John Woo's breakthrough film is not only a classic high-octane police action film, but also resonates with Hong Kong's transition to Chinese rule in the wake of the Tiananmen Massacre of 1989. The Killer updates martial arts action to gunplay, mixing in the conventions of cowboy films and samurai flicks in its concern with brotherhood bonds and doubling. Chow Yun-Fat's cop tangles with a killer crook who happens to be his blood brother from earlier in his life. Caught between them is a beautiful but vulnerable blind singer. It sounds hokey, but the action is breathtakingly choreographed and the themes of divided loyalties and powerlessness were depth charges that vented the feelings of many Hong Kong viewers during one of the most difficult periods in the city.-Chris Berry