It Always Takes a Thief

I'm catching up a little on John Woo's oeuvre, so I thought I'd check out Once a Thief (1991). It stars Chow Yun Fat, along with Leslie Cheung and Cherie Chung.

It starts with the trio in France, light-heartedly stealing a painting while it is being transported by truck. It’s a bold, high-tech and successful robbery. It was going to be their last, but their adoptive father has one more heist for them. In the course of this caper, Fat is killed.

We get their back story in flashbacks - they were street kids, raised by a harsh criminal to steal for him. They also had a kindly cop as mentor, but stayed loyal to their father. As they grew up, Fat and Chung fell in love. Now with Fat dead, Cheung and Chung become lovers.

Now, I’m going to do some spoilering, but I suppose most people who would watch this, already have. At a tense moment, Fat turns up alive! Yes, alive and in a wheelchair. He’s reformed, just wants to be left alone, and seems to be happy that Cheung and Chung are together. He even offers to help out with the latest heist, providing a distraction by wheelchair disco dancing. I didn’t know what to think of this - has he become a Saintly Cripple trope?

Then, in the last act, it gets even weirder. As their father is getting ready to steal what his adopted kids have stolen, and maybe kill them, Fat jumps out of the wheelchair and starts fighting. It was a trick all along. Their cop mentor shows up, there’s a long, great fight, and the good guys all live happily ever after. And I am left shaking my head, going, “Wha?”

Overall, this is a pretty light, breezy movie. The leads are charming and fun, especially Fat. Without the twists, this would be a decent caper movie, almost a comedy. With the twists, it’s kind of a head scratcher. Glad I saw it.