The Killer (Chinese: 喋血雙雄)[4] is a 1989 Hong Kong action film directed and written by John Woo and produced by Tsui Hark.

Chow plays Ah Jong, a professional assassin for the Triads who wants to retire, but accidentally damages the eyes of singer Jennie (Yeh) during a shootout and sets out to perform one last hit to pay for her treatment.

The Killer was not an immediate success in Hong Kong but received critical acclaim internationally with reviewers praising its action scenes and over-the-top style.

The film became Woo's steppingstone into Hollywood and has been a strong influence on many directors, including Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and Johnnie To.

During a shootout with gangsters, he accidentally blinds a young nightclub singer named Jennie when his gun fires too close to her eyes.

Meanwhile, Detective Li Ying performs a botched undercover sting but is scolded and demoted by his superior for shooting his enemy inside the tram and unintentionally causing the fatal heart attack of a hostage.

Tsang follows Sei to his house, where Ah Jong and Jennie are hiding, but gets fatally wounded by Chen's gang and dies in the hospital moments after sharing his discovery with Li.

Ah Jong shoots Sei to end his suffering, and he and Li arm themselves before engaging in a bloody shootout with dozens of gangsters.

In the end, for disobeying the law by murdering Hoi even after he had surrendered, Li is surrounded by the police, and collapses to the ground in despair at the loss of his friend.

Ah Jong is later found in the church again getting several slugs pulled out of his back showing his intense pain while the altar and cross are shown prominently behind him.

The first cut of A Better Tomorrow 2 was too long for the studio[25] so the film was edited within a week separately by both producer Tsui Hark and Woo.

[25][29] John Woo approached his friend, Sally Yeh, asking her to be in a film to play an important female character.

[25] Wong Wing-Hang was hired to be the director of photography for The Killer but had to leave the set for an extended period of time, so Peter Pau was added to shoot the rest of the film.

[25] Woo had over 90 days to shoot The Killer which was nearly double the amount of time that the average Hong Kong film was shot in the late 1980s.

Woo borrows plot elements for the film, including the set-up where Jef enters a nightclub and looks at the female singer.

[33] Woo also described the influence of a Japanese film, Narazumono [ja], about a killer (Ken Takakura) who only kills delinquents.

[31] The original ending of the film involved Jennie waiting at an airport for Li to give her the money and for them to travel to the United States.

One thing I can say for sure is, the American, European, Japanese, Korean and even the Taiwanese audiences and critics appreciated The Killer a lot more than it was in Hong Kong.

[57] In the United Kingdom, The Killer was released on DVD by Hong Kong Legends on 21 October 2002 which included an audio commentary with Bey Logan and interviews with Kenneth Tsang, Sally Yeh and cinematographer Peter Pau.

Its critical consensus reads, "The Killer is another hard-boiled action flick from John Woo featuring eye-popping balletic violence and philosophical underpinnings.

"[61] Stephen Holden of The New York Times referred to the film as "Alternately gripping and laughable" and that "The scenes of gore and destruction are even more spectacular than Hong Kong's fog-shrouded skyline".

[62] Variety gave a positive review, describing the film as an "extremely violent and superbly made actioner demonstrates the tight grasp that director John Woo has on the crime meller genre".

[66] Empire gave the film five stars and proclaimed that "John Woo's trademark style reached its zenith in The Killer".

American hip hop artist, and Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon released his critically praised debut album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... (1995) that sampled numerous portions of dialog from the film.

[78] In 2005, Vibe magazine placed The Killer at number 21 on their list of top fifty films that shaped hip hop.

[82] In 1992, American filmmaker Walter Hill and David Giler wrote a screenplay for Tri-Star Pictures titled The Killer that was dated 6 April 1992.

[85] A year later, screenwriters Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr. were hired by producers Charles Roven and Robert Cavallo to write a screenplay based on The Killer for Tristar, in which they wrote a third draft of the script was that was dated on 23 August 1993 which featured a story of a Caucasian hitman living in Hong Kong.

[90] Universal Pictures was announced to be developing the film with a script written by Eran Creevy based on drafts by Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken, with additional contributions by Brian Helgeland.

[92] About the decision of flip both the gender and race of the lead, Nyong'o remarked that she "did not see it coming, either", stating that she had received, read and liked the script without having seen the original movie.

[93] However, Woo told Deadline in November 2019 that Nyong'o had left the film due to scheduling conflicts as a result of a script rewrite.