Too Cool to Kill

Too Cool to Kill
Too Cool to Kill
Hanyu Pinyin	Zhè ge Shāshǒu Bú Tài Lěngjìng
Directed by	Xing Wenxiong
Written by	Xing Wenxiong
Produced by	Yan Fei, Peng Damo
Starring	Ma Li ; Wei Xiang
Production; company	Mahua FunAge
Distributed by	Mahua FunAge
Release date	1 February 2022;
Running time	109 minutes
Country	China
Language	Chinese
Box office	$413 million

Too Cool to Kill is a 2022 Chinese

directorial debut.^[3]

Plot

Harvey is a gang leader who a hitman named Karl sought to assassinate, but both were injured in the demolition of a building; Karl was crippled in the explosion and Harvey was injured by his astray bullet. While seeing a supposed employee in the hospital (not knowing it's his attempted assassin), Harvey receives news that his injury may not have been caused by flying debris from the building but instead by gunshot; the evidence provided being in the form of a shell casing with "Karl" engraved on it. Enraged, he vowed to seek out the hitman Karl. Meanwhile, Mi Lan's brother directed a film that failed in the box office, which meant Harvey lost money on his investment, prompting him to threaten said director. Harvey then gets startled by the popping of a balloon, mistakenly assuming Karl was in the vicinity. Mi Lan then uses this to say she knows "Karl" and can bring him to Harvey.

This brings amateur actor Wei Chenggong into the picture, as Mi Lan sees him as a potential recruit to "play the role of a hitman", which draws him into an unknowingly risky environment that could possibly have the group killed by Harvey and his gang, the whole while Wei thinking it's a film set.

Cast

Ma Li as Mi Lan
Wei Xiang as Wei Chenggong
Chen Minghao as Harvey
Zhou Dayong as Jimmy
Huang Cailun as Mi Le
Ai Lun [zh] as Karl^[7]

Production

Too Cool to Kill is an adaptation of Kōki Mitani's 2008 Japanese film The Magic Hour.^[8]^[9]

It was written and directed by Xing Wenxiong (邢文雄), one of the writers of My People, My Homeland.^[7] It is Xing's feature film directorial debut.^[3] It was produced by Yan Fei (闫非) and Peng Damo (彭大魔).^[10] Filming began on 23 June 2021, and on the same day it was announced that the film would be released on Chinese New Year 2022.^[11]

For one scene in the film, Wei Xiang had to speak Italian, a language which he had never studied and felt stressed about speaking, according to costar Zhou Dayong. Wei said in an interview that the crew gave him a translator, who spoke to him after shooting and helped him memorize the lines.^[12]