Big Bullet (1996)

Big Bullet is one of the best action movies to come out of Hong Kong in the mid 90's. Lau Ching Wan is a super tough and dedicated policeman who gets transfered from Serious Crimes to EU(Emergency Unit) after giving a senior officer a serious smackdown after a hostage rescue went awry. Lau Ching Wan, a very good actor carries this film very well. Also, he has the right physical stature and rugged toughness that makes him more believable than most actors that play cops in movies. Great support is also to be had with Jordon Chan(also a very talented actor). He plays a super serious, disciplined cop who often is at odds with Lau Ching Wan. They are after a vicious gang of thieves led by Yu Rong Gong(Iron Monkey) and Anthony Wong(Hard Boiled) who are very effective and menacing without saying much. The tone of the film changes throughout the film from very serious to very silly. While the humor might seem out of place for a film of this type, it is actually the norm for a Hong Kong film. The action scenes are abundant with lots of great shootouts and explosions which sometimes bring to mind Michael Mann's Heat. Overall the drama, action and comedy coalesce well and director Benny Chan made one great action film.

I'm slowly ploughing through as many Hong Kong action films as I can get my hands on and came across this gem - mainly due to Ching Wan Lau who is one of my favourite actors.Its a great action film although not as OTT as the title might suggest. It moves along at a great pace and is truly enjoyable.The biggest surprise of this film was the soundtrack. It would appear that Rob Dougan - the guy who did the 'Clubbed To Death' song which was popular in 'The Matrix' has lifted the soundtrack from Big Bullet and compiled it into one of the tracks on his 'Furious Angels' album; the tune in question is called 'Im not driving anymore' and is also the opening tune for the TV series 'Law and Order' AND the opening track on the 'Matrix Reloaded' DVD menu teaser! That really surprised me, due to the sheer conincidence!

Lau Ching-wan plays a detective demoted to being a street cop. He's put on a team with some strong characters, including one (Jordan Chan) who's determined to play by the book. Of course there is a big case and Lau is the only one able to figure it out. Clichés and stereotypes abound in the plot but the actors performances make these moments pass by smoothly. Notable are the performances of Rong Guang Yun and Anthony Wong as the villains. If a movie has Anthony Wong or Lau Ching-wan in it, you can be guaranteed good performances. **Spoiler Alert** The DVD transfer of the movie is in very poor quality so it was difficult to see the action on the cargo plane. **End spoiler**

This film has some really impressive action scenes. The humor and action are blended well, though the intensity of the film does not sustain itself till the end. The last scene is a slight anti-climax in terms of action quality and astonishing explosiveness of the scenes preceding it. The humor doesn't seem to be so ridiculously clumsy as in many other Hongkong movies, and this film is of totally other class than most American action-comedies of recent years. Lau Ching-Wan acts as a typical, intuitive police-hero who scoffs at invalid orders from incompetent police superiors. The dialectic of the film is built on the superhuman coolness and ruthlessness of the drug gang, humiliating the police force while providing a serious dose of lead poisoning with a variety of machine guns. Leaving plenty of corpses in it's wake. Yu Rong-Guang is especially impressive as an ultra cool, merciless gangster in this Woo-like piece of action where tough guys are truly die-hard.