7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Asaka Seto is superb in this surprisingly good movie, October 6, 2002
Bullets of Love is a Hong Kong action movie that has many very tender moments and even a few funny moments. Hong Kong action star/singer Leon Lai plays a Hong Kong detective who, along with his prosecutor fiance (Asaka Seto), fights a nasty Hong Kong gang. When the gang has Leon's fiance killed, he retires from the police force and tries to live a quiet life with his family in a fishing village. One day Leon spots a woman who is a dead ringer for his dead fiance, and he falls in love with deadly consequences (that's three "deads" in one sentence--not bad, eh?--Hey, it's a Hong Kong film. You gotta expect this kind of violence in a review). Bullets of Love has the action and tongue-in-cheek humor you'd expect from a movie of this genre, but Japanese TV actress Asaka Seto is so effective at being both brutal and tender she is able to play different characters with the same face. The result is startling. She fully adds an extra dimension to this very effective film. This DVD version is in Cantonese and English with English subtitles, and includes a "making of" documentary.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
FIVE AND A HALF STARS, March 18, 2003
An excellent film with considerably more plot and character development than some Hong Kong productions. Asaka Seto steals the show. Her performance has depth and subtlety, and if you don't care much about such things just enjoy the fact that she's totally hot! There is plenty of action, bullets, blood and even a few quick martial arts sequences, but in addition, this flick also features a suspenseful, well written and well directed story. Very few flaws overall and very much worth the price. Plenty of websites have good plot summaries if you need more, but fans of H.K. Cinema will not be disappointed, and if you're not a fan yet this one's a great way to get acquainted!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bullets = Three, Love = Zero?, December 4, 2003
Wow.
Typical Hong Kong fare transplanted from overseas onto American soil is generally virtuoso gunplay punctuated by splashes of blood, mayhem, and explosions. This is not to say that these films are bad; rather, it is only to say that -- after several releases -- most films tend to blend together in plot, substance, acting, and theme.
In my opinion, BULLETS OF LOVE has only a single shortcoming: it is poorly titled. Certainly, the title is symbolic, and the meaning will be known by the end of the film ... but couldn't they come up with something better?
Leon Lai plays Sam, a detective in self exile from the police force after the assassination of his fiance, Ann (Asaka Seto in a wonderful breakthrough-style performance). However, after the assassin she-beast guns down Ann in cold blood, she realizes her attraction to Sam. Two years and several plastic surgeries later, she slithers her way into Sam's life in the personae of You, a freelance photographer. The two of them find redemption from their past lives and past mistakes. However, once the assassin's boss is released from prison, both Sam and You are forced to revisit their pasts, discover You's secret, and set their respective worlds right again.
While the packaging boasts that BULLETS is an action thriller, the film spends a tremendous amount of time and energy exploring these two characters and the people who populate their mutual existence. More than many other Hong Kong thrillers, BULLETS takes ample time for the leads to find one another and to surrender to their feelings of love. This relationship -- despite the forced dramatic situation -- is given a strong backbone of realism, and much credit should be given to Lai and Seto's performances. Together, they create a chemistry that is palpable; come the film's bloody conclusion, the viewer has grown to care deeply for them.
A truly great find and a welcome surprise, BULLETS starts slow -- setting up a relatively elaborate situation -- but it paces nicely to a bullseye up through the climax.
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