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Customer Reviews of The Mission

The Mission, an alternative to the action genre.
Everyone loves a great shootout in their action film right? How about four to five? Johnny To directs this clever and thoughful film about five men hired to guard a highly-ranked Triad boss. Each man has his own story and thus makes this action film a character driven one as well. Although the film has only 81 minutes to enthrall you, every minute is worth it. The acting, especially Francis Ng's and Anthony Wong's performances are sleek, stylish and humorous. Although the DVD isn't loaded with extras, it's the best format-- especially since the VHS version will have you using magnifying glasses when reading the subtitles. An amazing action film at any rate and a must see for any Hong Kong film fan or pure gangster movie buff.

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A warning about the DVD subtitles
I loved the film, but a word of warning about the english subtitles. The translation is very strange in parts - substitution of completely wrong words with a similar spelling. Also the subtitles linger only just long enough for you to be able to read them if you happen to be looking at the bottom of the screen waiting in anticipation.

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One Good Reason To Start Watching HK Action Flicks
Nearly every frame of this film is celluloid done perfect.

Much like a violent twist of THE USUAL SUSPECTS, THE MISSION tells the story of the best hitmen brought together to protect a crime boss from rival assassination. They do succeed after some typical gunplay, but the story isn't quite over as a set of circumstances -- one of them slept with the boss's wife -- sets in motion the final third of the story, pitting killer against killer in a bold, dramatic finish.

What works here, though, isn't so much the action or the acting ... it's the film's construction. The scenes are photographed so well, edited so wonderfully, and laced together with such ease that you hardly notice the ticking of the clock inside your head as long scenes of drawn out suspense go by. The viewer gets drawn up into the structure of a scene -- the way the killers stand poised ready for action, the way the men start to bond with one another in clever little ways of playing with a wadded up a piece of paper -- rather than pointless, meandering dialogue. The moments of silence in this film are just as powerful and important to plot development and progression as are the action pieces.

Any serious student of film should sit through several viewings of THE MISSION. There is plenty to learn here that isn't a part of American action or suspense films on an artistic basis.

One truly great little nifty surprise.