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Best movie of this year hands down!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

An expert female assassin, with no past, name or ties, finds herself attracted to a young cook. Upon trying his noodles(that isn't a euphemism; get your mind out of the gutter), she finds them to be steaming... heating up her body, in spite of her noted coldness(literal and figurative). A relationship between the two grows... however, her trade is not one you leave easily, and the personal bodyguard of one of her marks is in the process of tracking her down. Sound familiar? Yeah. This isn't necessarily all that original. It's a mix of two sets of genres... romantic drama and tense action-thriller. The marriage is slightly oddly matched, and both partners suffer somewhat. There's love and psychology for the women, and us guys will come for the well-choreographed, John Woo lite shoot-outs. Much of the editing and beautiful cinematography is stylized(their hairdos would get in the way of the gunplay in real life). The sweetness and humanity work, and barely get into sap(perhaps because of the stark and effective contrast with the treatment of the killing... this is remorseless in its nihilism). Unfortunately, we never completely connect with the lead, because of how emotionally distant she is. The acting is pretty good. Wu manages to make the heartlessness and the more approachable aspects of her role play convincingly. There could be a greater amount of character development, the "temperature" theme isn't fully explored, and the plot is overall fairly minimal... you won't always know who is who, or who ranks above who, or, indeed, why exactly the man whose death is the catalyst was taken out. This is just shy of 80 minutes, and I can imagine it was cut down(for pacing reasons?). The best of this is the beginning and end(awesome duel), with the middle being weaker. I don't know if my version was dubbed; it had what may have been Korean and Cantonese, and then a little in English. The performances were mostly solid in all three. There is a lot of disturbing content, brutal, bloody, at times gory, violence, and brief nudity/sexuality in this. The DVD comes with a trailer. I recommend this to anyone who can imagine enjoying this. 7/10

The description of Beyond Hypothermia really sounded a lot more interesting on the back of the movie box than the movie turned out to be. It is a very stylish thriller about a deadly assassin who constantly dreams of having a normal life with a husband and children, but it really doesn't do anything new in the genre. My favorite thing about the movie was the way it is cut together, especially many of the death scenes. The first assassination in the movie, for example, shows what you normally see in such a scene, the close up of the scope with the killer's eye behind it, the victim going about his business oblivious that he's in someone's crosshairs, the slow motion, etc. But the actual death avoids showing the man getting shot. Instead, we see the two guys behind him pouring wine out of a wine bottle that suddenly explodes (a curious occurrence that they mysteriously respond to with laughter). As I was watching the movie, I was reminded of the stylish originality of movies like The Way of the Gun, as well as a few other foreign films that I've seen recently in which massive numbers of people get shot, such as the disturbing but hugely impressive Battle Royale, and the equally disturbing and probably even more impressive Portuguese film City of God. One thing that I really liked about this movie, as well as the ones I just mentioned, is that even though an enormous number of people are shot dead, it is not done in such a relentless way that you completely stop caring. No, you're not going to jump out of your seat every time some extra gets shot, but watch a movie like John Woo's Killer and you'll see how large numbers of gunshot killings can be numbing to the point of boredom. Not exactly what you would expect from John Woo, who otherwise is a very skilled action director (except for that Windtalkers mess). Here's one thing I didn't understand, though. At one point in the movie there's a lot of bad guys chasing the god girl through oncoming traffic, and the bad guys keep getting hit by cars. Now, it is to be expected that people are going to be hit by cars when they're sprinting into oncoming traffic, but these guys are chasing after the woman that is supposed to be Japan's deadliest assassin, and they don't even have the sense not to run right in the middle of lanes of traffic when they're chasing her down the street! No wonder they can't catch her!It's true that the movie doesn't cover much new ground, but it is short enough to remain worth watching, if only for its style. Sadly, I made the mistake of renting the dubbed version, and I am fairly confident that the original film with subtitles is even more enjoyable. I don't know what it is about dubbed movies, they just seem so fake with someone so obviously voicing over the lines. Look for the original language version, because it's worth checking out.

For a movie centered around some really well down action sequences, this movie has a good deal of emotional depth. It goes for that La Femme Nikita style of making an assassin both lethal and fascinating but trapped and vulnerable. It is fascinating to see this killer's growing attachment to a simple noodle shop owner, and the movie does a good job of balancing its blood with its heart, supplying both exciting and touching moments.But the movie also feels like it cut corners and it relies to much on movie romance clichés. Noodle shop guy's actions towards the end make utterly no sense based on what has happened so far, making the final, fascinating scene feel contrived. Even the hypothermia concept feels like it is just sort of tossed in there because it's a cool idea but then never used for anything in particular. I would not be surprised if I learned the script had half an hour of plot and character development chopped for pacing, as that would explain a lot.This is a very good movie, and I took a while to decide whether to give it a 7 or an 8, but it gets a 7 because it just feels like corners were cut and the movie was not what it might have been. But well worth seeing.

This typical and yet unusual action film from Hong Kong belongs to the finest of its genre. It boosts breathtaking action, great drama and a catching story about a female killer, much more convincing than in the (theoretically comparable) much weaker "Naked Killer".Outstanding cinematography add to the haunting atmosphere, and a strong melancholy touch makes the film even more impressive. Not to forget the splendidly choreographed action sequences that are staged like they do it only in Asia.Easily on par with any of John Woo's masterly Hong Kong movies, this one is a must see for all admirers of Asian cinema and action in general.