The film is set in modern-day Los Angeles and follows an emotionally disillusioned assassin who is forced to settle a violent vendetta for a ruthless crime boss.

[3] The film score was orchestrated by Harry Gregson-Williams; the soundtrack was released by the Varèse Sarabande music label on March 10, 1998.

During an orchestrated drug bust at a marine loading dock, LAPD detective Stan Zedkov kills Triad lieutenant Peter Wei.

However, Lee's conscience prevents him from completing his final assignment: to assassinate Zedkov's seven-year-old son Stevie before the detective's eyes.

Realizing that his actions will result in retaliation against his mother and sister, Lee prepares to return to China, enlisting the help of old friend Alan Chan, a monk in a local Buddhist temple, to make arrangements to have his family moved to a secure location.

No longer able to use the Triad network to get out of the country, Lee searches for alternative means outside Wei's sphere of influence, and looks to skilled forger Meg Coburn for a new passport.

Before she can finish the job, Wei's men storm Meg's office, destroying the computerized tools of her trade in the ensuing shootout.

Having been made aware that the Triads are involved, Coburn wants out, but Lee forces her to finish her original task of creating a forged passport.

Traveling with Coburn, and with the two "replacement killers" in pursuit, Lee gets pictures from a photo booth and phones Alan, who offers the use of his passport.

He launches a two-handed handgun assault while Coburn surfaces moments later, driving a truck through the melee, incapacitating Kogan, and later killing him.

The first shoot was set in the historic Mayan Theater, refurbished as a trendy nightclub and cast with hundreds of extras for the film's opening scene.

[4] The eight-story, nearly condemned Giant Penny building in the middle of Los Angeles served as the location for a police station interior, a hotel room, and Meg Coburn's office.

[4] A Chinatown-like streetscape of damp, narrow alleys and blinking red neon lights was created for the night-time finale, where Yun-Fat shot off 546 rounds of two-fisted shooting; the repetitive action left his hands blistered and shaking.

[4] She felt The Replacement Killers brought her a step closer to her goal of making a film in Mandarin and working with a Chinese director.

[citation needed] In addition to the film score by Harry Gregson-Williams, several modern songs by cutting-edge artists were included on the soundtrack (although never officially released as a cd) including:[9][better source needed] The Replacement Killers premiered in cinemas on February 6, 1998, in wide release throughout the US, and had a five-week theatrical run.

Features included digitally mastered audio and anamorphic video, widescreen presentation, audio in English 5.1 (Dolby Digital), Spanish, French, Portuguese, subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai, director's commentary, the HBO making-of "Where the Action Is", deleted scenes, alternate ending, the "Chow Yun-Fat Goes Hollywood" featurette, theatrical trailers, filmographies, animated menus, and scene selections with motion images.

The disc features DVD quality picture, languages in Chinese, English, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai, and viewing options for color and black and white.

The consensus summarizes: "Chow Yun-fat makes his dubious English-language debut in The Replacement Killers, a stylish but muddled knockoff of the Hong Kong shoot-em-ups that earned the star his international renown.

[25] Among some of the positive critiques, Roger Ebert writing in the Chicago Sun-Times called it "as abstract as a jazz instrumental, and as cool and self-assured".

[26] Discussing the film's style, he remarked that it was a "high-gloss version of a Hong Kong action picture, made in America but observing the exuberance of a genre where surfaces are everything".

It's beautifully shot by first-time feature director Antoine Fuqua, whose eye for sensual surfaces, deft camera moves and elegant framing was refined with commercials and music videos.

"[30] Desson Thomson of The Washington Post stated that "Without Chow Yun-Fat, who makes his American screen debut here, there'd be nothing to say about The Replacement Killers.

He turned the directing chores over to first-timer Antoine Fuqua, whose previous work was limited to music videos and commercials, and it shows."

I'm glad that people enjoy it, but it was really Antoine Fuqua's sensibility top to bottom, which is not at all mine (aside from the fact that we both love the work of Michael Mann, though apparently for very different reasons).