Review: I really enjoyed this epic movie! It's full of intense action/drama and the performances from the three childhood friends were great. The movie is set in Hong Kong, 1967, were best friends Ben (Tony Leung), Paul (Waise Lee) and Frank (Jacky Leung), brawl with rival gangs, to gain respect. During Ben's marriage to his long time girlfriend Jane, Frank takes out a loan, so he can pay for the reception but he is attacked by a rival gang, who attempt to take his money. Frank manages to escape with a severe cut to his head and the money he borrowed but everyone at the wedding can see that there is something wrong with him. After the wedding Frank tells Ben about the fight with the rival gang and they head out for revenge. Frank ends up killing the leader of the gang, which puts both of there life's in danger. They then tell Paul about the fight and they decide to leave Hong Kong and head for Vietnam because they heard of a smuggling scam which could make them some money. As soon as they reach Vietnam, there cases with the contraband are destroyed because a suicide bomber attempts to kill a highly ranked officer of the army. After being wrongly accused of the bombing, they meet up with Luke (Simon Yam), to discuss the missing contraband and they soon become friends and meet his boss Leong. Whilst in his club, Frank bumps into an attractive singer, Sally, who agrees to meet him the following day. She then tells him about her love for Luke and how they planned to escape Vietnam but there plan was cut short when Leong's henchmen caught them in the act. Now that Luke is forced to work for Leong and Sally is forced into prostitution and drugs, they put together a plan to kill Leong and escape Vietnam forever. During a big shootout in Leong's club, Paul comes across a suitcase of gold, which is the only thing that he is interested in but the rest of them are fighting to get Sally to safety. During the shootout, Sally gets shot, so they have to try and keep her alive whilst trying to get there escape point. After a long battle with the army and Leong's henchmen, Sally dies and they are captured by the Vietcong and taken to a concentration camp. The Vietcong take the gold and find intelligence documents that Leong was going to sell to the North Vietnamese. After a brutal interrogation, Paul claims to be working for the CIA to save his friends. Frank is then forced to kill other prisoners and then Ben takes over and turns the gun on the officers that have captured them. Whilst escaping, Luke arrives with a elite squad and Paul goes into hiding with the gold. Paul finds Frank and urges him to be quiet so they don't get caught but Frank has become to distraught and he can't keep his mouth shut. Paul then shoots Frank in the back of the head and then he flees with the gold. When Luke finds Frank, he puts him on a rescue helicopter while Ben chases Paul, who destroys a peaceful village for no apparent reason. When Ben tries to save one of the villagers, Paul shoots him and escapes on a boat. Ben is then saved by some monks and eventually makes his way back to Saigon were he bumps into Luke, who has suffered some injuries to his face during the whole rescue attempt. Luke then takes him to Frank, who has severe head injuries and become addicted to heroin due to his injuries caused by Paul. Ben tries his utmost to get sense out of Frank but he has gone to a dark place and has completely lost control of his mind, so Ben puts him out of his misery. Luke then decides to stay in Saigon and Ben returns home to his wife, who has given birth to there child. After everything that had happened in Vietnam, Paul has become a successful businessman who is due a promotion. When Ben turns up at his workplace with Frank's skull, he confronts him about his actions in Saigon but Paul doesn't want to hear any of it. He then waits for him to finish work and they go head to head in a epic car chase. After destroying there cars, they finally come face to face with each other and Ben fights to redeem Frank's name. This must be the longest review I have ever typed! There is just so much going on in this film and I don't think that I would be doing it any justice if I covered it in a few words. It's a very detailed storyline which has every element covered. Like many John Woo movies, the gun action is great and the chemistry between Ben, Frank, Paul and there new found friend Luke, who I personally thought was the best character, was also great. The intensity is brilliant throughout and the cinematography made the film seem authentic and real. I would have liked to have seen what happened to Ben and Luke but that just me being picky. Enjoyable!Round-Up: This is another great achievement by John Woo, 69, who made this movie 3 years before he went to Hollywood and made the awful Hard Target with Jean Claude Van Damme. He did bounce back with Face/Off and Mission Impossible III but like Jackie Chan, he decided to turn his back on Hollywood and go back to making movies for the Oriental market. I personally hope that he gets a massive budget to make a epic movie for a worldwide audience, before he decides to stop making movies because he has a unique style of telling any story with detail and emotion.I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/crime/drama's starring Tony Leung, Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee and Simon Yam. 8/10

I've been using my DVD subscription service to go back over old films that I have either not seen or have not seen for ages and am focusing on those from the Far East that everyone expects you to have seen – mostly, at this point, the work of Kurosawa. I came to Bullet in the Head because I do enjoy John Woo's action films – even some of those he did when he came to America. As an "earlier" Woo film, I knew what to expect from Bullet in the Head, or at least I thought I did. Going with it we appear to have the standards of his creations all in place. Criminals, tragedy, flamboyant gunplay and massive action sequences with relationship drama going on in the middle of it. All of this is here and it works pretty well. Essentially it is the tale of three friends who go through crime and war together, changing their dynamics in tragic ways. At this level it is fine and I was interested in the characters and the relationships – OK, not a lot of complexity in there but enough to suit an action film such as this.The action sequences involve the usual jumping around, use of slow-motion and multiple showers of bullets. So, in essence, I can see why the film is loaded down with 5* reviews from the majority of the site's prolific reviewers (that's the filter I use when viewing the comments section), because the film does deliver much of what one would expect from John Woo and John Woo is/was good at doing it. But here is the problem – he sets it in Vietnam. Not only that but he acknowledges the horror of the war and the impact it had on those involved in it – mental and physical. OK, so nothing wrong with that in itself but it doesn't work when you have one scene of extreme violence that is shocking and harrowing and then you following up immediately with one that is exciting and well-choreographed. The extreme violence doesn't take away from the central story (because it is part of it) but by mixing it up with a much darker version of it he sets out a real challenge for himself, which is – can he manage to produce a film that explores themes covered in "serious" films such as Deer Hunter, while also delivering an action film based on the violent splintering of three friends? Sadly the answer is no, he cannot, and this is demonstrated within the film. It is a clumsy affair that does deliver harrowing scenes but is scared to linger on them or to do more with them that cheapen them by only having them as a device to move the plot the way it needs to go. It also doesn't help that Woo doesn't seem interested in being subtle or clever – so a film that really should end in an emotional kick in the guts in the boardroom (where the explosions are character based) spills out into a car chase and shootout that isn't exciting and doesn't fit with the tone of the ending. Within this the cast do a reasonably good job and some do almost manage to carry the film across the jumps in content and style. I always like Tony Leung and he is a good piece of casting. He doesn't totally manage to convince with what the script asks him to do but he is a good heart of the film. Cheung is not quite as good but works well with Leung to build a believable friendship. Lee has less to work with as his character is a lot simpler and I thought his performance was weaker as a result. Yam was an invincible and cool presence that didn't add a lot to the story but made for a good character.Overall, Bullet in the Head produces many of the things that I came to the film for and as such had enough to keep me interested. The problem was that it never hung together convincingly and the use of the war as a backdrop introduced things that could have been impacting but just didn't gel. The action scenes are good (even if not as well choreographed due to the scale of the battles) but the plot is the start of the problem in a film that is never what it should be and certainly shouldn't be listed among the "must-see" films from Woo.

This Film without a doubt is John Woo's Darkest film.A Film focused on three best friends who go to Vitenam to smuggle goods for a living. But they are caught in a middle of a war that will affect them for the rest of their lives.John Woo makes a dark tale on reality.How messed up the real world is and how your best friends aren't always loyal to you.he does brings his message well in the film and makes it a good film but there are little bumps along the way.Though Character development is on top form and the Acting is Marvelous, still the Plot is uneven at best and a bit confusing still this film is great.The film takes place in 1968 Hong Kong.Ben(Tony Leung) is about to get married with his girlfriend and his friends Frank(Jacky Chung) and Paul(Waise Lee) are on his side into helping him get married.things are going good but Frank needs to pick up a loan to pay off the Marriage he gets the money but is jumped by a group of punks.Frank tells Ben what happened and Ben kills the Gang Leader in rage.Ben is now being chased by the police and decides to leave Hong Kong with his friends to Vitenam to smuggle goods for a living.Once they get to Vitenam, It's all fine and Dandy until they find out how bad the country is.They witness a soldier killing A young boy for an assassination attempt and now that their supplies are destroyed in the process they go find a man name Luke(Simon Yam).Luke helps them with weapons and now Ben wants to help a singer name Sally who is a slave to A crime Boss.He wants to help Sally into leaving Vitnam and going back to Hong Kong.While trying to Escape Paul goes crazy with Greed after finding a box of gold and becoming Desperate to escape that even his friendship and loyalty start to disappear.So far after watching this movie you Get confused and lost into the plot but it's the action and the characters that keep your interest.As for Character You Feel You can relate to.Ben your everyday lover who has dreams for the future and wants better in life and to have children and a wife.He's a real likable character that most people can relate to.Frank is another character you can relate to as well.The loyal friend that would do anything for you no matter what.A character like that is what you call a true friend.Paul however is yes at first loyal but money and power gets to his head will anything for it if it means to kill a person or your best friend and becomes annoying during the middle of the film.As for acting, Great.It comes to no surprise that Tony Leung gives a memorable performance as Ben.Before becoming famous in Hong Kong this film was one his early films in his career and gave a performance that lets you know Tony can act.it's a shame this film was not famous in Hong Kong maybe it could of made Tony Famous or at least win an award. Jacky Cheung Surprisiing me at least gives a great performance.I will admit never liked Jacky Cheung as an Actor he was too over-the top for me but he gives an amazing performance as the goofy lovable Frank his performance is yes a bit goofy but he gets away with it in the end when goes crazy and I'm Amaze how he did a great job pulling it off.Waise Lee however unlike Tony Leung and Jacky Cheung his performance isn't that great which is a shame given the performance he gave in A better tomorrow was great.Past the lead Simon Yam does well with his small Role it's a shame he wasn't given much because his character was interesting.overall great film watch it see for your self.

Saw BITH on DVD last night after watching it once years ago on TV. I found it surprising the impression it gave me this time is completely different. I did not actually seem to be impressed by it at all when it was shown on a local TV channel, but is now completely overwhelmed when I watched it again on DVD last night. I suppose this movie must be enjoyed uninterrupted by TV commercials, in order to get to grips with the atmosphere it created. From casual and light-hearted to brutal and dead-serious. In other words, it requires no less than totally focused attention from the audience.I'd like to clear the air for those fans who considered this movie involving the war in IndoChina is something of a first for Woo. Woo actually did a little-known jungle warfare movie called "Ying xiong wei lei" (Heros Shed No Tears) in the early 80's on a shoestring budget, of a story about the Thai government hires group of Chinese mercenaries to capture powerful drug-lord from Golden Triangle, before he became famous in 1986 for his gangster classic "A Better Tomorrow".In BITH Woo succeeded in recreating the nostalgic look and feel of the 1960's Hong Kong and Vietnam. The characters and events all appeared so genuine and real. I appreciate it as a great movie from the following angles:In Hong Kong the street lives of those gangster youths vividly coincided with the anti-British riots in the then Crown Colony. The three protagonists living life in poverty, turf wars and a little romance over a backdrop of terrifying bombing campaign waged by pro-Chairman Mao rioters met by brutal clampdown from the Hong Kong police in full riot gears, all being exactly shown as how it would look in those unforgettable days. The scene showing a British bomb disposal expert deactivating a bomb is very true. I still remember in real life seeing the gruesome news picture of one of these guys got his arm blown off while doing such a nasty job in the Wanchai district. All these strongly convinces the audience why the three friends, apart from a murder case hanging over two of them, have good reasons to leave and go somewhere else.In Saigon the endless anti-war street protests leading to violent bloodshed, dare-devil assassinations met by ruthless summary executions, the ever present pack of International photo-journalists chasing after their opportunity of a good news story, Chinese businessmen living in the country wheeling and dealing with the Vietnamese from North and South. Those (mainly Americans and other foreigners) who had the means enjoy themselves in seedy nightclubs as if nothing unusual was happening outside, where life was so chaotic that looters could be anybody including the soldiers.In the Vietnamese jungle the three friends and the local hit-man character went through a harsh lesson of survival, including escape through unfamiliar terrain, intense firefights, frequent bickering, unsavory POW camp rituals and a spectacular last-minute rescue by commandos and helicopters. A lesson of survival in which the temptation of getting rich quick was too much for one of the friends to resist, leading to more tragic events. Although some of the scenes would remotely remind audience of Hollywood movie "The Deer Hunter", the fact is that the two are very different in many ways. Just as you can't really say "The Great Escape" and "The Bridge on River Kwai" are similar. Back in Hong Kong, the two friends who managed to return had to confront each other in a finale that brought the whole story like a roller-coaster to an abrupt end.IMHO BITH is Heroic Bloodshed on the grandest possible scale never seen before or after.