You Shoot, I Shoot (2001) User Reviews

Twisted violent comedy mocks self involved entertainment culture.

[vanrosss · 8/10 · 18 April 2002]

This was the US Premiere that I saw in Madison Wisconsin at the Orpheum - Stage Door Theater. This twisted violent comedy has continuous laughter as the story progresses further and further over the top. When there's a slow down in the contract killing business, a famed assassin teams up with a studied assistant director of film to improve business. They begin to market contract killing as a fashionable consumer experience. They include for the customer, a high quality production video of the hit. Consumerism takes over with advertising gimmicks. "The more you kill, the more you save!" The high society women compete with each other to see who can order the best assassination. Competition heats up as a very big hit comes up with very picky parameters. Events get out of hand when priorities are brushed aside. "It's not fixing, it's post production!" Tat-ming as the video director is really the foundation of this movie. His acting is strong in this role, and as he warps, so do we. Be aware that a lot of murders occur in this solid comedy with a multicultural comedic score, but see it if you can.

Enough laughter to hurt your stomach

[wcdleung · 8/10 · 31 March 2007]

I will not repeat the information well stated in the other two comments.

You'll see very good humor, and a lot of exaggerated facets of life in Hong Kong and in the entertainment business there. Furthermore, every line and every gag is heavily loaded (for instance, the filmmaker cut and pasted the "copyright warning" of a movie onto his :D See more of the quotes.

The language in this movie is relatively translatable into English (I will say an impressive 80%). The culture may be a little more obscure. Further notes on the language: Bart's wife somehow speaks Mandarin not Cantonese, and his mother in law speaks a weird dialect, and father-in-law speaking Cantonese. That's something I don't quite understand, except for poking fun at people having gorgeous mainland Chinese wives without a brain, and a mother-in-law who cannot be understood. The Japanese girl represents the stereotyped exploited porn stars.

There is another main plot hole. Spoiler starts here. Isn't it much easier to post-processing the voice for the mafia boss killing instead of going through that long re-filming?

Quite enjoyable...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 8 July 2020]

"You Shoot, I Shoot" (aka "Maai hung paak yan") was actually a nice surprise of a Hong Kong comedy. I hadn't even heard about this 2001 movie from director and writer Ho-Cheung Pang before now in 2020, when I was presented with a chance to sit down and watch it.

Needless to say that I welcomed the chance to watch this movie with open arms, given my interest and love for the Hong Kong cinema. And I was actually very entertained by the movie as it were.

This is a comedy, but not it is not the type of comedy that you will be laughing over while watching it. No, this was more of a black satire comedy, and it worked out quite well. Writers Vincent Kok and Ho-Cheung Pang actually managed to scribble together something quite nice. The satirical approach to things in the movie really worked quite well in favor of the movie's overall enjoyment.

If you are familiar with Hong Kong cinema, then the lead actor in "You Shoot, I Shoot", Eric Kot, should be a familiar face. And I will say that he actually carried the movie quite well with his performance.

I enjoyed "You Shoot, I Shoot" and I am rating it a solid six out of ten stars. This is quite watchable, especially if you enjoy the Hong Kong cinema.

A creative funny movies

[goodmen · 15 July 2004]

Edmond Pang first directorial debut (the director of Men Suddenly in Black, one of the finest black comedy since Shaolin Soccer), this movie talk about a assassin, name Bart (Eric Kot) whose business is slow due to Hong Kong bad economy. He finally got an assignment but with a catch, he must film the guy being killed. His first attempt was a failure, but was given another chance, this time he hired director assistance (Cheung Tat Ming) to film for him. This time it becomes a hit, and now many Rich Ladies/etc want to hire them. Not going into some subplot, the climax come when he must hit a triad boss.

This movie was very funny and creative, (just like Men Suddenly in Black, but not has good has that movie) but also has a major flawed. If they had filmed so many different killing tapes (with bart face in it), won't the cops at least get one of those tapes and arrest him with him on camera killing someone. Aside from that, it poke fun a lot on HK movies (about their preproduction and post production), which was very enjoyable and fun. The ending was stretch pretty long, but overall it was amusing to see what going on. The main actors in this movie are usually supporting actors; this movie doesn't really show they have the skills ready to be in the main actor roles. This movie is consider a black comedy because it is basically saying killing is good and that you can get away with it.

My favourite part in the movie is when there was another imitator assassin (Lam Suet) group, who offering stamp card and that if they kill more they save more. If you love Men Suddenly in Black (which talk about adultery is good), than this movie should also entertain has well.