JOHN WOO'S ONCE A THIEF
US, 1996, 95 minutes, Colour.
Sandrine Holt, Ivan Sergei.
Directed by John Woo.
John Woo's Once a Thief is a pilot telemovie for a successful television series. It has a Hong Kong background but moves to North America, especially Vancouver.
John Woo had had a celebrated career in the Hong Kong film industry, not only with martial arts films, but especially with police thrillers, for example The Killer. He transferred to the United States in the early '90s, making Hard Target with Jean Claude van Damme. He then made this telemovie but went on to cinema success with Broken Arrow and Face/Off. He then moved to direct Mission Impossible 2.
Sandrine Holt appeared in Bruce Beresford's Black Robe. Ivan Sergei had a quite different role in Don Roos's The Opposite of Sex.
The film is formulaic material, a presentation of the power of the triads, their influence in North America. It is also very much a conventional police thriller.
1. Entertainment value of the film? Pilot for a television series? The appeal of the Hong Kong background, the triads, police thriller?
2. The Hong Kong locations? Vancouver locations? Special effects, fights, car chases? Musical score?
3. The title and its reference to Mack and Leanne?
4. The Hong Kong story: the opening with the gala event, Mack and his disrupting it, the stealing of the computer disk? The techniques for the heist? Michael and his father? Dominating, Michael wanting to meet up to his father's expectations? His father and his liking for Mack and Leanne as his daughter? The promise of the Rembrandt picture to Mack? The setting up of the factory, the gun-running and Mack to supervise?
5. The romantic elements: Mack and Leanne? Michael and his jealousy, the arranged marriage with Leanne? Mack's reaction, stealing the money? The confrontation, fight and shootouts, the exploding of the factory? The father and Michael bent on revenge? The seeming deaths? Yet Leanne disappearing and Mack being imprisoned?
6. The transition to Vancouver? Mack in jail, the visit of the director, her proposition, his acceptance, training to work with the police? The chance seeing of Leanne? His eluding his guard, going to the apartment, the fight with Victor? Discovery of the truth? The red and white roses?
7. Michael and his arrival in Vancouver? Again measuring up to his father's expectations? The visit to Mr Graves, the proposition, Graves' refusal? The threat of antagonism? Murders? The police wanting to find out the truth?
8. Mack, Leanne and Victor making a team? Techniques, Mack and his brashness in the hotel, Victor's exasperation and insinuating himself, seeming to be on the take? Leanne and her police work? The domination of the director?
9. Graves, betrayal, murder? The power of the Chinese?
10. The build-up to the confrontation? Mack and his taking risks, the Rembrandt? The confrontation with Michael, the fight, the chase, the wharf? The confrontation with Victor? The truth?
11. The finale with Leanne between Mack and Victor? The inconclusive ending as regards the romance?
12. Popular TV entertainment themes of crime, police work, stunts, danger - with a touch of the social consciousness, especially about Hong Kong in the mid-'90s and the influence in North America?
