The Big Hit

Director: Kirk Wong

1998 / 91min / 35mm

Kirk Wong, director of classics of Hong Kong Heroic Bloodshed filmmaking like Crime Story (1993) and Organized Crime & Triad Bureau (1994), made his entrée into Hollywood—well, actually Ontario, where The Big Hit was shot—with this wham-bam John Woo co-produced action comedy. Mark Wahlberg stars as a stressed-out, Maalox-chugging contract killer who develops a conscience during a kidnapping job gone awry, starts to fall for his captive (China Chow), and has to go on the run from former hitman colleague Lou Diamond Phillips. Unhinged HK-style action with a drizzle of post-Tarantino cheekiness make this a perfect ’90s time capsule.