- Actors: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee, Simon Yam, Fennie Yuen
- Directors: John Woo
- Format: Dubbed, PAL, Anamorphic, Widescreen, Subtitled
- Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Number of discs: 2
- Classification: 18
- Studio: Hong Kong Legends
- DVD Release Date: 5 July 2004
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B0001XQDUC
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 25,036 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Reviews
Amazon.co.uk Review
Not for the faint-hearted, John Woo's unflinching account of individual destinies caught up and mangled by the greater madness of the Vietnam War remains his greatest cinematic achievement to date. More a three-act tragedy of epic proportions than a conventional action film, it follows the fortunes of Ben, Paul and Frank, three Hong Kong youths raised in poverty who have little to depend upon except their unswerving friendship for each other. When Ben kills a local hoodlum in a revenge beating and is forced to flee to Saigon, his two friends come with him, dreaming of the fortune they intend to make together on the Vietnamese black market. What they find instead is a world gone mad, ruled by gangsters, murderous fanatics and rogue soldiers who have taken the law into their own hands.
There's a brutal and compelling grandeur to Woo's vision of Asia in the late 1960s, one that refuses either to take sides or romanticise the past. Whether it involves a crowd of student demonstrators clashing with riot police, a nightclub shootout or a helicopter attack on a Vietcong POW camp, the film's depiction of violence has a mythic intensity which crowds in around the three main protagonists, testing their loyalty to the breaking point.
Tony Leung brings out the vulnerability and drive of the young Ben, while Jacky Cheung gives an electrifying performance as Frank, half-crazed from the bullet lodged in his skull after Paul tries to shoot him in the head. Reduced to carrying out street executions to pay for the morphine he needs to deaden the excruciating pain, his mute agonies hang like a vengeful cloud over the film's closing moments as Ben hunts Paul down, forcing him to atone for his cowardly act of betrayal. Bullet in the Head is harrowing, matchless and unrelenting. --Ken Hollings
Special Features
- Audio commentary with Bey Logan
- Interviews with Tony Leung Chi-wai, Jackie Cheung, Simon Yam and Waise Lee
- Bullet Ballet: a retrospective on the John Woo phenomenon
- Alternate ending and deleted footage
- Trailer gallery
- Animated photo gallery
DVD Technical Information:
- Soundtrack: Dolby Digital 5.1: English, Cantonese
- Subtitles: English
- Running Time: 126 mins
- Region Code: 2
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Wide Screen/16:9
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterpiece gets the DVD treatment it deserves - almost...,
By
This review is from: Bullet In The Head [DVD] (1990) (DVD)
BULLET IN THE HEAD
[Die Xie Jie Tou] (Hong Kong - 1990) Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 Theatrical soundtrack: Mono Fleeing from a murder rap during the political turmoil of 1960's Hong Kong, three devoted friends (Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Jacky Cheung Hok-yau and Waise Lee Chi-hung) seek their fortunes in war-torn Vietnam and are ripped apart by greed and betrayal. John Woo's ambitious movie - an operatic valentine to his youth in HK and his love of David Lean epics, and a response to the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 - went over-schedule and flopped at the local box-office when released in 1990, but has since been recognized as one of the finest productions in HK film history. Newcomers Leung, Cheung and Lee are terrific as the three friends whose lives are devastated by the violence they encounter in a foreign land, and they're matched throughout by Simon Yam Tat-wah as the Eurasian hitman who rescues them from the worst of their experiences. For all its explosions and gunplay, however, BULLET IN THE HEAD is a very human drama, played out against the vast backdrop of the Vietnam conflict, and invested with a palpable sense of love and compassion for its leading characters. Cinematography and editing are world-class, and Woo's dark-hearted script (co-written by Patrick Leung Pak-kin and Janet Chin) incorporates the themes of loyalty and brotherhood which have shaped and defined all of his films since A BETTER TOMORROW (1986). Cheung's final scene is absolutely heartbreaking; classic score by James Wong Jim and Romeo Diaz.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shocking, engaging and very exciting,
By
This review is from: Bullet In The Head [DVD] (1990) (DVD)
This movie is definitely one of John Woo's standout films of his long career. It features Tony Leung (Infernal Affairs), Waise Lee and Jacky Cheung on blistering form as three friends who flee to Saigon during the Vietnam war and try to make money from selling illegal goods, but soon are forced to make a choice based upon loyalty, friendship or wealth. Good action (not as stylish as 'The Killer') but is more realistic and brutal. Simon Yam also stars as Luke, a Eurasian hitman who helps the three make their money. Not for the faint hearted.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Today I saw a soldier kill a man and I learnt something. In this world, we can do anything if we have guns!,
By Spike Owen "John Rouse Merriott Chard" (Birmingham, England.) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)
This review is from: Bullet In The Head [DVD] (1990) (DVD)
Die xue jie tou (AKA: Bullet in the Head) is directed, co-written, co-edited and produced by John Woo. It stars Tony Leung, Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee and Simon Yam.
1967 and three Hong Kong friends leave behind a violent incident and aim to earn their fortune in war-time Saigon. Getting mixed up in the war because of their criminal activities, the friends encounter the Viet Cong and it sets off a chain of events that will change and shatter their hopes, dreams and lives forever. It was originally planned to be a prequel to A Better Tomorrow, but with Woo falling out with producer Tsui Hark, he decided to rework the script into what is now Bullet in the Head. Taking inspiration from the Tiananmen Square incident, and no doubt nodding appreciatively in the direction of The Deer Hunter, Woo self financed the film and set about creating an epic. Which he did, an apparently 3 hour + epic that was promptly ordered to be sliced down into something more compact. What that means is there are a number of different cuts of the film available, depending how far you wish to pursue a cut that is. On release it flopped in its native country, but as Hong Kong cinema became popular in America and Europe, the film has garnered much critical praise, with some critics even proclaiming it the best Hong Kong movie ever made. It's a deeply affecting movie, one that contains all the bullets and violent carnage so befitting its creator. And it finds the director at his most personal, most political and dealing high in morality. One can guess that the original cut would have been a near masterpiece of cohesion and emotional fortitude, as it stands now, it plays like two halves shunted together without any care for flow and substance. The first half plays out like a Woo gangster piece, characters are introduced, formed and get involved in bloodshed. Then it's on to Vietnam and the film starts to follow a distressing course, before we come full circle and Woo gets his sledgehammer back out to close with a bone crunching thud. The action is superb, an assault on the eyes and the ears, with the cast providing an energy that's a joy to behold. While the emotional threads that Woo pulls at really are upsetting and hold the attention in a vice like grip. At times visceral and uncompromising, at others tender and panging the heart, it's very much a film operating on more than one front. But with that comes moments of alienation and snatches of incoherence, and that brings on the onset of frustration. The end result being a film that's essential for Honk Kong connoisseurs, but difficult to recommend to first timers looking for a Honk Kong starting point. Ambitious, lively and emotionally sharp, it however isn't quite a satisfying whole. 7/10
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