As far as plot goes, this lavish pan-Asian crime epic - which hops from Hong Kong to Singapore to Macau to Kuala Lumpur and back again - seems a lot like the kind of flicks John Woo and Ringo Lam used to crank out so effectively in their Hong Kong heyday - but that's where the similarity ends. There are also some shared themes with Wong Kar-Wai's art-house stuff (especially FALLEN ANGELS), except this one's chock full o' guns (thank goodness). Really, the territory co-directors Johnny To and Wai Ka-Fai explore here reminds me a lot more of Sam Peckinpah - so it comes as no surprise that Bad Sam is one of their big-time inspirations.

Hong Kong media superstar Andy Lau plays Tok, a charming and flamboyant small-time hitman who models his work on his favorite films. These violent homages range from the obvious (LEON and EL MARIACHI) to the kinda goofy (like POINT BREAK). His dream, as yet unrealized, is to bust loose from the grip of his sleazy, small-time boss and take down some really big jobs, bringing him more in line with the "Gold Medal" champion, a Japanese assassin known only as "O."

Very much Tok's opposite, O - played with sullen grace by Japanese newcomer Takashi Sorimachi - lives a lonely, isolated life of obsessive self-preservation: he doesn't even occupy his posh Hong Kong apartment, choosing instead to monitor the flat from the decrepit industrial block across the street. His only sporadic human contact is with his shy, pretty Taiwanese housekeeper Chin (Kelly Lin), who cleans the flat daily and posts his employers' fax messages on the wall so he can read them through a telephoto lens.

The plot thickens - and their rivalry becomes more tangible - when Tok approaches Chin at her day-job, a Japanese-language video store, and asks her for a date. Although she dismisses Tok's endless braggadocio re: his murderous profession ("I gotta go kill some people... be right back"), she still succumbs to his wily charms. This doesn't sit well with O, who begins to display the first stirrings of emotional pain.

As if this wasn't enough friction, a hard-boiled Interpol cop (Simon Yam) is hot on O's trail, and eventually discovers the critical link between both killers. It is this connection - together with tragic incidents in both men's pasts - that brings each of them together in a series of increasingly explosive encounters. As each character discovers at different stages of the story: "In our business, you're bound to rub out someone you know." This proves fatally true on several levels.

To and Ka-Fai fill the screen to overflowing with pulpy style, slick edits, and blood-and-thunder setpieces (the inter-cutting of a love scene with the disposal of a corpse is haunting; Lau's close encounter with a subway train will make you pee yourself). There's even a few sprinkles of CGI. But strangely enough, it's their skill with characterization that stands above it all. Not that these characters would ever be confused with real people by any stretch... but damn, these dudes are shit-cool.

Lau is on fire as the loony Tok - a man so happy in his work he literally can't stop smiling, even when he's taking a savage ass-whupping (he doesn't take it for very long, though), and whose single personal demon comes in the form of violent epileptic seizures. On the flipside, Sorimachi transforms the potentially one-dimensional role of "O," using his expressive eyes to reveal layers that his spare dialogue doesn't always convey. Kelly Lin brings a surprisingly independent soul to a character who willingly tosses her fate into the fierce and conflicting winds of the killers' intersecting destinies... and, I might add, she's one scorchin' babe.

FULLTIME KILLER comes fresh off recent US theatrical distribution from Lions Gate (gotta love 'em), who in turn served it up quite nicely on their own DVD label. Visually, it's kind of a mixed bag: colors seem a bit desaturated (possibly due to the film stock used), and I spotted some murky shadows during some of the night scenes, but overall the image is still quite sharp. Fortunately, the audio has been nicely remastered, with a kickin' 5.1 mix that flings hot lead around the living room, and adds body to the eclectic score (could've done without that pseudo-Alanis Morrissette tune, tho). The English subs are easy to read, but more than once they continued to display during the frequent English-spoken scenes.

There's a hearty buffet of extras here, like a multi- lingual featurette that contains a few quaint lapses in translation (and those damn English subs over spoken English again); several trailers; cast bios and web links. There's also a revealing behind-the-scenes reel that not only shows many of the actors performing their own stunts (including Lau's subway scene) but also reveals how the language barrier may have posed an even greater challenge - as illustrated by Lau struggling through take after take after take with a single line of Japanese.

This is my first encounter with the hip cinematic stylings of To and Ka-Fai, but I'm hoping it won't be my last. Apparently the pair are building quite a strong reputation on the basis of their late-'90s output, particularly with the so-called "Dark Trilogy," comprised of TOO MANY WAYS TO BE #1, THE ODD ONE DIES, and THE LONGEST NIGHT. If these come even close to the hip dynamic and intelligent style of this one, I'm as good as hooked.