Bullets Over Summer (Blu-ray)

Plainclothes officers Mike (Francis Ng) and Brian (Louis Koo) are on the trail of trigger-happy fugitive Dragon. Planning a stakeout, they commandeer the apartment of an elderly woman (Helena Law Lan) who mistakes them for her estranged grandsons. Their mission is further disrupted by wandering schoolgirl Yen (Michelle Saram) and Mike’s nascent feelings for the neighborhood’s laundress (Stephanie Lim) who complete the fortuitous family put at risk when Dragon and his goons come knocking.

Part of a winning trio of genre-benders bookended by Bio Zombie (1999) and Juliet in Love (2000), Bullets Over Summer showcases Hong Kong action auteur Wilson Yip (Ip Man, SPL) at his most playful and unpredictable. A cops-and-robbers film subverted by a warm sitcom premise, it culminates in the unlikeliest of hangout movies about fate, coincidence and finding one’s chosen family. Toying with expectations for heroic bloodshed, and lensed by Fruit Chan’s cinematographer Lam Wah-Chuen (Made in Hong Kong), Bullets Over Summer is a thrilling example of Hong Kong cinema’s effortless cool. ★ Wilson Yip interview by Frédéric Ambroisine (10 mins, 2005)
★ Interview with Francis Ng (17min, 2022)
★ Interview with Matt Chow (12mins, 2022)
★ Commentary by film writer Valerie Soe and critic Kevin Ma
★ Booklet including archival interview with Wilson Yip and new writing by Ariel Esteban Cayer
★ Newly Translated English Subtitles
★ Cantonese Audio Description Track courtesy of the Hong Kong Society for the Blind