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Once a Thief
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List Price: $29.95
Our Price: $26.99
Your Save: $ 2.96 ( 10% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Tai Seng
Starring: Leslie Cheung, Yun-Fat Chow, Kong Chu, Cherie Chung, Kenneth Tsang
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9786305120360
Format: Color
ISBN: 6305120366
Label: Tai Seng
Manufacturer: Tai Seng
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: Tai Seng
Region Code: 0
Release Date: 1998-09-29
Running Time: 103
Studio: Tai Seng
Theatrical Release Date: 1994-01-14
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Editorial Reviews:
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A romantic art-heist comedy, far lighter in tone than most of director John Woo's work, and in places much sillier. As kids, Chow Yun-fat, Cherie Chung, and Leslie Cheung (A Chinese Ghost Story) were starving street urchins together. They are rescued from the law and trained by a Fagin-like older crook, who transforms them into glossy international cat burglars. The best sections (especially the opening and closing heists) are as masterfully smooth as any action set pieces in the Woo canon. But the tone wavers alarmingly, from the sophisticated (Chow as Cary Grant) to the savage to the sentimental and back again, with a disastrous slapstick coda set in the states, in which the baby food hits the fan. The busy plotting distracts us from a strong theme: the struggle between good and bad father figures (the other is a stalwart cop played by Chu Kong) for the souls of these noble criminals. Not to be confused with the rather limp 1995 remake, produced by Woo for Canadian TV in 1995, with The X-Files' sinister Krycek, Nicholas Lea, surprisingly effective in the Chow part. --David Chute
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A lighthearted fun caper movie
Comment: This movie is not what I expected at all. Rather than the usual Chow Yun Fat/John Woo Kill everything and then some movie, I was pleasantly surprised to watch this fun and seet movie. The premise is very 70s caper movie, a heist, a plan, a bad guy and the players. However, Woo takes us on a long journey with some unsuspecting turns and twists that I did not expect. The effort was fun and effective. Though some of the humor towards the end has a prediliction for cheesy humor, it's easy to get past and enjoy a very fun and entertaining romp. Recomended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It's pretty good
Comment: It is not woo's best work I will say that but it is not bad. It is more comedy than the ulta violent action gun-ho stuff that we are all use to see. But the fact that he took a different aproach for this film was in alot of ways refreshing. The humor at times can be a tad bit corny at times and the action is very restrained. Out of respect for the man that has given us the greatest action movies of our time I will say get this movie. Not everyone will like this movie but some will just don't get your hopes high.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Painfully bad
Comment: Ok, a John Woo film, starring Chow Yun Fat, about an art heist. It's all good right? Wrong. Oh, was it bad. Slapstick, some terribly contrived stunts and a cringingly bad soundtrack. We did finish it--but we still wonder why.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Caper Film Woo Style
Comment: The film starts out breezy enough. Likable trio of art thiefs mastermind elaborate heists in Paris. Afterwards they toast their laurels and have a jolly good time. You almost forget you're watching a John Woo film. Never fear. Guns start ablazing. Things blow up real good. Bad guys eat lead. It's soon revealed that Joey(Chow Yun-Fat), Jim (Leslie Cheung), and Cherie(Cherie Leung) were raised by an evil father figure who taught them petty thievery at the threat of a caning or starvation. The three grow up to be master criminals employed by evil Daddy's thriving Hong Kong crime syndicate. Heavy stuff but Woo is in top form here juggling thrills and levity along with the film's darker themes. The film also contains enough clever twists and surprises to satisfy the more discerning viewer. Yun-Fat is in top form here as the devil-may-care Joey. Yun-Fat commands the screen as both comedian and action star. This may not be the equivalent of Woo's masterworks, "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled", but it is an impressive entry in the directors canon.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another John Woo movie worth owning
Comment: Not as 'heavy' and full of action as many of Woo's other early films such as The Killer, Hardboiled, A Better Tommorrow etc. A bit of a change of pace for Woo and well done. Three street kids pull off a big heist.
Woo remade this film for TV with disastoruous results so make sure you are buying the one starring Chow Yun Fat.
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