Ji dan chuet jo

Well, it only took me 31 years after its release to actually get to sit down to watch the Hong Kong action movie titled "Bullet For Hire" (aka "Zi dan chu zu").

So was its worth the wait? Well, not overly so. Now, don't get me wrong here, because "Bullet For Hire" certainly is a watchable movie, and proved adequate enough for what it was. It was not, however, really a contender to the numerous many other action movies to make it out of the Hong Kong cinema in the 1990s.

The storyline told in "Bullet For Hire" was pretty straight forward, although it seemed a bit shallow at times, as if writer and director Chun-Man Yuen didn't really delve fully into the material required to produce a wholesome storyline. Again, it was watchable for an action movie, but the storyline just lacked depth.

Needless to say that it was my fascination with the Hong Kong cinema that first and foremost lured me in to watch "Bullet For Hire". But the fact that Simon Yam also starred in the movie definitely helped lure me in. And I will say he performed adequately in this movie; not his best work, but good enough. And he was joined in the lead role with Jacky Cheung.

"Bullet For Hire" feels like one of those action movies where quantity weighed more important than quality. It was a shame though, because there was potential for something more than the lukewarm mediocre result that the movie ended up as being.

My rating of "Bullet For Hire" lands on a very mediocre five out of ten stars.