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This is the closest Hong Kong would get to a John Woo-style movie, arguably starting the Hong Kong Blood Opera sub-genre of action films, before ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'' officially kickstarts the concept and gets the ball rolling.
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This is the closest Hong Kong would get to a John Woo-style movie, arguably starting the Hong Kong Blood Opera sub-genre SubGenre of action films, before ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'' officially kickstarts the concept and gets the ball rolling.
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->"Coolie Killer is the kind of movie John Woo would spend the next 10 years trying to make."
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Ko Tat-fu (Charlie Chin) is a former coolie dock worker, who turns to the life of a hitman when times are tough, but after quitting the assassin business he have since established a shipping company based in Hong Kong's Sai Ying Pun district. But when a triad syndicate attempts a hostile takeover, killing four of his workers and threatening his business, Tat-fu have to pick up his guns again, while crossing paths with Hong Kong policeman Inspector Chung (Yueh Hua) also investigating the mob.
to:
Ko Tat-fu (Charlie Chin) is a former coolie dock worker, who turns to the life of a hitman when times are tough, but after quitting the assassin business he have since established a shipping company based in Hong Kong's Sai Ying Pun district. But when a triad syndicate attempts a hostile takeover, killing four of his workers and threatening his business, Tat-fu have to pick up his guns again, while crossing paths with Hong Kong policeman Inspector Chung (Yueh Hua) (Creator/YuehHua) also investigating the mob.
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---> "Coolie Killer is the kind of movie John Woo would spend the next 10 years trying to make." - '''HKMDB Review'''
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-->-- '''HKMDB Review'''
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* TwoPersonPoolParty: A lady assassin is shown in a Jacuzzi with a target, whom she is having sex with in the water, until she suddenly reveals her intention to kill him and shoves his head underwater. As he thrashes about trying to escape, Ho-yee then grabs a nearby wine glass and smashes it, using it to stab him dead with BloodIsSquickerInWater.
to:
* TwoPersonPoolParty: A lady assassin is shown in a Jacuzzi with a target, whom she is having sex with in the water, until she suddenly reveals her intention to kill him and shoves his head underwater. As he thrashes about trying to escape, Ho-yee she then grabs a nearby wine glass and smashes it, using it to stab him dead with BloodIsSquickerInWater.dead. With subsequent BloodIsSquickerInWater results.
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Creator/DannyLee co-stars as Tat-fu's superiors in the mob, though why didn't he portray a member of the police investigating the mob (given Lee's passion in playing policemen) is still an unanswered question.
to:
Creator/DannyLee co-stars as Tat-fu's superiors in the mob, though mob superior, although why didn't he portray a member of the police investigating the mob (given Lee's passion in playing policemen) is still an unanswered question.
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* BottomlessMagazines: Averted in the scene where Tat-fu confronts the BigBad, Boss Ding. Tat0fu’s weapon is a six-shot revolver, Ding have six bodyguards surrounding him, [[spoiler: so Ding guns down six guards using six shots before using a second concealed pistol to kill Boss Ding]].
to:
* BottomlessMagazines: Averted in the scene where Tat-fu confronts the BigBad, Boss Ding. Tat0fu’s Tat-fu’s weapon is a six-shot revolver, Ding have has six bodyguards surrounding him, [[spoiler: so Ding guns down the six guards using six shots before using a second concealed pistol to kill Boss Ding]].
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** Tat-fu’s brawl in a toiler with a GiantMook ends with him shoving his opponent into a tall water tank, drowning the mook.
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** Tat-fu’s brawl in a toiler toilet with a GiantMook ends with him shoving his opponent headfirst into a tall water tank, drowning the mook.
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* DressingAsTheEnemy: During the docks infiltration, Tat-fu disguises himself as one of the random mooks. Which is easy, because the mooks all wears generic-looing grey sweaters and safety helmets, which he can retrieve from an empty storeroom.
to:
* DressingAsTheEnemy: During the docks infiltration, Tat-fu disguises himself as one of the random mooks. Which is easy, because the mooks all wears generic-looing generic-looking grey sweaters and safety helmets, which he can retrieve from an empty storeroom.
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* GunStripping: Tat-fu, while alone in his apartment, is shown assembling a pistol and timing himself on how fast he could do it. Unfortunately, a group of killers on rollerblades chose this moment to attack, where he’s temporarily without a firearm due to his disassembled pistol.
to:
* GunStripping: Tat-fu, while alone in his apartment, is shown assembling a pistol and timing himself on how fast he could do it. Unfortunately, a group of killers on rollerblades roller-blades chose this moment to attack, where he’s temporarily without a firearm due to his disassembled pistol.
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* TwoPersonPoolParty: A lady assassin is shown in a jacuzzi with a target, whom she is having sex with in the water, until she suddenly reveals her intention to kill him and shoves his head underwater. As he thrashes about trying to escape, Ho-yee then grabs a nearby wine glass and smashes it, using it to stab him dead with BloodIsSquickerInWater.
to:
* TwoPersonPoolParty: A lady assassin is shown in a jacuzzi Jacuzzi with a target, whom she is having sex with in the water, until she suddenly reveals her intention to kill him and shoves his head underwater. As he thrashes about trying to escape, Ho-yee then grabs a nearby wine glass and smashes it, using it to stab him dead with BloodIsSquickerInWater.
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* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: [[spoiler: Tell that to Siu, who had won the final gunbattle against Tat-fu, but somehow feels the need to gloat about it while walking closer to his opponent]]. Tat-fu even lampshades it:
to:
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: [[spoiler: Tell that to Siu, who had won the final gunbattle gun battle against Tat-fu, but somehow feels the need to gloat about it while walking closer to his opponent]]. Tat-fu even lampshades it:
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* MexicanStandoff: [[spoiler; Tat-fu’s final confrontation with BigBad Boss Ding, where Ding had six of his mooks surrounding him, gloating that Tat-fu (whose current firearm is a six-shot revolver) is hopelessly outgunned. But he clearly underestimated Tat-fu, who responds by expertly firing while dodging, killing six of Ding’s bodyguards with exactly six shots, before getting close to Ding… at which point Tat-fu reveals he have a second gun in his coat and uses that to blow Ding’s brains out]].
to:
* MexicanStandoff: [[spoiler; [[spoiler: Tat-fu’s final confrontation with BigBad Boss Ding, where Ding had six of his mooks surrounding him, gloating that Tat-fu (whose current firearm is a six-shot revolver) is hopelessly outgunned. But he clearly underestimated Tat-fu, who responds by expertly firing while dodging, killing six of Ding’s bodyguards with exactly six shots, before getting close to Ding… at which point Tat-fu reveals he have a second gun in his coat and uses that to blow Ding’s brains out]].
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This is the closest Hong Kong would get to a John Woo-style movie, arguably starting the HeroicBloodshed sub-genre of action films, before ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'' officially kickstarts the concept of Hong Kong Blood Opera.
to:
This is the closest Hong Kong would get to a John Woo-style movie, arguably starting the HeroicBloodshed Hong Kong Blood Opera sub-genre of action films, before ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'' officially kickstarts the concept of Hong Kong Blood Opera.
and gets the ball rolling.
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* HeroicBloodshed: One that pre-dates ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'' by four years.
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* HeroicBloodshed: One A UrExample that pre-dates ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'' by four years.
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* AntiHero: Tat-fu may be the protagonist and AHitmanWithAHeart, but he’s not beyond forcing himself on Ho-yee, [[ForcefulWill kissing her against her will]], bedding her to show his feelings and pointing his gun on everyone he meets in a threatening manner.
to:
* AntiHero: Tat-fu may be the protagonist and AHitmanWithAHeart, HitmanWithAHeart, but he’s not beyond forcing himself on Ho-yee, [[ForcefulWill [[ForcefulKiss kissing her against her will]], bedding her to show his feelings and pointing his gun on everyone he meets in a threatening manner.
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Added DiffLines:
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cooliekiller1982_57_b.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou Charlie Chin Is About to Shoot]]... [[StabTheScorpion the bad guy sneaking up behind you]]!]]
---> "Coolie Killer is the kind of movie John Woo would spend the next 10 years trying to make." - '''HKMDB Review'''
''Coolie Killer'' is a 1982 Hong Kong action movie with [[HeroicBloodshed elements distinctively similar]] to the kind of movies Creator/JohnWoo would make, but it debuts way before Woo's quintessential entry into the genre, ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'', and is often cited as the ''real'' progenitor of heroic bloodshed cinema, kicking off a film-making trend that is still relevant in the action genre today.
Ko Tat-fu (Charlie Chin) is a former coolie dock worker, who turns to the life of a hitman when times are tough, but after quitting the assassin business he have since established a shipping company based in Hong Kong's Sai Ying Pun district. But when a triad syndicate attempts a hostile takeover, killing four of his workers and threatening his business, Tat-fu have to pick up his guns again, while crossing paths with Hong Kong policeman Inspector Chung (Yueh Hua) also investigating the mob.
This is the closest Hong Kong would get to a John Woo-style movie, arguably starting the HeroicBloodshed sub-genre of action films, before ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'' officially kickstarts the concept of Hong Kong Blood Opera.
Creator/DannyLee co-stars as Tat-fu's superiors in the mob, though why didn't he portray a member of the police investigating the mob (given Lee's passion in playing policemen) is still an unanswered question.
----
!!Tropes associated with this work:
* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler: Ho-yee’s fate. The last time audiences see her, she is looking mournfully the morning after having sex with Tat-fu, and Tat-fu suddenly pulls a gun on her, where she nods at him thinking she knows what will happen to her next. Cue gunshot]]. Since she is never seen or mentioned for the rest of the movie, whether [[spoiler: Tat-fu decide to silence her to LeaveNoWitnesses]] or spare her is unconfirmed.
* AntiHero: Tat-fu may be the protagonist and AHitmanWithAHeart, but he’s not beyond forcing himself on Ho-yee, [[ForcefulWill kissing her against her will]], bedding her to show his feelings and pointing his gun on everyone he meets in a threatening manner.
*BadassBiker: A group of EliteMooks on motorcycles shows up early in the film, brutally chasing down and killing a target also on a motorcycle, by stabbing a dozen barbecue forks through the fleeing target’s chest. At the climatic finale, Tat-fu had to battle against these guys, which he has a harder time trying to defeat than the usual mooks.
*BackToBackBadasses: Tat-fu and Inspector Chung in the alleyway shootout.
* BadGuysPlayPool: The two triad bosses, Boss Ding and Boss Choi, are shown playing pool when one of their underlings arrives to report of their failure to eliminate Tat-fu in the alleyway shootout.
* BlingBlingBang: Siu, TheDragon, uses a modified Beretta with a pearl-handled grip during his final showdown with Tat-fu.
* BottomlessMagazines: Averted in the scene where Tat-fu confronts the BigBad, Boss Ding. Tat0fu’s weapon is a six-shot revolver, Ding have six bodyguards surrounding him, [[spoiler: so Ding guns down six guards using six shots before using a second concealed pistol to kill Boss Ding]].
*TheCanKickedHim:
** Inspector Chung manage to get the information he needs by interrogating the old doctor in a loo, while the doctor is in the middle of reliving himself. The moment Chung leaves, another assassin catches up and shoots the doctor in the back, causing him to fall face-down in the toilet with his ass exposed.
** Tat-fu’s brawl in a toiler with a GiantMook ends with him shoving his opponent into a tall water tank, drowning the mook.
* CoveredWithScars: A scene with Tat-fu in his bedroom, changing his clothing, have close-ups on several vicious-looking scars criss-crossing his chest.
* DarkenedBuildingShootout: Tat-fu against a group of mooks in the hull of a ship at the docks, the only source of lighting being just a few oddly-placed windows and skylights.
* DeadlyDodging: During the docks shootout, Tat-fu had to jump into a hatch to escape the thugs after him. A thug follows him into the hatch… but fail to notice that there is a deep fall, a few hundred meters, behind the opening, and Tat-fu is actually on a platform just behind it. Said thug ends up falling screaming past Tat-fu all the way down.
*DressingAsTheEnemy: During the docks infiltration, Tat-fu disguises himself as one of the random mooks. Which is easy, because the mooks all wears generic-looing grey sweaters and safety helmets, which he can retrieve from an empty storeroom.
* FieryCoverup: Such as getting rid of two bodies by dousing them in gasoline and throwing a torch on it.
* {{Fingore}}: [[spoiler: Tat-fu’s final battle against Siu have both of them shooting at each other, only for Siu to shoot and sever Tat-fu’s entire thumb in graphic detail]]. With plenty of close-up on the severed stump dripping with blood.
* ForkFencing: While fighting hitmen in his apartment, Tat-fu uses a fork (he’s in the middle of dinner) and shoves it through a hitman’s shoulder. That hitman shows up a short while later, the fork still embedded in the same spot from earlier.
*GunsAkimbo: Tat-fu during his shootouts. A rival triad boss also uses dual silenced pistols.
* GunStripping: Tat-fu, while alone in his apartment, is shown assembling a pistol and timing himself on how fast he could do it. Unfortunately, a group of killers on rollerblades chose this moment to attack, where he’s temporarily without a firearm due to his disassembled pistol.
* HeroicBloodshed: One that pre-dates ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'' by four years.
* ImpromptuTracheotomy: [[spoiler: Siu’s death, having Tat-fu’s hook blade shoved into his throat, all the way through his chin. It kills him ''slowly'']].
*ImprovisedWeapon: In the alleyway shootout, Inspector Chung, out of bullets, managed to subdue a thug by emptying the contents of a fire extinguisher all over said thug, allowing Tat-tu to gun him down while he’s confused.
*InspectorJavert: Inspector Chung, investigating the triad killings, who will stop at nothing to have Tat-fu arrested.
* JobTitle: A twofer; Tat-fu used to be a coolie working in the docks, before desperate times forces him into becoming a killer. Hence the title referring to him is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
* MexicanStandoff: [[spoiler; Tat-fu’s final confrontation with BigBad Boss Ding, where Ding had six of his mooks surrounding him, gloating that Tat-fu (whose current firearm is a six-shot revolver) is hopelessly outgunned. But he clearly underestimated Tat-fu, who responds by expertly firing while dodging, killing six of Ding’s bodyguards with exactly six shots, before getting close to Ding… at which point Tat-fu reveals he have a second gun in his coat and uses that to blow Ding’s brains out]].
* NothingUpMySleeve: [[spoiler: In their final confrontation, Tat-fu gets crippled by Siu, who then gloats about finally besting Tat-fu while walking closer to execute Tat-fu from point-blank. But Siu didn’t notice Tat-fu have a hidden hook-blade under the sleeve of his other arm, which he quickly uses to get the drop on Siu, stabbing him through the jugular]].
* PostClimaxConfrontation: [[spoiler: After killing Boss Ding, Tat-fu still have to face Siu, the closest the movie has to TheDragon, in a one-on-one final duel]].
* PowerFist: In the climax, Tat-fu packs a knuckle-duster/knife combo besides his pistol, which assists him in taking down mooks from up close.
*PrettyLittleHeadshots: On the Yakuza leader and his girlfriend shot by Tat-fu in the opening scene. While the leader gets a few drops of his blood spilling out on his girlfriend, the girlfriend who is shot while fleeing on the other hand only gets a red dot on her forehead.
* ProfessionalKiller: Ko Tat-fu.
*RollerbladeGood: In one of his earlier action scenes in the first act, Tat-fu gets assaulted by rollerblading mooks in his apartment, some which he defeats, and have to flee through the corridor outside while being chased by those mooks. Tat-fu managed to subdue them briefly by turning a janitor’s trolley in the corridor around where mooks unable to stop themselves in time ends up crashing into the trolley, but just for a short while.
*StabTheScorpion: After the alleyway shootout, which have Tat-fu leaving Inspector Chung trapped while fleeing with Ho-yee, they end up by a set of stairs before Chung suddenly shouts at them to stop from an above balcony, gun pointed at the two. Inspector Chung fires a shot – killing a mook sneaking up on Tat-fu.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Between Tat-fu the killer, and Inspector Chung the cop investigating the killings.
* TrainingMontage: After recovering from his shoulder injury, Tat-fu have a rather lengthy training scene with Ho-yee assisting him, including climbing, push-ups, and shooting bottles.
* TwoPersonPoolParty: A lady assassin is shown in a jacuzzi with a target, whom she is having sex with in the water, until she suddenly reveals her intention to kill him and shoves his head underwater. As he thrashes about trying to escape, Ho-yee then grabs a nearby wine glass and smashes it, using it to stab him dead with BloodIsSquickerInWater.
*WeHaveToGetTheBulletOut: Played straight, in the rather painful-looking scene where Tat-fu have to remove a bullet lodged into his shoulders using a pair of curved tweezers.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: [[spoiler: Tell that to Siu, who had won the final gunbattle against Tat-fu, but somehow feels the need to gloat about it while walking closer to his opponent]]. Tat-fu even lampshades it:
--> '''Tat-fu''': "You've made a mistake... one that a true assassin shouldn't have made. You should have aimed for the head!"
----
[[caption-width-right:350:[[SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou Charlie Chin Is About to Shoot]]... [[StabTheScorpion the bad guy sneaking up behind you]]!]]
---> "Coolie Killer is the kind of movie John Woo would spend the next 10 years trying to make." - '''HKMDB Review'''
''Coolie Killer'' is a 1982 Hong Kong action movie with [[HeroicBloodshed elements distinctively similar]] to the kind of movies Creator/JohnWoo would make, but it debuts way before Woo's quintessential entry into the genre, ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'', and is often cited as the ''real'' progenitor of heroic bloodshed cinema, kicking off a film-making trend that is still relevant in the action genre today.
Ko Tat-fu (Charlie Chin) is a former coolie dock worker, who turns to the life of a hitman when times are tough, but after quitting the assassin business he have since established a shipping company based in Hong Kong's Sai Ying Pun district. But when a triad syndicate attempts a hostile takeover, killing four of his workers and threatening his business, Tat-fu have to pick up his guns again, while crossing paths with Hong Kong policeman Inspector Chung (Yueh Hua) also investigating the mob.
This is the closest Hong Kong would get to a John Woo-style movie, arguably starting the HeroicBloodshed sub-genre of action films, before ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'' officially kickstarts the concept of Hong Kong Blood Opera.
Creator/DannyLee co-stars as Tat-fu's superiors in the mob, though why didn't he portray a member of the police investigating the mob (given Lee's passion in playing policemen) is still an unanswered question.
----
!!Tropes associated with this work:
* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler: Ho-yee’s fate. The last time audiences see her, she is looking mournfully the morning after having sex with Tat-fu, and Tat-fu suddenly pulls a gun on her, where she nods at him thinking she knows what will happen to her next. Cue gunshot]]. Since she is never seen or mentioned for the rest of the movie, whether [[spoiler: Tat-fu decide to silence her to LeaveNoWitnesses]] or spare her is unconfirmed.
* AntiHero: Tat-fu may be the protagonist and AHitmanWithAHeart, but he’s not beyond forcing himself on Ho-yee, [[ForcefulWill kissing her against her will]], bedding her to show his feelings and pointing his gun on everyone he meets in a threatening manner.
*BadassBiker: A group of EliteMooks on motorcycles shows up early in the film, brutally chasing down and killing a target also on a motorcycle, by stabbing a dozen barbecue forks through the fleeing target’s chest. At the climatic finale, Tat-fu had to battle against these guys, which he has a harder time trying to defeat than the usual mooks.
*BackToBackBadasses: Tat-fu and Inspector Chung in the alleyway shootout.
* BadGuysPlayPool: The two triad bosses, Boss Ding and Boss Choi, are shown playing pool when one of their underlings arrives to report of their failure to eliminate Tat-fu in the alleyway shootout.
* BlingBlingBang: Siu, TheDragon, uses a modified Beretta with a pearl-handled grip during his final showdown with Tat-fu.
* BottomlessMagazines: Averted in the scene where Tat-fu confronts the BigBad, Boss Ding. Tat0fu’s weapon is a six-shot revolver, Ding have six bodyguards surrounding him, [[spoiler: so Ding guns down six guards using six shots before using a second concealed pistol to kill Boss Ding]].
*TheCanKickedHim:
** Inspector Chung manage to get the information he needs by interrogating the old doctor in a loo, while the doctor is in the middle of reliving himself. The moment Chung leaves, another assassin catches up and shoots the doctor in the back, causing him to fall face-down in the toilet with his ass exposed.
** Tat-fu’s brawl in a toiler with a GiantMook ends with him shoving his opponent into a tall water tank, drowning the mook.
* CoveredWithScars: A scene with Tat-fu in his bedroom, changing his clothing, have close-ups on several vicious-looking scars criss-crossing his chest.
* DarkenedBuildingShootout: Tat-fu against a group of mooks in the hull of a ship at the docks, the only source of lighting being just a few oddly-placed windows and skylights.
* DeadlyDodging: During the docks shootout, Tat-fu had to jump into a hatch to escape the thugs after him. A thug follows him into the hatch… but fail to notice that there is a deep fall, a few hundred meters, behind the opening, and Tat-fu is actually on a platform just behind it. Said thug ends up falling screaming past Tat-fu all the way down.
*DressingAsTheEnemy: During the docks infiltration, Tat-fu disguises himself as one of the random mooks. Which is easy, because the mooks all wears generic-looing grey sweaters and safety helmets, which he can retrieve from an empty storeroom.
* FieryCoverup: Such as getting rid of two bodies by dousing them in gasoline and throwing a torch on it.
* {{Fingore}}: [[spoiler: Tat-fu’s final battle against Siu have both of them shooting at each other, only for Siu to shoot and sever Tat-fu’s entire thumb in graphic detail]]. With plenty of close-up on the severed stump dripping with blood.
* ForkFencing: While fighting hitmen in his apartment, Tat-fu uses a fork (he’s in the middle of dinner) and shoves it through a hitman’s shoulder. That hitman shows up a short while later, the fork still embedded in the same spot from earlier.
*GunsAkimbo: Tat-fu during his shootouts. A rival triad boss also uses dual silenced pistols.
* GunStripping: Tat-fu, while alone in his apartment, is shown assembling a pistol and timing himself on how fast he could do it. Unfortunately, a group of killers on rollerblades chose this moment to attack, where he’s temporarily without a firearm due to his disassembled pistol.
* HeroicBloodshed: One that pre-dates ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'' by four years.
* ImpromptuTracheotomy: [[spoiler: Siu’s death, having Tat-fu’s hook blade shoved into his throat, all the way through his chin. It kills him ''slowly'']].
*ImprovisedWeapon: In the alleyway shootout, Inspector Chung, out of bullets, managed to subdue a thug by emptying the contents of a fire extinguisher all over said thug, allowing Tat-tu to gun him down while he’s confused.
*InspectorJavert: Inspector Chung, investigating the triad killings, who will stop at nothing to have Tat-fu arrested.
* JobTitle: A twofer; Tat-fu used to be a coolie working in the docks, before desperate times forces him into becoming a killer. Hence the title referring to him is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
* MexicanStandoff: [[spoiler; Tat-fu’s final confrontation with BigBad Boss Ding, where Ding had six of his mooks surrounding him, gloating that Tat-fu (whose current firearm is a six-shot revolver) is hopelessly outgunned. But he clearly underestimated Tat-fu, who responds by expertly firing while dodging, killing six of Ding’s bodyguards with exactly six shots, before getting close to Ding… at which point Tat-fu reveals he have a second gun in his coat and uses that to blow Ding’s brains out]].
* NothingUpMySleeve: [[spoiler: In their final confrontation, Tat-fu gets crippled by Siu, who then gloats about finally besting Tat-fu while walking closer to execute Tat-fu from point-blank. But Siu didn’t notice Tat-fu have a hidden hook-blade under the sleeve of his other arm, which he quickly uses to get the drop on Siu, stabbing him through the jugular]].
* PostClimaxConfrontation: [[spoiler: After killing Boss Ding, Tat-fu still have to face Siu, the closest the movie has to TheDragon, in a one-on-one final duel]].
* PowerFist: In the climax, Tat-fu packs a knuckle-duster/knife combo besides his pistol, which assists him in taking down mooks from up close.
*PrettyLittleHeadshots: On the Yakuza leader and his girlfriend shot by Tat-fu in the opening scene. While the leader gets a few drops of his blood spilling out on his girlfriend, the girlfriend who is shot while fleeing on the other hand only gets a red dot on her forehead.
* ProfessionalKiller: Ko Tat-fu.
*RollerbladeGood: In one of his earlier action scenes in the first act, Tat-fu gets assaulted by rollerblading mooks in his apartment, some which he defeats, and have to flee through the corridor outside while being chased by those mooks. Tat-fu managed to subdue them briefly by turning a janitor’s trolley in the corridor around where mooks unable to stop themselves in time ends up crashing into the trolley, but just for a short while.
*StabTheScorpion: After the alleyway shootout, which have Tat-fu leaving Inspector Chung trapped while fleeing with Ho-yee, they end up by a set of stairs before Chung suddenly shouts at them to stop from an above balcony, gun pointed at the two. Inspector Chung fires a shot – killing a mook sneaking up on Tat-fu.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Between Tat-fu the killer, and Inspector Chung the cop investigating the killings.
* TrainingMontage: After recovering from his shoulder injury, Tat-fu have a rather lengthy training scene with Ho-yee assisting him, including climbing, push-ups, and shooting bottles.
* TwoPersonPoolParty: A lady assassin is shown in a jacuzzi with a target, whom she is having sex with in the water, until she suddenly reveals her intention to kill him and shoves his head underwater. As he thrashes about trying to escape, Ho-yee then grabs a nearby wine glass and smashes it, using it to stab him dead with BloodIsSquickerInWater.
*WeHaveToGetTheBulletOut: Played straight, in the rather painful-looking scene where Tat-fu have to remove a bullet lodged into his shoulders using a pair of curved tweezers.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: [[spoiler: Tell that to Siu, who had won the final gunbattle against Tat-fu, but somehow feels the need to gloat about it while walking closer to his opponent]]. Tat-fu even lampshades it:
--> '''Tat-fu''': "You've made a mistake... one that a true assassin shouldn't have made. You should have aimed for the head!"
----
