In March, earlier this year, the New Beverly Cinema screened eight Hong Kong movies in the same month and it was incredible. Some of the double features that they had were a Wong Kar Wai double feature (I’m not the biggest fan of Wong Kar Wai) and a John Woo double feature which included The Killer and Once A Thief. This is a very strange pair of films because the first film is one of John Woo’s most serious films while the second is perhaps John Woo’s least serious film (at least after the early 80's). I hadn’t seen Once A Thief when the calendar for the theater was released and, unfortunately, I could only make it out to one of the double features, so I went to go see The Blade with King of Beggars. Now that I’ve seen both films from the John Woo double feature, I now think I made the right decision.
Joe, Jim, and Cherie (Chow Yun Fat, Leslie Cheung, and Cherie Chung respectively) all grew up learning how to become thieves. They started off as pickpockets, but they later become world-class art thieves. They decide to do one last job to steal another valuable painting, but things take a turn for the worse and it ends up affecting their love triangle, family, and morals. Also starring jokes.
Joe, Jim, and Cherie (Chow Yun Fat, Leslie Cheung, and Cherie Chung respectively) all grew up learning how to become thieves. They started off as pickpockets, but they later become world-class art thieves. They decide to do one last job to steal another valuable painting, but things take a turn for the worse and it ends up affecting their love triangle, family, and morals. Also starring jokes.
Once A Thief has always gotten mixed reviews. It’s one of those movies where people either love it, hate it, or they have some sort of mixed reaction toward it. I probably fall into the last category. Do you know about those Chow Yun Fat movies where he runs around and acts like a total idiot? Films like The Eighth Happiness and Diary of a Big Man? This movie feels like a mix of those films and John Woo’s style. And they don’t mix together at all.
The tone of the film is incredibly uneven. Some scenes display John Woo’s talent of “graceful violence,” but the action in this movie is almost kid-friendly minus a few scenes at the end. The main reason why these two styles don’t fit is because this movie deals with some pretty serious themes. Our three main characters are planning on betraying their father-figure despite him taking care of them as kids and teaching them how to survive. This is a topic that belongs in a much more serious film, but it doesn’t match the comedy.
The tone of the film is incredibly uneven. Some scenes display John Woo’s talent of “graceful violence,” but the action in this movie is almost kid-friendly minus a few scenes at the end. The main reason why these two styles don’t fit is because this movie deals with some pretty serious themes. Our three main characters are planning on betraying their father-figure despite him taking care of them as kids and teaching them how to survive. This is a topic that belongs in a much more serious film, but it doesn’t match the comedy.
Even then, the comedy isn’t very funny. Chow Yun Fat’s casual nuttiness is fun to watch and there are a few chuckles in the mix. I’d say this movie is more light-hearted than it is funny though. Some of the jokes in this movie are downright surreal. The film lacks any sort of plausibility or logic which some how takes away from the film. But since the style’s so different, it makes the movie very unique and interesting to watch because it's so unpredictable. Is the next scene going be serious or not? Is this serious scene discreetly funny? Is the movie going to end on a joke? You never really know the answer until you watch it and it’s kinda captivating in that way.
The action scenes in this movie aren’t terribly impressive. There’s the shot where the car drives through an RV camper which was pretty awesome, but the action lacks the excitement and “beauty” that other John Woo movies have. And since we know that the characters are going to end up okay, we don’t really care. But still, there’s an impressive shootout at the end with some fantastic stunts and it features some of John Woo’s inventiveness, but it’s still too light-hearted to take seriously.
The action scenes in this movie aren’t terribly impressive. There’s the shot where the car drives through an RV camper which was pretty awesome, but the action lacks the excitement and “beauty” that other John Woo movies have. And since we know that the characters are going to end up okay, we don’t really care. But still, there’s an impressive shootout at the end with some fantastic stunts and it features some of John Woo’s inventiveness, but it’s still too light-hearted to take seriously.
Once A Thief is such a strange movie. There are some funny ideas and cool action scenes, but it tries to combine childish comedy with John Woo awesomeness and they simply don’t mix. And the result is both good and bad. Since they don’t mix, it makes for some awkward characterization and storytelling. But it also ends up being a lot of fun to watch because of its unpredictability and overall nuttiness. It’s arguably great, but I thought it was a fun time. It doesn’t equal The Killer, but that’s asking for too much.
*Make sure to stay through the end credits for a brief, but amusing post-credits scene.
Images from HKMDb and HK Cinemagic
*Make sure to stay through the end credits for a brief, but amusing post-credits scene.
Images from HKMDb and HK Cinemagic