After Johnnie To's recent spate of mediocre, though lucrative, comedies, he has returned to the action-drama with "Fulltime Killer." This latest offering is the most embarrassing, cliché-ridden movie put out by the tandem of To and Wai Ka-Fai, lacking the originality, sophistication and wit of previous works. You'd never think that this was the same Johnnie To that helmed "Loving You" or "The Mission." The plotline follows two assassins, Andy Lau and Takashi Sorimachi, both of whom happen to like the same girl, Kelly Lam, forming the typical triangle. Lau's character, Tok, loves action movies. This is the plot device that allows To to include every cliché in the book, some you've probably seen time and again, including the use of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" in the movie's climax.

"Fulltime Killer" does have flourishes of style, but To's unique Asian voice is sacrificed in the attempt to curry international favor. "Fulltime Killer" loses its Asian identity because To does not embrace its Chinese perspective. He abandons the local color of Hong Kong and uses little of the native Cantonese tongue. Without the Chinese language, tone, inflection and emotion are lost. If viewers wanted a western movie, they'd see a Hollywood picture, not a Hong Kong film masquerading as one. Adding Joey O'Bryan as a co-writer didn't help. Bad dialogue in any language is painful.

The opening credits are all in English, a bad omen for the film. There is more English spoken in this movie than Cantonese! The strained use of English cast a pall on the film and made it less credible. The scenes between Lau and Lam Suet, as well as those with Simon Yam, were needlessly done in English. Viewers, including myself, thought this to be awkward and unconvincing. Didn't To see the daily rushes? Sorimachi comes off better than Lau because he doesn't speak anything but Japanese in the film. Instead of being one of the kings of Hong Kong cinema, To has reduced himself to wannabe status like so many other recent Hong Kong filmmakers. In the end, "Fulltime Killer" becomes yet another unremarkable, Hollywood-type "B" movie. Any integrity that To had left was cast aside in the efforts to convince Hollywood that his time is nigh, while ostracizing his loyal audience.