Drug War

Police captain Zhang (played by Sun Honglei) partners with a drug lord named Timmy Choi (played by Louis Koo) after he is arrested. To avoid the death penalty, Choi agrees to reveal information about his partners who operate a cocaine ring. Zhang grows suspicious of Choi's honesty as several police officers began a raid on the drug ring.

Drug War is a crime film made and released in Mainland China by a Hong Kong film company. Naturally there is going to be an element of political compromise. All the policemen are Mainland Chinese and all the drug dealers are from Hong Kong (Take a guess which side wins in the end). Nationalism in movies has never really bothered me unless it borders on being disgusting (i.e. Michael Bay's Armageddon). That is not the case here and I don't have a problem with that. My interest is not the politics, but rather what Johnnie To will bring to drug film set in Mainland China. The answer? Not too much.

What's missing from Drug War are the Johnnie To quirks. The zany off-the-wall characters who have speech impediments and odd ticks are gone. The dramatic noir lighting, minimalistic stage-like blocking or themes of brotherhood are gone. Even the gunplay is less stylized and presented in a realistic fashion. I don't miss any of these specific quirks or tropes, but without the idiosyncratic Johnnie To stamp, what's left is a very straightforward police procedural.

The characters are servicing the plot, which is odd for a Johnnie To film because usually it's the other way round. We don't get insight into the distinct personalities of the drug dealers or police officers and their relationships (like in Election, an ensemble piece where it manages to characterize the supporting characters). We don't know if they have family members or girlfriends waiting for them at home or any backstory. The story is simply moving beat-by-beat linearly on the central question of how trustworthy Louis Koo's drug lord character is. There's nobody you're supposed to be rooting for, but things are continually changing and you simply watch awaiting the final outcome.

To, a director and producer with his own production company, has always been best when he has free reign. The limits of To's free reign authorship is that he is very culturally rooted to Hong Kong and possesses a firm voice regarding to its politics (Election), economic condition (Life Without Principle), daily life in Hong Kong (the office politics in Needing You), or even local nostalgia (Throwdown, Sparrow). As exemplified in 2008's Vengeance, a project which was co- financed by French financiers and starred French rock singer Johnny Halliday, To's directorial voice is weaker when he steps outside of his comfort zone. There is no sense of To's personal perspective on the topic of drug running, drug addiction, crime or how the police work in China through the film's story, themes or characters. That makes a bit tame because To has fared much better in the past.

In context to Johnnie To's back catalogue, Drug War will be remembered for pushing the boundaries with the Chinese Film Bureau. The Mainland police are shown working undercover and solving crimes, having gun battles with criminals and some even dying in the line of duty; these are all images that were previously not allowed to be shown in a Mainland theatrical release. Yet now we are seeing them on screen. So that is a proper achievement that's worth celebrating. The final product is probably more telling of Chinese film censorship than of To's directorial sensibilities. But I can't help but think that there is a grittier, nuttier version of Drug War lying in the corner of Johnnie To's desk that is stamped "rejected", namely the version of the story that he didn't get to make.

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For the uninitiated, 'Drug War' marks acclaimed Hong Kong director Johnnie To's first crime thriller to be shot in Mainland China, an understandably wary prospect considering how his usual sensibilities in the genre are highly likely to run afoul of the Chinese censors. But fans of the auteur can rest easy – To is as sharp as he has ever been here reuniting with his regular screenwriter and producer Wai Kar-Fai, delivering a tense and engrossing procedural around a complex anti-drug trafficking police operation.

To be sure, the subject matter is an extremely risky one – after all, the tough stance that the country has adopted towards drugs means that the authorities are only going to scrutinise a movie about that hot- button topic very, very closely. It is therefore somewhat of a miracle that To manages to remain politically correct without ever being preachy, and even better, to mirror the authorities' no-nonsense approach while offering the kind of nail-biting entertainment perfectly accessible to mainstream audiences.

But then again, we should have expected no less from To, and right from the get-go, we are treated to both Wai Kar-Fai's elegant storytelling and To's classy direction. Cross-cutting seamlessly between two seemingly unrelated series of events, To introduces his audience to Louis Koo's Timmy Choi, who is seen driving away from a factory billowing in smoke while foaming at the mouth, gradually losing consciousness until finally he crashes in spectacular fashion through the glass walls of a restaurant. Meanwhile, Sun Honglei's Zhang is on a dilapidated bus going through a toll booth, whose commuters are really mules transporting drug-packed ovules within their body.

When his partner-in-crime panics after their overheated bus pulls to the side just after crossing the booth, Zhang reveals himself to be no less than the very captain of the narcotics squad. At the same hospital where Zhang and the other drug mules painfully excrete their smuggled goods, Zhang runs into an unconscious Choi, covered in skin lesions and bearing the unmistakable whiff of a drug-making operation. Immediately, Choi is put into surveillance, but Choi's identity only becomes clearer when he is brought into questioning, turning surprisingly compliant as he tells Zhang that he is but a middleman between a rich businessman turned drug dealer Boss HaHa (Hao Ping) and a powerful supplier named Uncle Bill.

Even then, Choi remains an enigma – we're sceptical of his plea to escape the death penalty in exchange for his cooperation – and yet a cautious alliance emerges between the tough grim-faced Zhang and the persuasively suppliant Choi. Keeping the proceedings entirely realistic, To unspools the action through a series of undercover infiltrations, surveillance and stake-outs filmed with the same breakneck urgency and unnerving tension of such real-life operations. Moving from posh hotels to lavish cabaret nightclubs to busy seaports, To switches from location to location without any let-up from a consistently gripping pace.

Yet despite the breakneck pace, each sequence is tautly choreographed. Particularly effective is the pivotal setpiece in the middle section, which sees Zhang masquerading first as Uncle Bill to meet Brother HaHa and then posing as HaHa (the character's signature hysterical laugh included) to meet Uncle Bill's representative. Both close-quarter setups ripple with edge-of-your-seat tension, with Zhang's charade threatening to unravel itself under the villains' scrutiny. Also worthy of mention is the film's climactic shootout in front of an elementary school, as Choi finally reveals his hand as a cool-blooded conniver interested only in his own self-preservation. Though less violent than the usual To actioners, the action is nevertheless exhilarating in its rawness, with To subverting genre expectations of who dies and who prevails.

In true alpha-male fashion, Zhang remains an inscrutable character throughout, defined only by his doggedness when hunting down his targets. Ditto for Choi, who doesn't get any backstory to explain how or why he got into the drug business. Like 'PTU', To keeps his focus singularly on the nuts-and-bolts of the police work at hand, deliberately refusing to let his audience get to know more about any of the characters aside from their relative positions in the unfolding mission. Such a clinical approach may frustrate some viewers, but anyone who's been a fan of his trademark understatement will embrace it – along with Xavier Jameux's pulsing score – as nothing less than To's brand of cool.

Just as certain to delight fans is a nifty twist late into the story that turns the movie into a reunion of sorts for To's regulars – Lam Suet, Gordon Lam, Eddie Cheung, Lo Hoi Pang and Michelle Ye. Of course, that's not to diminish Sun Honglei and Louis Koo's strong lead performances – the former bringing gravitas and an unexpected touch of humour when imitating HaHa's over-the-top behaviour to an otherwise stoic role; and the latter playing both cunning and desperate in thoroughly engaging fashion.

And so despite the Mainland setting, 'Drug War' remains a distinctly Johnnie To movie, using the bleak wintry settings of the Mainland city of Tianjin to lend the film and its subject matter a gritty sobering feel. Eschewing the visual aesthetics of 'Exiled' and 'Sparrow', it is also easily his most commercially accessible action thriller of late, with a documentary-like realism that mirrors Derek Yee's style in another drug-themed movie 'Protége'. Like we've said, To's fans will enjoy this as much as his previous works, and this is a movie that demonstrates once again why he is easily one of the best directors in Hong Kong today.

Legendary director Johnnie To's "Drug War" generates a powerful suspense with extended action set-pieces that are truly exceptional, but it's the intense underplayed performances that ultimately leaves its lasting impression. To pulls out all the stops in this high-octane police procedural, shot predominantly in the Jinshan district on the Chinese mainland. This vast, operatic melodrama exhibits some extreme smarts in its bare bones approach to a drug unit's relentless pursuit of a drug cartel. The film proceeds with sequences that establish the war on drugs as neither a heroic crusade, or a hopelessly unwinnable war. They are no metaphors here -- it's a world where people make choices, and as a result, events unfold simply as a matter of process.

Manufacturing just fifty grams of meth in China will earn you a death sentence, and Timmy Choi (Louis Koo), manufactures on a massive scale. After a large meth lab explosion, Choi is under arrest and in the custody of Captain Zhang (Sun Honglei). Now he has only one chance to avoid execution: turn informant and help Zhang's undercover team take down the powerful cartel. As the uneasy allies must compress months of police work into just 72 sleepless hours, the increasingly desperate police are quickly stretched past their limits. As things spin wildly out of control, the line between duty and recklessness becomes vague, and it becomes unclear who truly has the upper hand.

The first act of "Drug War" is an epic manifestation of To's talents: The camera is never in the wrong place, and we're swept effortlessly into the mindsets of a dozen people in the first act with few words or wasted gestures. The film works thanks to the riveting performances of Sun Honglei and Louis Koo. In addition to his two strong leads, To creates a large gallery of dynamic supporting characters, most notably two mute brothers played by Guo Tao and Li Jing who at first appear as comic relief, but eventually play a larger role in the story.

The balancing act of the film relies on a long build-up for a large payoff. Director To incorporates just enough action and throughout to keep things interesting before the chaotic, bloody onslaught erupts in the third act. The visceral, brutal shoot-out between opposing sides takes place on a suburban street filled with pedestrians and children. It's intense and unflinching, with a fantastically dark resolution to the story. "Drug War" isn't particularly insightful or a profound viewing experience, but those looking for a top-notch thriller will be more than satisfied by this low-key masterpiece.

I have to confess here in Canada I have no previous exposure to films by Hong Kong directors Johnnie To. Obviously he has done good work before but I just did not have the chance to see them. 'Drug War' was shown in a local art-house cinema and my like-minded friend alerted me to it.

Well, this was an interesting film experience - a Hong Kong director doing a police/drug dealer drama based in mainland China. Although other fictitious names were used for the cities, it is obvious the final, major shootout took place in a main street in Tianjin, a large city not far from Beijing. And much has been said about the long, protracted shoot-out scene toward the end, done in the John-Woo-ish manner.

I do not know if the version shown in mainland China - apparently the film did well in the box office there - is the same version that I saw in Canada. However, I suspected the China version has to be slightly edited. Still, (Spoiler Alert!) Johnnie To managed to get a film approved for the Chinese audience despite breaking one important rules: four desperadoes gunning down a large number of police officers, male and female. Now this used to be a big no-no in China. The police had to come up on top and the bad guys punished. The mass killing of cops was never presented to any screen in Chinese cinema. And then there is the lesser scene of RMB (Chinese currency) bills being burnt in place of 'ghost money' to honour the dead. Now this may just be part of drama but one can also argue about its possible political significance.

All in all, for a cops-against-bad-guys film this is well directed, with action scenes well staged and the cops and criminals well portrayed. There are also finer moments exploring humanity - e.g. a drug dealer's wife, fatally shot, still struggled to put her high-heel boots back on while dodging bullets. The ending is a tad depressing but is mostly likely closer to reality.

Gripping, smart, and a joy to watch.

The acting is excellent and the main leads are my favorite. Honglei, a hardened narcotic cop, is collected, methodological, and intelligent. You can tell he has earned his keep and has seen some crazy things behind those eyes. He's like the calm before the storm, readily break loose. He leads a high profiled operation to bust possibly the largest drug ring in the counntry and his lead is Louis, a captured meth supplier. Louis is not to be outshone: calculated, cunning, and above all, selfish. I find his character to be easily one of the greatest villains for he appears harmless but you can't really know what he has in mind. One scene you might think he has repented, another scene he might convince you otherwise. He is a great villain because he's deceptive, cunning, selfish, and he's willing to do anything for survival, including turning against his own kin but the catch is that he doesn't look capable of such evil. That's why he's great. Appearance is deceiving. The two main leads are completely opposite. The cop appears cold, distanced, and seemingly emotionless yet pursues a good cause and cares for his underlings while the crook appears warmer, more expressive, seemingly harmless yet inhuman underneath. Great contrast. The story is tight, the actions are neat - the shootout between the mute brothers and the cops and the grand finale scene are superb. A battle of both brain and brawn.