Hong Kong’s Johnny To is indisputably one of the best living action directors on the planet. Full Time Killer, Exiled, The Mission, Election and PTU are certifiable balls out classics. So, what could be better than a new Johnny To flick? How about a Johnny To flick starring Johnny Hallyday? Hot damn!  Champs-Élysées meets bullet ballet. I am so there.

I lived in France when I was a teenybopper. The Beatles and Stones hadn’t hit yet and I was enthralled with French pop: Sylive Vartan, Francoise Hardy, Jacques Dutronc and Johnny Hallyday. They were fluff, but they were sexy fluff with a sophisticated freshly-fucked vibe. So much cooler than Frankie Avalon, Leslie Gore, Fabian and the rest of the pasteurized American pop stars on top 40 radio, the white and the bland.

Johnny Hallyday has evolved over the years from a totally cool Elvis wannabee through folky hipster to a bonafide superfine actor. As he’s aged, his pretty boy looks have turned into a ragged and weary kind of beauty that makes him perfect for tender tough guy roles. Check him out as an over-the-hill gangster in 2002’s Man On A Train. And now in To’s Vengeance

Here’s the trailer for Vengeance followed by two clips of Hallyday in rock and folk mode. He sings ‘If I Were A Carpenter’  with Emmy Lou Harris as though he really does want her to have his baby. ‘Black Is Black’ is pretty hip too.