This is a story about the killer, however, unlike the traditional genre film, it does not focus on the display of the assassination process, but only wants to reflect the killer's inner emotional world and connection with this society through those external elements.
Lyon is from Italy, and when he was young, he was hurt by his feelings, so he had to go to a strange city alone and start a killer business.
Although he takes money to do things, unlike other killers, Leon is very principled, he does not kill children, he does not kill women, in addition, there are many unknown little habits.
He likes to sneak to the love movie alone, will shyly look around in the movie theater, hoping to find a confidant, on the balcony of his room, there will always be a pot of green plants - agave, which is his only connection with the outside world.
Putting aside the fearsome profession of a killer, Lyon is actually very ordinary in every way, walking on the streets of New York, and no one may look at it more. He lived alone in this world, and enjoyed the process of loneliness until a little girl broke into his world.
The little girl's name is Matilda, and her mother died prematurely and her father remarried, allowing her to have more brothers and sisters, but Matilda did not like this original family, and even for the father who gave birth to her, she was full of hatred. In this broken home, she never felt even a trace of warmth, on the contrary, only all kinds of oppression and rejection.
This boring life was broken by a group of outsiders, and within a day, Matilda lost her father, stepmother and half-sister, and what made her even more unacceptable was that her younger brother, who liked to rely on herself and was only a few years old, was unfortunately sleeping forever in this catastrophe.
Despite her young age, Martida was determined to avenge her brother, and by chance, she met Leon.
From the moment she cradled the milk and cried and begged Leon to open the door, two lonely souls were destined to come together, changing each other and starting a new life in mutual understanding.
Perhaps, the encounter between the two has a lot of dramatic elements, but there is its inevitability in the dark, in the final analysis, Martida and Lyon are the same kind of people, they have the same kind of sensitivity, they both long to be cared for and loved, and the age between them seems to be no longer an insurmountable gap, because Marty used himself to awaken the little boy who had been sleeping in Lyon's body.
As a killer, Lyon's professionalism is very high, he is agile, not easy to be disturbed by emotions, always can use his own ability, quickly solve the opponent to complete the task, but when Maltida accidentally entered his life, Lyon's seemingly impeccable spiritual world began to appear flawed,
He no longer had no scruples, because of the entanglement in his heart, Leon suddenly found that he was no longer a good killer, he could not calmly grasp the gun in his hand, and even had a reverie about the future, from then on, the world was less of a cold-blooded animal, but more of a man with temperature.
Once he could only rely on snoozing on the couch to spend every night, it was Martida who pulled him to bed and let him return to normal life, so that he could have a good dream.
The two gradually changed from strange to familiar. Leon does not smile, but in the woody reveals a hint of cuteness, while Martida is just the opposite, enthusiastic and generous, all kinds of ghost ideas can always make people can not help but be funny.
Perhaps Leon never realized that before he knew Martida, he would always have such a serious face, refusing to be thousands of miles away, like a tightly sewn machine, methodically doing what he could.
Martida influenced him with his enthusiasm, like being blown away by the wind, Lyon rarely showed a childlike innocent smile, he suddenly understood: it turns out that there are so many beautiful things in the world, he can play in the vast world, and use his body to perceive all the beauty in the world. He began to become cheerful, and even knew how to use the means of buying clothes to coax Martyda to be happy, Leon was like a little boy who was not deeply involved in the world, trying to express himself in front of the girl he liked, and perceiving the happiness of the world in the happiness of others.
It is difficult to say the feelings between the two people, the film wants to tell the audience in a straightforward way that there is love between them, however, even if the lines in the film have appeared that the two people say "I love you" to each other, it still feels more like a father-daughter relationship for everyone.
In fact, the two people who have experienced the changes in life have long become the most important half of each other, in this prosperous world, there is no one who deserves their care, or cares about them, the two are like relatives who warm up the group, and only by relying on each other can they have the opportunity to spend the rest of their lives.
In this relationship, Leon paid a significantly greater price than Maltida, even if he had the idea of killing the other party after he first knew that his identity was exposed, however, the kind-hearted Leon was unable to do it in the end, when Martida wanted to avenge his brother, Leon, although on the surface seemed to be helping and fulfilling her, was actually trying to carry this responsibility to his shoulders.
He gave Maltida's guns all fake bullets because he didn't want Martyda to really become a murderer through and through.
Perhaps, Leon only wanted the dirty and dirty things to be borne by herself, and Martida was still young and had more possibilities than to ruin her life because of her own impulses. Under this man's rough exterior, there is always a delicate and soft heart.
When the film climaxes to rescue Martida, Lyon, who uses all his strength, actually has many opportunities to escape, but the creator uses a tragic ending to end the character's glorious life, when the camera falls with the first-person perspective, the red blood flowing down and the sunny warm sun outside the door shine together, bringing a shocking power.
Perhaps for Lyon, such a fate is the best ending, because even if he and Martida can successfully escape, all that awaits them is endless escape and hiding, and only his death can give Martida a better future. After giving the audience a seemingly bright possibility, the film instantly shatters it with a cruel reality.
The film completes the sublimation of the character image through a small moment, so that these ordinary small people also have their own highlight moments.
Lyon's external cold and internal heat, Maltida's intelligence and precociousness are all on the paper, especially Natalie, who was only 12 years old at the time. Portman, at a young age, showed unparalleled creativity and understanding of the character, which is amazing, in addition to the bad cop in Gary. Under the wonderful shaping of Oldman, it also bloomed with dazzling brilliance, he used obedient, gloomy body language to present the characters three-dimensional and plump, this perverted man with a unique view of Beethoven's music, and finally left the scene with a slightly black humor style, which was also possible.
The film was translated in China as "This Killer Is Not Too Cold", supposedly because when it was released in Hong Kong that year, Jacky Cheung's "This Winter Is Not Too Cold" was sweeping the major music awards.
If you analyze from the plot, the literal translation of "Killer Leon" may be better, after all, the former name always looks a little inexplicable at first glance, but the detailed taste finds that "This Killer Is Not Too Cold" has a stronger oriental charm and is more in line with the ethereal and unusual relationship between Lyon and Martida in the film.
At the same time, the film continues the routine of many classic Hollywood commercial films, whether it is the intersection of characters, or the personal heroism of revenge and climax, can find traces in other similar films, however, after Luc Besson's helm, the film has always exuded a strong French tone, after the picture music emotional rendering, there is always an indelible compassion and humanistic care, and compared with simple sensory stimulation, perhaps this human touch is more worthy of the audience to savor for a long time.
At the end of the film, Martida takes Lyon's agave back to her former school, and she plants the agave into the soil so that she can never be separated from Lyon forever, and Lyon finally no longer needs to wander around, in that fertile land, he can thrive and protect the people he loves most.