Judo

For some reason this year, Johnnie To has hired actor that rarely or even be seen in his dark artistic movie. Just like Breaking News, this movie start Louis Koo (who work with him in Love FOr All Season, great movie BTW), Aaron Kwok, Cherrie Ying and Tony Leung Ka Fai.

In this movie he prove he can make a bad actor act good in this, has for the case of Aaron Kwok. Louis Koo unlike most of his film, rarely smile, has he portray a dark character he done a decent job. The movie contain the same moody feeling of late his other night hong kong like The Mission, PTU etc. The film revovle around the character, like those film and the judo was a prop. The judo fighting was film pretty impressive and enjoyable. Cherrie Ying for some reason, does not look hot in this movie, but her appearance scene (where she eating noodles and the owner keep throwing her stuff out the house) was special. I believe Louis Koo doesn't want to fight because he lost his passion. Nothing satisfy him anymore, not even money or booze.

I have to say this movie was better acted and the ending is better than breaking News.

First impression... directorial tour de force, if (dont kill me for saying this) light on character development. I suspect Johnnie To did a minor miracle getting what was (or may have been) fairly thin stuff on the page via other writers to be far more (dare I say) poetic and lyrical (and even innocent) vibe than it would be in the hands of a Journeyman. This flows much more like a something Id actually expect to see in, I dont know, an animayed feature than live action, like from the fluidity of the tracking shots and movements of the camera as well as the slow motion.

It's the work of a dedicated Smuggler, bringing something deeper about how some of us out there - like the Gambling addict nightclub owner, more clear-eyed and pragmatic (would be) Nightclub singer, and ex Judo champion who may or may not find redemption as the plot summary says - are in an exiential rainstorm and its hard to run fast enough to find shelter or what to do. If I even tried to break down "story beats" it would sound silly, and rightfully so. Its an expressionistic experiment first, kick-ass action-crime thriller second.

Maybe a little too much sappy synth music for my taste to lift up the mood, maybe one or two flourishes that I didn't love (the guy singing mournfully during the nightclub fight, hmm gotta sleep on that). But this is often sumptuously directed, which is not what I was expecting, albeit I think my exposure to To has been the Election films and not a lot else (shame I can hear you crying), and I'd love to analyze the lighting and shots with a class or a film club or something. If it ever plays Alamo or the like, count me in.

And when I say To did a lot with the direction here, I also can tell he worked with the actors - Kwan and Ying but Ko especially in the kind of expressive/tortured masculine role Mickey Rourke could've crushed 20 years prior- and I felt depth from them in the style. If nothing else, it makes Judo fighting seem the most like a calling I've seen in any other film I can think of (even more than the directly cited Sanshiro Sugata by AK).

Raise my rating or lower it by tomorrow? Place your bets.

Akira Kurosawa's first film was a martial arts film: Sanshiro Sugata. This is almost never seen in the west; and I confess I haven't seen it. But I know what Akira Kurosawa did in film, and I have more than a general sense of his style and his concerns - what makes a Kurosawa film identifiably Kurosawa.

Johnnie To's tribute to Akira Kurosawa comes as a very splendid surprise. Not really a martial - arts film, this is the story of champion judo wrestler who, going blind, wallows in drink, gambling, petty theft and jazz (do these all go together?) Anyway, although the final 20 minutes of the film gets a little heavy, for the most part this is a humorous look at some Hong Kong low-lives, and how their redemption comes through the personal discipline necessary to learn judo. Even if you don't like judo, you will enjoy this film - very professionally crafted and acted.

This movie was lots of fun. If you were expecting an all-out fighting movie I can see why you'd be let down. I actually only heard about this movie last week when I borrowed it from a friend. It didn't disappoint at all. If you are a fan of early Kurosawa films (Sanshiro Sugata in particular) you'll love this. It's kind of a modern re-telling of it. Like that film, and this film, there is a sort of suspension of reality. The characters are common archetypes - the has-been master, the wayward girl, the up-and-comer, the bad guy. The film doesn't intend to be a serious drama. Even the "bad guy" really isn't bad. It's more about the spirit of competition and getting back on your feet after you've been knocked down (no pun intended).

To me the film excels in its visuals. The film is shot beautifully with vivid colors that set the mood perfectly for each scene. And the finale? A duel in the wind-swept grass! How old-school is that?! Throw Down is a great film if you go in with little or no expectations of what it's "suppposed to be like." Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

I just watched the version that's dubbed in Mandarin, and found the film to be a disappointment after hearing so much high praise about it. So I would advise everyone to try the original HK version or better subbed version instead. Hopefully you would have a better experience.

I enjoyed the last two films I saw by the same director (PTU and Breaking News, both subbed), but I found this particular one to be incoherent and the characters hard to relate to. The film hardly makes me sympathize with its main characters, and without that connection, their life and action holds no interest to me, and all the cinematic sequences director employs become only distracting gimmicks (ie the dialog/bathroom scene involve 3 leading characters in the night club, the chasing sequence with female lead, money, a shoe...) The performance by all the actors are great, but the story presents those characters in a way that I don't see enough explanation to how they got to the situation they are in and why they chose to take certain action over other. The pace of the film is all wrong for me, some of the cuts seems to be placed at all the wrong places, On the plus side, the film is beautifully shot. Hopefully all the problem I have with this film is due to bad dubbing, which is entirely possible. But I have no intention to find out after already wasting over an hour of my time.