Sat sau ji wong

Hitman is a good solid action comedy which calls upon Jet Li to do a little more acting than usual. The cast is good, with Eric Tsang standing out particularly, and Heiji Sato making a decent debut as the nasty Japanese guy (there seem to be a lot of these in Hong Kong movies). Action scenes are relatively thin on the ground but what's there is of a good standard - although you might expect better from "Hong Kong's greatest action export".

What's most refreshing about this film is its understatement. The plot isn't anything special but it's pretty water-tight, and the action is all pretty believable if unspectacular.

One thing I particularly liked about Hitman was the way that different languages were used throughout the film (without using dubbing as in The Black Sheep Affair). This contributes to the overall realistic feel of the film and is something I would like to see more on screen. This aside, there is nothing particularly innovative here, but nothing worth criticising either - a film I could recommend to people who don't usually enjoy foreign martial arts movies.