My quick rating – 8.1/10. A movie that is perhaps overshadowed in John Woo’s filmography for its momentous gunplay in Hard Boiled or The Killer, Bullet in the Head may just be his most emotionally brutal film. What first appears to be a purely action-oriented film on its surface is, in fact, a harsh story of friendship, loyalty, and how fast things fall apart when blood, money, and war are added to the mixture.
The initial situation is simple enough. It’s 1967, and three young friends are just ambling about, dancing, fighting for sport, and talking about a bright future to come. Ben (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) is the emotional anchor, and Woo takes a while to show these normal-life experiences – visits from family, idle bluster, young invincibility – when disaster strikes and they must flee not only the city, but the entire country of Hong Kong because they are guilty of a murder resulting from a fight with a local gang.
The action is ferocious and impeccably choreographed, but what really hits is the contrast Woo creates. One minute you’re watching skillfully choreographed hand-to-hand combat or adrenaline-fueled gunfights, and the next you’re placed in the position to deal with the consequences and repercussions of violence that can never be reversed. The score may border on melodrama in some aspects but finds perfect harmony in this film and the corruption and guilt that seeps in as a consequence of the first wrong step.
Vietnam itself functions less as a political lecture and more as a pressure cooker. The trio gets tangled in a gang war involving a corrupt leader and the kidnapping of Chinese celebrity Sally Yan Sau Ching (Yolinda Yam), before stumbling into the much larger machinery of the actual war. Their gold heist accidentally implicates them as CIA operatives, leading to capture, torture, and some genuinely harrowing scenes involving POW executions, often punctuated by the film’s chilling motif – a bullet to the head. Woo doesn’t flinch here, and the violence feels intentionally ugly rather than stylish.
There’s no doubt that there’s an Apocalypse Now influence, especially regarding the American forces, but Woo expresses it in his own operatic way. Money becomes the ultimate corrosive element, pushing relationships that were already on the edge to their limits. There’s no trust left, just desperation, and loyalty turns out to be more brittle than anyone cared to believe.
Even decades later, Bullet in the Head remains on my must-see list when anyone asks. The 4K release wisely restores the extended ending, which fully commits to Woo’s bleak, furious view of betrayal and broken bonds. Compared to the shorter alternate ending, this version lands with far more destruction. In the end, this isn’t just John Woo doing Vietnam. It’s Woo at his most merciless, crafting a war drama with the impact of The Deer Hunter and reminding us why he remains the true godfather of action cinema.
