Romancing Bullet is a 2000 Hong Kong movie starring Max Mok and co-starring Danny Lee.
AK (Mok) is a hitman without a name, or past, who finds himself hunted by his own triad after an assignment in Korea. Finding an unexpected ally in the form of an online chatroom friend (Joey Man), hunted by overzealous Hong Kong police Inspector Tang (Danny Lee), AK tries to stay alive by killing every enemy that gets in his way.
This film provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: Mr. Kim, the Big Bad who had the police under his payroll, smiles a lot, have a jovial personality, randomly breaks out in a song number when interrogated by Inspector Tang, praises Yu Ching for being his informant, but is actually leading the triad ring and wants AK’s head delivered to his desk.
- Agonizing Stomach Wound: AK gets one after being shot by Inspector Tang in their final standoff. Although Yu Ching managed to save him before he expires, he later dies at her place since there is no conceivable way medical assistance can come soon enough given the circumstances.
- Anyone Can Die: Literally NONE of the named characters live past the credits.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: From Inspector Tang, a Cowboy Cop and Inspector Javert pursuing AK, who isn’t above roughly interrogating an innocent, wounded woman in a hospital to get the information he needs.
- Censored Child Death: The demise of Ming, the young boy who befriended AK, was never shown onscreen. His death was only confirmed in a news report after the gun battle at the docks, which states "Five deaths, including an old man and his grandson".
- Conspicuously Public Assassination: AK’s first onscreen kill is a mob leader he shot in the back of the head… in the middle of a public parade in Korea.
- Cool Shades: AK wearing his sunglasses in every scene, in order to emulate the stereotypical hitman usually played by Chow Yun-fat. He even wears these during the warehouse shootout which is all in the dark!
- Expy: AK is a rather clear tribute to the archetypical classy assassin with a conscience made popular by John Woo and Chow Yun-fat in various Heroic Bloodshed movies popular in its time, down to his slick black suit, sunglasses, and preferred usage of guns.
- Friend to All Children: AK becomes close friend to Ming, the grandson of the dockyard worker he befriends, and is shown having fun with the child throughout his first few scenes.
- Gratuitous English: AK, during his first scene in Korea, where he poses as a tourist to get the drop on a rival mob kingpin, deliberately speaks in rather broken English to draw away attention from the bodyguards. The lead bodyguard, also a Chinese, also responds in similarly mangled English.AK: "You so smart. High class party? "Lead Bodyguard: "Big people coming chap-chap. Hong Kong people."
- Hitman with a Heart: AK, who wouldn’t hurt any innocents and is good to children. One scene (lifted from The Killer (1989)) have him going out of his way to save an innocent woman wounded during a shootout by driving her to the hospital and demanding for medical staff to treat her, before quickly leaving before anyone else can ask for his identity.
- Imagine Spot: Used in a scene where AK appears to be talking to Yu Ching, while Yu Ching is pondering on something and seemingly listening to him. As the camera pans out, it turns out Yu Ching didn't respond to AK because she's not there - AK is merely talking to himself.
- Leap and Fire: During the docks shootout, AK did a horizontal jump while sneaking on a group of mobsters, firing away and somehow managing to gun down all five of them before hitting the floor.
- Mexican Standoff: AK and Inspector Tang ends up pointing guns at each other during the final shootout
- Mission Control: Yue Ching plays this role to AK when the latter finds out he’s been Lured into a Trap and there are enemy mooks surrounding him. She hijacks a walkie-talkie on a nearby dead mook to talk to him and direct him out of the maze-like warehouse.
- Non-Indicative Name: Despite the protagonist being nicknamed AK, at no point did he use the infamous AK-47 assault rifle so commonly used in action movies. In fact, nobody in this movie uses this type of weapon at all.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The main character is simply called AK. It could be an acronym of sorts (Alex Khoo? Albert Kham?) but it was never confirmed onscreen.
- Reveal Shot: Right at the end of the movie, Yu Ching walks out of Mr. Kim’s office, before another shot shows Mr. Kim dead, shot in the chest, seemingly betrayed by Yu Ching. But after Yu Ching commits Suicide by Cop, a later shot reveals that Mr. Kim is actually in the middle of reaching for a hidden pistol under his desk, intending to execute Yu Ching in a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness moment. She just beats him to the draw a few seconds faster.
- Suicide by Cop: Yue Ching’s fate after pulling her gun on the police.
