The Killer (1989 Film) - Plot

Plot

A Hong Kong assassin, Ah Jong (Chow Yun-fat), is on his last job for the Triad (a criminal organization), but accidentally damages the eyes of a young nightclub singer named Jennie (Sally Yeh) with a muzzle flash in a shootout. After the attack, Ah Jong begins to watch Jennie perform at the nightclub and escorts her home when she is attacked by thugs. Jennie and Ah Jong begin to fall in love during his frequent visits at her apartment. Driven to help her secure the money for a sight-saving corneal transplant, he accepts one final hit. A police detective, Li Ying (Danny Lee), spots Ah Jong completing the job but the assassin escapes. The Triad leader Hay Wong Hoi (Shing Fui-On) double crosses Ah Jong, and instead of paying him, sends a group of hitmen to kill him. During Ah Jong's escape from the Triad, a young child is injured by a stray bullet. After dispatching the attackers, Ah Jong rushes the child to the hospital while being followed by Li and his partner Sgt. Tsang (Kenneth Tsang). Once the child regains consciousness at the casualty ward, Ah Jong escapes Li and Tsang.

Li becomes obsessed with Ah Jong's act of good will. He and Tsang find out Ah Jong visits Jennie at her apartment; they plan to arrest him the next time he visits her. Ah Jong visits Jennie and is caught in an ambush from which he manages to scramble away. Li and Tsang explain to Jennie that Ah Jong was the assassin that blinded her at the nightclub. Ah Jong meets with his Triad manager, Fung Sei (Chu Kong), and demands his payment for finishing the job. Fung Sei brings a suitcase for Ah Jong, who discovers it to be filled with sheets of blank paper before finding himself in the middle of a Triad ambush. He kills all of the Triad hitmen, but leaves Fung Sei alive. The next day, after Fung Sei's pleas for Wong Hoi fall on deaf ears, Ah Jong does a hit-and-run on Wong Hoi's car, wounding the Triad leader and killing his driver and bodyguard.

Li begins to close-in on Ah Jong after Tsang follows Fung Sei; Tsang is killed after revealing the location of his home. Because of their friendship, Fung Sei leaves a large stockpile of weaponry for Ah Jong. The home is another ambush; Li is first to attack followed by a group of Triad hitmen. Li gets caught in the middle of the crossfire between Ah Jong and the Triad. Ah Jong and Li flee, and while Ah Jong's wounds are mended, they find themselves bonding and becoming friends. Ah Jong tells Li that should anything happen to him, Li should either have Ah Jong's eyes donated for Jennie's surgery; otherwise, he is to use Ah Jong's money to fly her overseas to have her surgery performed by more experienced doctors. Li, Ah Jong, and Jennie wait in a church for Fung Sei to return with Ah Jong's money. Fung Sei arrives with the money, horribly beaten by Wong Hoi's gangsters who have followed him. He is mortally wounded when the hitmen barge into the church. After Ah Jong ends Fung Sei's misery, he and Li engage in a long and bloody shootout with the Triad all over the church. The battle ends with a Mexican standoff between Ah Jong, Li and Wong Hoi. Ah Jong manages to wound Wong Hoi, but the Triad leader lands two bullets in Ah Jong's eyes before the latter dies of his wounds. When a police squadron arrives in the scene, Wong Hoi begs to be taken into custody. Frustrated by the outcome of the battle, Li fatally shoots Wong Hoi before he himself is arrested.