Back in the late eighties and through most of the nineties, I was an avid comic book reader. I plunged into the Marvel Universe, almost exclusively, and the X-Men franchise was my favorite. That period of history is interesting to note, because there was a trend overwhelming the medium. Iron Man and Spider-Man were old and tired news; so the order of the day was "dark and edgy".
I'm sure The Dark Knight got a bump during this period, but the Batman had to make room for Wolverine. Punisher had his "War Zone", Angel became Archangel, and X-Force introduced us to Cable and Deadpool. These characters were different from the ones that preceded them; they still saved the day, but they did it without the handcuffs. When the fight was over and the villains were defeated, you didn't know if they would live to change their ways.
There was excitement and suspense, that you couldn't get with the old guard. These new characters were loose cannons that could go down dark paths. Even though they were exhilarating back then, eventually their run came to end. We found that there was nothing wrong with playing by the rules, and no trend is built to last forever.
Classic Movie Trailers - The Killer (1989)
Chow Yun-Fat was called "Ah-Jong" in the subtitled version of "The Killer". In the English-dub, his name is "Johnny" apparently. In either case, a rose is a rose and if you don't like the character, you won't like the movie. Films are hard to watch when you hate the protagonist, and I've found that to be true across multiple genres.
If you are willing to watch the show to its conclusion, something about Johnny Ah-Jong appeals. What that is will vary between people, but there are some common traits that I'd like to talk about. First off, this movie has plenty of armed conflicts, but the one inside the hitman may be the most compelling. A hopeless murdering cad is boring after a while, but if he's having second thoughts, that's a different story.
I'm reminded of "Leon: The Professional", which is another tale, along the same lines. When someone is shutdown emotionally, it's fascinating to watch them pull them out of it. However, I would be doing this film a disservice, if I didn't recognize the assassin's allure. A killer's current state is just as captivating as the transition out of it.
There are a couple of reasons why that is. Ultimately, these guys are antiheroes, and action movies are where they live and breathe. If there's something cathartic that needs to be served, a character like Johnny is the man for the job. He gives us gunplay that's unrestrained, remorseless and even artful.
If you spend a lot of time watching heroes hold back, eventually you'll get tired of it. Sometimes, we want to see the claws tear into them, especially if they're really bad guys. I don't mean to say that we want blood and gore; we're just looking for some sort of release. If the character has a lightsaber, we want to see it used, and if heads don't roll it's disappointing. We put ourselves in the place of the warrior, and if he stops short of the deathblow, so do we.
At the same time, we don't want to see it go too far, and that's why the villain is there. He's the everyman without a shred of restraint, decency or morality. So, he's willing to do things we're afraid to think about, making us fear and hate him with a passion. Antagonists are great at getting people invested, and nothing's more satisfying than watching them go down.
Still, if we're constantly following natural predators, that will get old as well. The traditional good guy is the best of us, and he gives us an example to aspire to. We have a killer instinct, and that's undeniable, but there are better parts of the human psyche. If we go a long time without experiencing benevolence, dissatisfaction and depression sets in.
Looking at it from a distance, I see a scale, with the hero and villain at opposite ends. The antihero is somewhere in the middle, and he can lean towards one way or the other. In his particular case, there are worse people around him, so there is another target for our ire. That situation lets us root for the killing machine, but we also look forward to his redemption. In that way, Johnny Ah-Jong and his ilk, have very important roles to fill.
In fact, they all do. You may not have noticed, but Spider-Man needs Hulk, and they both need Doctor Doom. Each of their character types complement the others, so if anyone is missing there's a void to be filled. There will be periods when the killer is more popular, but the pendulum will swing the other way. We are human beings and we are animals, so the stories we tell have to reflect that.
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See "The Killer" on Netflix!
Next Week: A turn towards comedy, with "Turner & Hooch".
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