Bullet in the head

Movie
German title	Bullet in the head
Original title	The xue jie tou
Country of production	Hong Kong
original language	Cantonese
Publishing year	1990
length	98/125/136 minutes
Age rating	FSK SPIO / JK unchecked, formerly indexed
Rod
Director	John Woo
script	John Woo ; Patrick Leung ; Janet Chun
production	John Woo
music	James Wong ; Romeo Diaz
camera	Wing-Hung Wong
cut	John Woo
occupation
	Tony Leung Chiu Wai as Ben ; Jacky Cheung as Frank ; Orphan Lee as Tom ; Simon Yam as Luke ;

Bullet in the Head is an action film directed by John Woo from 1990. The original title is Die xue jie tou . This film is one of the last films produced by John Woo in Hong Kong before he went to Hollywood and made films like Mission: Impossible 2 or In the Body of the Enemy .

action

Since young Ben kills the leader of a gang in self-defense in Hong Kong in 1967 , he and his best friends Frank and Tom have to flee. The three of them end up in Vietnam, where the war is in full swing. While trying to sell smuggled weapons with the help of her friend Luke, a wild shooting ensues with an underworld size resident there. In doing so, they steal a box of gold. Tom, Ben and Frank are able to escape at first, but are then taken prisoner in North Vietnam. There they will be interrogated about the origin of the gold. The guards in the camp are extremely cruel and force the prisoners to shoot each other. When Frank is supposed to kill Ben, they can free themselves and are saved by American troops. Frank is shot while trying to escape. Tom, who is dragging the gold away with greed, shoots Frank in the head instead of helping him. Frank does not die, however, but is saved and from then on ekes out a life as a mentally ill junkie, because the foreign body could not be removed from his head and he cannot bear the pain without drugs. In order to get money for it, he commits contract killings. Ben, who cannot bear to see Frank in this state, kills him to free him from his suffering. In the end, he kills Tom, who rose to society through gold.

Reviews

“The gloomy opus, shimmering virtuously between action film and melodrama, is a relentless reckoning with the political situation, with the mental and physical deformations that characterize all the characters. In the 40-minute shortened video version, the idiosyncratic poetry of the film is lost in favor of drastic action elements. "

- Lexicon of international film

"Bullet In The Head" is an entertaining, haunting and emotionally a little overloaded film. Due to his uncompromising portrayal of violence, he enjoys the status of a classic in splatter circles, but can offer a lot more than that. Namely a story that John Woo (who is now staging in Hollywood without being able to match his old greatness) tells with a force that can hardly be compared. You either love the film or you hate it. But in any case he has something that [sic] misses in most films: soul. "

- Christian Horn, Filmstarts.de

“I wasn't ready for the honesty of this film. [...] When the film was over, I found myself shaken and exhausted. "

- Jeffrey M. Anderson : Combustible Celluloid

publication

The film was cut by the Hong Kong cinema operators by 28 minutes and ends in the HK version with a gunshot sound off-screen. The film is available in Germany in various versions on DVD, all of which were indexed until December 2019. A re-examination by the FSK is still pending.

The complete version (English with Chinese subtitles) was presented by Woo biographer Thomas Gaschler in 1991 and 1992 at the Weekend of Fear film festival in Nuremberg as well as in the Munich Werkstattkino and the Munich Film Museum .

Awards and nominations

Hong Kong Film Awards 1991

Hong Kong Film Award in the Best Film Editing category for John Woo
Nomination in the category Best Actor for Jacky Cheung
Nomination in the Best Cinematography category for Ardy Lam, Wilson Chan, Wing-Hung Wong and Chai Kittikum Som
Nomination in the Best Director category for John Woo

literature

–MAERZ– (Axel Estein): "Bullet In The Head - acceleration mass." In: Splatting Immage, # 6, March 1991
on the creation and criticism of the film see: Thomas Gaschler & Ralph Umard: Woo. Verlag Belleville, Munich 2005, ISBN 3933510481 .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Bullet in the Head. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
^ Filmstarts.de : Bullet in the Head. Retrieved November 9, 2012 .
↑ Jeffrey M. Anderson: Bullet in the Head (1990). In: Combustible Celluloid. July 2, 1997, accessed on August 15, 2008 : “I wasn't prepared for the honesty of this movie. [...] When the movie was over, I was left shaken but exhilarated. "
↑ https://www.schnittberichte.com/news.php?ID=15461
↑ Thomas Gaschler, Ralph Umard: Woo . Belleville, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-933510-48-1 .

[ldif-1] Bullet in the Head. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .

[2] Filmstarts.de : Bullet in the Head. Retrieved November 9, 2012 .

[3] Jeffrey M. Anderson: Bullet in the Head (1990). In: Combustible Celluloid. July 2, 1997, accessed on August 15, 2008 : “I wasn't prepared for the honesty of this movie. [...] When the movie was over, I was left shaken but exhilarated. "

[4] ttps://www.schnittberichte.com/news.php?ID=15461

[5] Thomas Gaschler, Ralph Umard: Woo . Belleville, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-933510-48-1 .