Directed by John Woo • 1990 • Hong Kong
Starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Jacky Cheung, Simon Yam

One of director John Woo’s most ambitious and emotionally charged films, this intense action epic follows the fates of three friends—gangsters Ben (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), Frank (Jacky Cheung), and Paul (Waise Lee)—as they leave behind 1960s Hong Kong to pull off a smuggling job in war-torn Vietnam, only to find their loyalties to one another tested when they are taken prisoner by the Vietcong. The most expensive Hong Kong film ever made at the time of its production—an arduous undertaking that drove Woo to the brink to realize his vision—BULLET IN THE HEAD blends the filmmaker’s celebrated action spectacle with a harrowing depiction of the POW experience that has earned it comparisons to THE DEER HUNTER.