Peace Hotel

This movie is very unique. Just the idea of a Chinese Spaghetti Western is mind-boggling. In this movie, Chow Yun-Fat plays "The Killer." He sets up a hotel as a refuge for people on the run. Their safety within the confines of the hotel is guaranteed. When a mysterious girl, played by Cecilia Yip, comes to hotel, his ideals and the sanctity of the hotel becomes threatened as her enemies wish to violate the rules of the hotel.

There are very good performances in this film. Chow Yun-Fat does an excellent job as "The Killer." Cecilia Yip is a very strong and bold female character. As the relationship of the two develop, I actually sympathised and liked the two characters.

The action scenes are well done, for the most part. The machine gun attack and the final sword fight were very well done. The other sword fights were somewhat blurry. Ching Siu-Tung should have been on hand to choreograph those scenes.

I also thought that the end was very powerful and emotional. It even rivals the ending of The Killer. In the end, this movie is worth seeing not only for its action sequences, but for the great performances by the two leads. This movie is not as good as his Woo films, but it is still a powerful movie.

Peace Hotel is a western set in China in the 1930's and is probably best described as a cross between 'A Fistful Of Dollars' and 'The Killer'. Chow Yun-Fat (in his last film in Hong Kong before going to America) plays a retired killer who opens the 'Peace Hotel' where people can hide from their enemies with no questions asked. He teams up with Cecilia Yip with whom he had last starred with in the gripping World War II drama 'Hong Kong 1941' (1984). She plays a confidence trickster who is wanted by a large and dangerous gang that threaten to destroy the refuge to get to her. Both are excellent in this film and have a great on-screen chemistry.

The music by Healthy Poon and Cacine Wong is effective and in a similar vein to the Ennio Morricone score in the spaghetti westerns and the theme song by Alex San (music),Erica Lee (lyricist)and Cass Pang Ling (performer) fully deserved its win at the 1996 Hong Kong Film awards.

Those watching this film expecting highly choreographed gun-play sequences due to the presence of John Woo as executive producer will be disappointed as the action is infrequent and is filmed in a confusing style that probably better represents the confusion of a real fight. Peace Hotel is more character-driven than action orientated anyway and is all the better for it. Written by Chow Yun-Fat and Wai Ka-Fai (who is probably best known for co-directing 'Fulltime Killer' (2001)) there is some great dialogue and more character development than is usual for a film in the genre.

Peace Hotel may not be as good as some of Chow Yun-Fat's earlier work with John Woo, but it makes an attempt to be different and deserves credit for that.

Chow Yun-Fat in the wild west? Why not?

Known as "The Killer" yet again, Chow commits mass murder in a blind rage, and then vanishes from the murder scene to build the "Peace Hotel," a supposedly sacred place for crooks and degenerates to run to if they're on the run from the law or any criminal element, and have nowhere else to go.

That all changes when a woman played by Cecilia Yip arrives claiming to be Chow's long-lost wife. I tell you, I've never heard more lies spewed forth from a movie character in such a short amount of time until I saw this movie. It's just lie after lie with this one, and she's persistent, too. Chow never falls for these sob stories of hers, and quickly debunks them as the myths they are, usually following up with a smack upside the head with a paper fan or a broom or something.

Then a gang arrives, apparently after her for killing one of their bosses, but Chow's code won't allow her to be killed by them. No matter. It's obvious and inevitable that he'll take up the sword once again.

As a comedy-drama, Peace Hotel works in a few ways, but not many. It makes for an unconvincing romance story. And as an action story, it's abysmal. The swordfights are some of the worst-edited sequences I've ever seen. Imagine Paul Greengrass filming a man swinging a flaming torch (and later, a sword) through countless bad guys. Now imagine Olivier Megaton, fresh from Taken 3, editing that footage. Now imagine that footage sped up. Yeah. It's bad.

The single shootout sequence, however, is fantastic, and a major contrast to the editing style applied to the swordfights. I suspect John Woo, who helped produce this film, took over the director's chair for this sequence, because I can't see how the same director who did such poor swordfight sequences could have done such a grand shootout like the one on display here. It's the only plausible explanation.

Overall, the acting is corny and not all that great, although Chow seems to really give it his all and seems to be the only one really trying to churn out a decent performance. The comedy works, sometimes, but often falls flat. The plot twists are silly. The music is distractingly poor sometimes. I think the second half, with the exception of the shootout, is where things really started to fall apart. Unfortunate, because this could have been better had it been handled with more care.

Chow-Yun Fat stars in this Hong Kong spaghetti western as 'The Killer', an unstoppable bounty hunter and mercenary who has decided to retire after his wife's death. Setting up the 'Peace Hotel', the Killer offers sanctuary to anyone who is on the run from someone who wants them dead. But his altruism is tested to the limit when a young female swindler (played by Cecilia Yip) arrives, on the run from a gang that wants her dead. Soon the Killer is forced into an unpleasant choice - to send her on her way, or violate his own rules and risk an all-out war with the gang.

Well directed, good casting and decent acting. I like the narration at the start telling the story of him you get to know a bit about his character and why he did the thunga he did.

The action is decent but ruined by poor editing. Good film as i said but could have been much better.

Overall a decent Western action film.

Peace Hotel is a very original and very well acted vehicle written and starring Chow Yun Fat. In this Chinese western , CYF is a man known as The Killer who in a fit of rage slaughtered 200 people and opened a hotel where fugitives can find amnesty and live peaceful lives under The Killer 's protection. No one dares to mess around there until the gorgeous Cecelia Yip shows up with an army of ruffians in her pursuit . The volatile chemistry between Cecelia Yip and Chow Yun Fat is excellent and the performance and presence of CYF is top notch. The story as good as it is builds to action sequences that don't do the film justice . The action scenes are a blur and while it may establish The Killer is totally badass, it is my one complainant about the film . If the action was up to par with the story and acting , Peace Hotel could hold a candle to classics like The Killer and A Better Tomorrow. Even so , Peace Hotel is a very good film and I definitely recommend it.