Once A Thief (Taiwan version) DVD Region All

Orphaned at an early age, these three had no choice but to turn fabulous and make a living pinching high-priced art from frustrated Frenchies. Betrayed by their evil adoptive father, the high life takes a turn for the worse and the three wind up returning to Hong Kong with Chow Yun-fat in a wheelchair. Leslie turns to low-calibre crime to support them as their Cary Grant charms are tossed on the junk heap of history by triad meanies with eyes only for the bottom line.

John Woo is a populist director who turned out over twenty comedies before discovering his signature action style with A Better Tomorrow, and this might be his most populist action movie yet. Compared to ostensibly mass market action fare like Mission Impossible 2, the bike stunts (by rolling steel king, Remy Julien) are fresher, the characterizations are more committed and, to be perfectly French about it, the mise-en-scene is deeper. Chow Yun-fat wears his iconic status as lightly as a Hermes scarf, and the movie focuses on he and young star Leslie Cheung, while Cherie Chung gets relegated to the sidelines to watch and worry over the two boys, much as her Peking Opera Blues co-star Sally Yeh did in Woo's The Killer.

The movie characters - Joe, Jim and Cherie - are so reliant on their star personalities - Chow, Leslie and Cherie - that the movie very rapidly becomes a meta-commentary on acting, the star system, stage magic and performance. The heists stand in for movies: some flops, some well-crafted hits. Chow Yun-fat and Leslie Cheung are impressed with each others' work: Chow with the way Leslie slays the men dead (mostly security guards) and Leslie is suitably appreciative of the older Chow's technical craft (mainly with bombs and lock-picking). Everything about Chow is a performance - he imitates Bruce Lee when he fights, he gets shot in both legs just like Mark Gor in A Better Tomorrow, at one point he even pulls Leslie aside, "Did I make you cry and sad?" he gleefully asks. He does charity work, driving up prices at charity auctions, much like the charity work Chow Yun-fat does in real life.

by Grady Hendrix

Chow Yun-Fat, Cherie Chung and Leslie Cheung play three orphans who grew up together under the auspices of adopted father Kenneth Tsang Kong. Tsang also taught them how to be thieves, and despite falling in with kindly cop Paul Chu Kong, the three grew up to be high-tech, high-stakes art thieves who terrorize the French Riveria and, presumably, museum curators everywhere. Chow eventually wants to leave the life, but their final score goes awry when a double-cross occurs. Chow appears to perish in a car accident, and Cherie is heartbroken at losing her lover.

Still, Leslie and Cherie must go on without Chow, and eventually begin their own romantic liaison. Big surprise: Chow survived, though he's now confined to wheelchair. Despite that setback, and the newly-complicated romantic tension, the trio go about planning a new heist, though things aren't what they appear to be.

Since this is a John Woo film, there is some gunplay, but it's remarkably bloodless and kid-friendly. There are some nice acrobatics and slow-motion, but the usual shots of bullets ripping through bodies are gone. Instead, we get shots of Leslie Cheung's hair flowing in slow-motion, or Chow Yun-Fat making fart jokes. Yep, there's comedy aplenty in this John Woo flick, and a lot of it simply makes no sense at all. During a heist, Chow and Leslie do a limbo underneath a laser security beam. Why? No reason at all. Stephen Chow would be proud.

With the abundance of strange comedy, this film can be as alienating as they come. However, Woo makes sure to provide his usual melodrama and well-choreographed set pieces (the heist scenes are actually not bad), and his suggestive homoeroticism doesn't get ignored, either. Woo throws in something for everyone, but the result is uneven and filled with ill-fitting variety. It's like your typical Lunar New Year comedy. Or a salad.

Given all that, the film can only be described with one phrase: mixed bag. Once a Thief is a movie of many different parts, and none of them really belong in the same film. The gorgeous foreign locations and attractive cinematography recall Alfred Hitchock/Cary Grant collaborations. The three stars of Once a Thief are right at home in that setting (with Cherie Chung winning the glamour award), but sophomoric humor and just plain weirdness recalls Wong Jing/Stephen Chow mo lei tau. There is a great deal of fun to be had here, and the utter bizarreness can be fascinating, but is this really a good film? For comparison's sake, consider this: did Bruce Willis' Hudson Hawk give you the uncontrollable giggles? If so, then Once a Thief will prove worthy of your time.

by Kozo - LoveHKFilm.com