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K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
- 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Original lossless Cantonese and English mono audio, plus alternate mono mixes for both languages
- Optional English subtitles for the Cantonese soundtrack and English for the deaf and hard of hearing subtitles for the English soundtrack
- Brand new audio commentary with Asian cinema expert James Mudge
- Handling a Heist, a brand new interview with director John Woo
- Heists and Lows, a brand new interview with producer Terence Chang
- Thoughts About Thievery, a brand new interview with co-writer Clifton Ko
- Stealing Some Shots, a brand new interview with director of photography Poon Hang-Sang
- Art of the Steal, a brand new interview with editor David Wu
- Hong Kong Confidential, a brand new appreciation by author and film historian Grady Hendrix
- Once a Star, Always an Icon, a brand new appreciation of star Leslie Cheung by Hong Kong cinema expert Frank Djeng
- Up Close and Personal, an archival interview with John Woo
- Brothers in Arms, an archival interview with Terence Chang
- Archival interview with actor Kenneth Tsang
- Original theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sam Hadley
- Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by Priscilla Page

I get that this was Woo's attempt to recalibrate following the punishing negativity and emotional excesses of Bullet in the Head, and he assembled the right story and some appropriately charismatic stars. But Once a Thief didn't work for me. Woo never quite manages the delicate touch the material needs. The comedy is crass and broad, pitched at children like a lot of HK comedy, while the action never finds the ideal balance. Woo either overstages things, like the car chase choreographed like a dance, or he goes to ludicrous lengths to avoid the consequences of the sheer violence on display. Yes, Woo generally expects his audience to suspend a lot of disbelief in his characters' ability to dodge bullets, but he strains that considerably here, where characters will stand in empty plazas with nothing but plastic folding chairs for cover and still manage to avoid taking a bullet from the dozen or so men with machine guns turning all visible objects to powder.

Everything is either slightly too muscular or slightly too shouty to catch the tone Woo's going for, a breezy, charming romp ala Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief. I think Johnny To carries it off better in Sparrow, an elegant, romantic heist movie. Woo's brimming with too much burning passion to carry that light, frothy touch. The kind of grand elemental themes Woo favours--love, honour, betrayal, brotherhood, things of that sort--work better in stories of people killing and dying for their beliefs, sacrificing themselves and others on the altar of noble emotions. Light action comedies not so much.

Better than A Better Tomorrow II, but not up to Woo's masterpieces: A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Bullet in the Head, and Hard Boiled.

I’d really hoped we might be able to clear the hour-long Sunset in Paris (aka Leslie Cheung Special ‘89) as a bonus feature given its relevance to this film - shot on location in Paris two years earlier, it’s basically an extended music video for Cheung’s latest album, with Cherie Chung co-starring (as well as Maggie Cheung) and even a cameo from John Woo! (He didn’t direct, though.) Sadly, though TVB were up for licensing it, we would have had to clear all the songs featured for home video, which was well beyond what we had the time and budget to do. Still, I recommend watching it on YouTube, or better yet, TVBAnywhere if you can access it.

Has anyone seen Woo's late 90s Canadian tv remake? It would've been fun to see that included, but I only say that fancifully (I have no reason to think it was even feasible).

Mr Sausage wrote:Has anyone seen Woo's late 90s Canadian tv remake? It would've been fun to see that included, but I only say that fancifully (I have no reason to think it was even feasible).

I had a Canadian friend at University when i did my PhD and he loved the show, iirc he hadn’t seen the film (which i had and remember really enjoying).
I can’t remember though if I ever saw the TV show. I think he had a download, but 26 years later can’t be sure if I watched it with him…

I’ve seen the original telemovie/pilot, though it was back in the late 90’s so can’t offer up much. I remember it being pretty underwhelming, and recall it being no better than Blackjack or the recent, terrible, remake of The Killer. Despite who was directing it, I’m not sure it was any better or worse than the many similar North American shows being made around that time.

That said, very much looking forward to seeing the 1991 film, which has long been out of reach for me, regardless of how it stands amongst Woo’s contemporaneous productions.

I definitely felt the criticisms Mr. Sausage makes of the original Once a Thief when I first watched it, on VHS, back in the '90s, and it was probably for that reason that I tended not to want to see the film again later on. I ended up changing my mind, though, after seeing it in a packed theater, full of people who seemed mostly to be seeing it for the first time. In that environment, everything worked: the humor seemed lighter, while cutting a clearer thruline than I had previously seen throughout the picture. The action scenes seemed crisp and showy, and the audience laughed along with everything and cheered all the stunts. I had also seen a lot more New Year's comedies by this theatrical viewing, and in the context of those pell–mell, all-things-to-all-people productions, it seems to me one of the most narratively focused and satisfying pictures. I think Leslie's role gives the movie a thread of an emotional thruline, while the movie ends up being a great demo of Chow Yun-Fat's really goofy improvisational humor. At least, in the context of that public viewing, everything seemed charming, quick and thrilling, whereas in the past I saw it as a weaker mishmash of ideas. And if Cherie Chung doesn't get a chance to fill out a more Catherine-like role in the Jules-et-Jim trio, it does end up underlining how little women get a chance to fulfill interesting roles in Woo's movies. Truly, this would have been a real chance for that. On the other hand, the light-hearted parody of homosocial bonding Chow and Leslie get up to in the thefts was probably the highlight of the screening for the audience (the toasting, the football plays, etc.). The audience really responded as well to the endless series of reversals at the end of the film, revealing Chow's character as one thing, then another, then something else, then assigning him one fate, then another, then another in quick succession. At that screening I'd say the picture hit people exactly right, and I felt I learned to appreciate the film much more than I had done. Thematically I still don't see it as very clear or complex, but it felt instead like a series of sketches and reveries on cinema, on the kind of dreams of escape which animated lots of the Hong Kong New Wave films (with its heroes expressing a particularly local Hong Kong cleverness at surviving in an international context again and again throughout). In fact, Sparrow and Once a Thief would make an exceptional double-feature, looking at Hong Kongers of the 90s who escape to Europe, all the while maintaining a shrewd, local sort of resourcefulness in a foreign setting, and Hong Kongers who stayed past the handover, who apply a particular form of local shrewdness in an environment where that pursuit seems to be disappearing, alongside its' local context.

That's my little pitch for people to give the movie a shot.