Peace Hotel (1995)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Let's be realistic.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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 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.

This movie is absolutely gripping from beginning to end. Chow Yun Fat is magnificent as always, Cecilia Yip is appropriately dramatic without being annoying, and the storyline is engaging. The fight scenes are more stylistic than the ultra-violent bloodfests in his Woo films, but they don't lose any impact for the stylism. There are certain images and scenes in this movie that will really stand out when you watch it, and Chow Yun Fat's amazing ability to convey a character's entire past with one silent glare is on full display. The splice scenes at the end, which reference the beginning, are masterfully done and heighten the climax of the movie, keeping a sense of tension throughout the last half hour that does not let you go before the credits roll. I wish the climactic fight scene had not been so blurred and hyper-distorted, but that's because I'm a huge fan of Chow Yun Fat's gun-fu acrobatics and this just wasn't the movie for that. In general, Peace Hotel had more drama and better acting (plus a better script) than I expected, and in many ways is more brutal than one of his Woo films even though Woo's buckets of blood aren't on display here. The brutality is more up-close and personal, and thus it seems to hit harder and stay with you longer. This is definitely one to own if you're a Chow Yun Fat fan.

When people hear the name Chow yan fat, they associate him with John Woo, of course this is not bad thing. Chow yan fat certainly is the master of heroic bloodshed. But he is foremost a very charismatic and good actor. In Peace Hotel you get an example of very good acting by him. He really carries the movie. The story plays in the wild west of China ( an eastern instead of western, this gives the whole story a very original approach)in which several gangs are at war with each other and where there is one neutral place where everyone is welcome, and where no one will dare to use their weapons. This is because they respect the owner of this " Peace Hotel " (Chow Yan Fat). Everyone believes he is a very notorius killer (the rumour in the movie goes that Chow Yan Fat came to that hotel and killed everyone in sight without remorse and since that event he stayed in the hotel, to maintain the piece. It is a delight to see and find out why Chow Yan Fat did all this and why he stays at this hotel! At first Chow Yan Fat is very sympethatic, but later on you can see that Chow Yan Fat can be a bad motherf###. There is also some very interesting character development from the other actors. The action is brutal and fierce, like it is in real life, so do not expect beautiful filmed action sequences. But do not fear them also, because they fit the story very well.So go watch this movie, if you are ready for a very different HK action movie.