A Killer's Blues is a very good triad/gangster movie starring Ti Lung and Lo Lieh. I would regard this as more of a drama than an action film, although the action scenes that are in the film are real well done and are more gritty and realistic than most films of this type. The film is never boring and the acting performances are excellent. Ti Lung is always great and while A Killer's Blues in not exempt from clichés in gangster films, Ti Lung's powerful performance grounds the film and gives it a lot of credibility as well. The support cast is also quite excellent with Olivia Cheng, Fennie Yuen, Mark Cheng and Roy Cheung. The plot is nothing new for gangster movies,but it is done well. The action scenes are part of the story and are not thrown in when they don't service the plot. The violence gets intense, bloody and brutal, but it is never gratuitous and builds to its furious climax. This draws a lot of parallels to the American western, where violence is the only way of life and even those who want to live peaceful lives must resort to those methods to survive. A Killer's Blues like many other heroic bloodshed films, it is very bleak and melodramatic. However, don't expect a non stop action, bullet ballet killfest. It is much less driven by action, but is a well done and powerful film that stars Ti Lung which makes this well above average. I would not regard this on par with A Better Tomorrow, but is way better than many of the imitators that get more props than this film.
Review of A Killer's Blues
