Review | The Killer movie review: John Woo’s gender-flipped remake of his action classic is a dud

Plans to remake John Woo Yu-sum’s 1989 action masterpiece The Killer have been circling in Hollywood for decades, with some of the industry’s biggest names at one time attached. Thirty-five years on, a gender-flipped reimagining finally appears, with Woo himself directing.

There are doves, a church and a blinded club singer, but beyond these cosmetic similarities, little of Woo’s seminal bullet ballet remains.

The Killer is often credited with bringing Woo to Hollywood’s attention, and an English-language remake was swiftly put into development. Studios were eager to profit from the original’s stellar reputation, but were apparently wary that the film’s overwrought tale of heroic bloodshed might come off as homoerotic to Western audiences.

The decision was made, therefore, to gender-flip one of the protagonists, since which time everyone from Michelle Yeoh to Lupita Nyong’o has been considered to remedy this frankly non-existent issue.