Fresh from the success of the first two A Better Tomorrow films, in 1989 action maestro John Woo would unleash The Killer, a spectacular blend of explosive gunfights and dramatic performances, including the magnetic Chow Yun-Fat in one of his most memorable roles. Ah Chong (Chow Yun-Fat) is a hitman whose latest job takes a wrong turn when, during a shootout at a lavish nightclub, he accidentally blinds singer Jennie by firing his gun too close to her eyes. Racked with remorse, Ah Chong decides to retire from his life of crime and help Jennie get a cornea transplant. But when Ah Chong's rancorous former boss betrays him, Ah Chong receives an unexpected helping hand from hot-headed police detective Lee Ying (Danny Lee, City on Fire). An international sensation, The Killer put Woo on the radar of genre fans the world over and inspired waves of imitators, but none that could outclass it.
Special Features: Booklet, Bonus Footage, Commentary: John Woo and Drew Taylor (film journalist); David West (critic); John Woo and Terence Chang, Deleted Scenes, Documentaries: 'The Hero of Heroic Bloodshed'; Four archival featurettes from 2001 with John Woo and Tsui Hark (producer), Image Gallery, Interviews: John Woo (director); Terence Chang (producer); David Wu (editor); Peter Pau (cinematographer); Sally Yeh (actor); Kenneth Tsang (actor), Reversible sleeve and double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella; Six postcard-sized reproduction artcards; 'Hong Kong Confidential': Appreciation by Grady Hendrix (author); American Cinematheque 2025 introduction with John Woo; Taiwan Extended Cut (130 min) included, Trailers
I mean yeah, this is exactly what we all wanted, right? 3 discs with multiple cuts, stacks of extras, Tony Stella artwork, hard box, book, poster...Arrow are definitely doing this all right. Excited to get all these Woo and Lam titles like I did for the Leone ones last year.
Any info on the Taiwan Extended Cut? Is it worth the extra hassle and money to get the LE 3-disk release just for this?
I had planned to wait for the non limited release in a regular case sans postcards and tat, but since that release most likely will omit disk 3, I'm not so sure...
American Cinematheque 2025 introduction with Woo,
- Archival interviews with cinematographer Peter Pau and actors Sally Yeh and Kenneth Tsang
- Four archival featurettes from 2001 with Woo and producer Tsui Hark
- Extended cut of the movie!
- Newly translated subtitles, booklet and art cards
There's also a solo commentary track by Woo rescued from the Fox Lorber DVD.
They could have saved one extra disc by only including the SD Taiwanese cut and placing it on disc two. Yet they opted to stitch together an HD cut with the restored theatrical footage and SD inserts. It's not very clear from the wording in the specs, but it seems so. I just hope they use more care in the process and avoid making similar mistakes to those on Shout's Bullet in the Head release.
dwk wrote:It doesn't help that he is using nearly identical layouts and color palettes for all of these covers..
Exactly. It was nice looking when there were visible at a slower pace, but now that I feel like seeing his work 5 times per month, I can't unsee his underlying style and how too many often, there aren't thar many varations.
For instance, this The Killer artwork reminds me way too much of what he did for ESC in France for The Long Good Friday, which I don't think should happen.
Marwood wrote:Any info on the Taiwan Extended Cut? Is it worth the extra hassle and money to get the LE 3-disk release just for this?
Finch wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2026 2:21 pmAuthoring error on disc 3 for the Taiwenese cut
How does this affect the cut? Any chance/necessity for replacement discs?
You pretty much can't do anything once you started the cut, because everything is a user prohibited operation (skimming through chapers, fast forward or backward, pause, etc).
Word of warning to anyone who hasn't seen A Better Tomorrow yet: the John Woo documentary on disc 2 of The Killer has a major spoiler for ABT in it. They should have mentioned upfront that there were going to be spoilers, especially when ABT is one of the last Woos to be released. I'd seen the film before but wanted to give a heads up.
Hi, all. I see the Limited Edition seems to be sold out everywhere, and a quick google gives no indication of a Standard Edition. Does Arrow always release Standard Editions? At what point could we expect such a thing to be announced/available?
I usually get SEs from whatever label anyway, as they're usually significantly cheaper and the LE content tends to not be of great interest to me. I don't know if any of you have noticed, but this is an expensive hobby.
It's extremely likely there'll be a standard release. It has sold out very fast, and in such cases, Arrow puts out standard releases usually within 3 to 6 months.
Did they pull all the copies they could because of the authoring error on the Taiwanese cut, and we can expect a corrected limited edition to be available soon?
I don't think it was pulled because of the error. Jesse from DiabolikDVD posted on reddit that Arrow has already sold out of the limited editions of The Killer (and Hard Boiled and City on Fire)
tenia wrote: Sat May 23, 2026 8:51 pm
It's extremely likely there'll be a standard release. It has sold out very fast, and in such cases, Arrow puts out standard releases usually within 3 to 6 months.
Thanks! I figured that was likely, but wanted to check with more knowledgable folks as I figure out what Golden Princess blus I'm going to buy from among what's available or in the works from Arrow and Shout. Planning the D-Day invasion must have been a bit like this.
