of the ladder. Tok manages to get at O’s cleaning lady, conspiring to wine and dine her, and learn more about O in the process. All the while we see Tok and O travelling all over Asia to assassinate various targets.

The problem with the movie was that there was no real storyline. There’s no context for all the violence. It certainly doesn’t help that neither lead actor manages to create a character worth caring about. By the time everything’s said and done, we really couldn’t care less which assassin has emerged victorious.

But Fulltime Killer still manages to remain sort of entertaining, mostly due to the wildly creative direction. A good example of this is a shot early on that travels through a tombstone into the ground and winds up inside a coffin containing a dead body. The movie wasn’t terrible, but it most certainly wasn’t anywhere near the level of Hard Boiled.