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Breaking News

Original title: Dai si gin
  • 2004
  • Tous publics avec avertissement
  • 1h 30m
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
6K
YOUR RATING
Breaking News (2004)
After a disastrous failure to stop a robber gang, the police attempt to redeem themselves through a series of publicity stunts and shootouts.
Play trailer1:50
1 Video
82 Photos
ActionCrimeDrama

After a disastrous failure to stop a robber gang, the police attempt to redeem themselves through a series of publicity stunts and shootouts.After a disastrous failure to stop a robber gang, the police attempt to redeem themselves through a series of publicity stunts and shootouts.After a disastrous failure to stop a robber gang, the police attempt to redeem themselves through a series of publicity stunts and shootouts.

  • Director
    • Johnnie To
  • Writers
    • Hing-Ka Chan
    • Tin-Shing Yip
  • Stars
    • Richie Jen
    • Kelly Chen
    • Nick Cheung
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.7/10
    6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Johnnie To
    • Writers
      • Hing-Ka Chan
      • Tin-Shing Yip
    • Stars
      • Richie Jen
      • Kelly Chen
      • Nick Cheung
    • 24User reviews
    • 63Critic reviews
    • 63Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 5 wins & 11 nominations total

    Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 1:50
    Official Trailer

    Photos82

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    Top cast34

    Edit
    Richie Jen
    Richie Jen
    • Yuen
    Kelly Chen
    Kelly Chen
    • Rebecca Fong
    Nick Cheung
    Nick Cheung
    • Inspector Cheung
    Yong You
    • Chun
    • (as You Yong)
    Shiu-Hung Hui
    Shiu-Hung Hui
    • Hoi
    • (as Hui Siu Hung)
    Suet Lam
    Suet Lam
    • Yip
    • (as Lam Suet)
    Eddie Cheung
    Eddie Cheung
    • Eric Yeung
    • (as Cheung Siu Fai)
    Haifeng Ding
    • Long
    • (as Ding Hai Feng)
    Haitao Li
    • Chung
    • (as Li Hai Tao)
    Simon Yam
    Simon Yam
    • CK Wong
    Maggie Siu
    Maggie Siu
    • Grace Chow
    • (as Maggie Shiu)
    Moon-Yuen Cheung
    Moon-Yuen Cheung
    • TV reporter
    • (uncredited)
    Mo-Chan Chik
    • CID cop
    • (uncredited)
    Chi Keung Chow
    • Police officer
    • (uncredited)
    Alan Chung San Chui
    Alan Chung San Chui
    • Chun's target
    • (uncredited)
    Chun Hin Ho
    • Grace Chow's assistant
    • (uncredited)
    Han-Chou Ho
    • Target's bodyguard
    • (uncredited)
    Wai-Leung Hung
    • Pedestrian at traffic light
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Johnnie To
    • Writers
      • Hing-Ka Chan
      • Tin-Shing Yip
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews24

    6.75.9K
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    Featured reviews

    9noralee

    Thrilling Cinematography, Editing and Mordant Wit of Very Urban Crime War

    "Breaking News (Dai si gein)" is one of the most urban crime thrillers I've ever seen, using the density and verticality of a modern city as an intense frame for the fast-paced action.

    Hong Kong here seems to have visually become like the futuristic cities with satellite cameras of "Blade Runner" and "Code 46," with almost all the action taking place with 360 degree views of narrow streets, crowded plazas, dark hallways and elevator shafts. There's a door-to-door attack in a corridor that throws down the now classic scene from "Oldboy" as so much balletic nonsense compared to this gritty but very beautiful realism, with cinematography by Siu-keung Cheng.

    Director Johnny To grabs our attention in the enthralling opening scene of a shoot-out on a Hong Kong street. With almost no dialog we can figure out that this is a stake-out going horribly wrong. While the scene dizzyingly must have been shot on a cherry-picker zooming up and down and around as if we are on on external elevator or hanging from windows with a zoom telephoto lens, the angles are always important as the camera swoops and narrows and broadens our view from shooter to victim to shooter to victim as we swivel to where the shots are heard. I felt like I was in the antenna of the aliens in "War of the Worlds." The visuals are always directly related to the sounds, as edited by David M. Richardson.

    Though I could only infer some of the internal politics within the police bureaucracy with the significance of some using English names and others traditional Chinese names amidst the various competing levels of authority, some of whom spoke stilted English, it was easy enough to pick up on the techie criminalist statistician vs. the on the ground street cop (a terrific Nick Cheung, who is like a thinking cop's Bruce Willis), let alone the difficulties a woman cop (Kelly Chen) has on the force. Her need to prove herself and her modern approach is a driving theme in the film and gives it considerable difference from a more conventional crime drama. She may be a neophyte at being in charge, but she is not an idiot.

    There are parallel old school/new school, gangsters vs. assassins with different rules and technology that get caught up in the siege though I wasn't sure of the details of all their intersecting plots. The criminals are considerably more charismatic than all the cops except "Inspector Cheung", and have a sense of humor during an amusing hostage taking.

    The instant, real-time new and old media attention in what is as much a door-to-door war between cops and criminals as in "Black Hawk Down" becomes part of their battle plans. It is as violent as a Paul Schrader or Martin Scorcese film, but has the mordant cynicism and humor of Billy Wilder, as the violence mocks the continued blandishments we see from the government officials about the falling crime rate.

    While script writers Hing-Ka Chan and Tin-Shing Yip may have intended the high tech PR-controlling official to be a satire like "Wag the Dog" in having controlling the press be an essential component of controlling crime, it is just a very small step beyond the NYC Police Department techniques innovated under former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. So it's a running gag that a kid with access to the Web can outwit their media manipulations. Survival seems to be based more on the results of the battle for public opinion.

    I wasn't sure if the Hong Kong police force always looks like storm troopers or if the production design was making a political point. Clearly there was some point to the hostages being surrounded by commercial symbols of Western capitalism and culture.

    The music by Ben Cheung and Chi Wing Chung supports the tension very effectively, including electronica and traditional instrumentation.

    Unfortunately, the film as distributed in theaters in the U.S. had the worst subtitles I have ever seen. Not only are they filled with spelling and quizzical grammatical errors, as well as frequently white on white, they seem to have been translated using an antique English dictionary. The most egregious distraction is constantly calling these bloody murderers the charming appellation of "bandits" -- how about thugs or gangsters or criminals or crooks or bad asses, and so forth. Why didn't a native English speaker look over these subtitles? At least the credits were mostly bi-lingual.
    Chrysanthepop

    Boring News?

    Have I missed something here? From the title I thought this would be a film full of suspense and a story that would engage me but in my opinion it has nothing new to offer. I wonder what director To wanted to express through this film. There have been so many movies made on similar subjects. The only difference is that here To tries to portray the media as more involved in the plot but hardly anything stands out. The pace is very slow. The performances are miserable particularly that of Kelly Chen. Cinematography is alright. Even though the long shot in the beginning is somewhat impressive, it's nothing new. well, maybe for a movie like this, it is but that hardly make the experience of 'Breaking News' worthwhile. Anyway, I don't want to waste my time on commenting about this so I'll just end it by saying that I found it boring.
    8dbborroughs

    Action and the media make for an odd mix

    After a shoot out goes wrong and the police are made to look like fools the brass resolve to catch the bandits while using the media to fix their busted reputation. However things don't go quite as expected for anyone and what was a simple manhunt becomes a hostage situation with all of Hong Kong watching.

    This is an odd film. The plot is a bit too complex for its 90 minute running time, with gunfire exploding often when you least expect it. It starts off with a huge shoot out and then changes feels and tones several times as it goes. And there are a couple of moments where I swear I missed some plot point or other, but found I was simply carried along with the momentum and didn't care for long..

    It clearly wants to make a commentary on the use of media by organizations to look good, and it mostly succeeds. (I'm also certain that the parallels to how the US Government is doing a similar thing in Iraq was probably unintentional even if it does make you think.)

    This is a very good, and very off beat film that moves to its own beat. Definitely worth seeing, especially if you like action.

    8 out of 10
    8Aziriphale

    More than just a shoot-em-up movie.

    Imagine a street scene. Its not a flash street, just a small side street in down town Hong Kong. Something's going down, but we don't really know what - we can see two men in a car, talking in code with people on their radios, as they watch three men. Then all hell breaks loose, the three men are joined by a fourth and they're shooting. Their weapons cause foot long jagged flames, and those bullets sound like they're hitting spots not far from where we are sitting. We realise the two men in the car were policemen (Inspecter Cheung turns out to be one of the main characters), and they're joined by reinforcements. Lots of them. In a Police van, which the four gunmen steal and get away. Until they're stopped by traffic. More policemen. More shooting. Policemen in uniforms are surrendering and being shot dead anyway. Then the four gunmen make a final getaway, by stealing an ambulance, leaving someone stranded on a stretcher.

    That's the first seven minutes of this movie. Afterwards, the gunmen hole up in a labyrinthine apartment block while the Police do their best to smoke them out - there is the CID (the good Inspector Cheung and his team half a dozen) and the OCB led by a very ambitious Inspector Rebecca Fong - there are something like a thousand (!) cops deployed in her assault on the building. Then there is the UCD (?), a sinister group, dressed in black body armour and face masks.

    But there is more going on in this movie than the bringing of these criminals (and another pair who just happen to have been in the building as well) to justice or the turf wars between Cheung and Fong. The title gives this away - Breaking News. Thanks to the street fight, the media has got hold of the story and the cops are not looking good. So, most of what Fong is doing is playing up her response for the media - sending in 1,000 cops in bus after bus makes for an impressive sight. Then you put webcams on all the cops and select what is going out to the public. Hell, why not put a sexy soundtrack behind scenes of the cops going after their men.

    But the crims aren't beyond playing that game too - they've got their own footage, in which they're winning, setting explosions off that are killing more cops. And they're holed up in an apartment with web access. Then, to show they're real people as well, they cook lunch, a really nice lunch it was too, and broadcast images of them sitting down to a joyful meal with their hostages.

    Of course, with the kind of manpower the Police are throwing at the crims, you never really expect them to get away. And yet, the two leaders of the two groups get a lot further than you might expect.
    6mighty_pickman

    camera-work nauseating

    Nice premise, nice looking but for myself it just doesn't completely fall into place for me.

    Probably the most noticeable aspect to "Breaking News" is the cinematography.. No doubt about it, the cinematography of Siu-keung Cheng & editing by David Richardson are first class, but it is also the source of my greatest frustration with this film. For mine the camera moves around too often, too quickly & will come to a holt in a sudden jolt. The opening scene in particular is just nauseating despite the obvious skill in putting it all together.

    Well worth checking out & I'm sure that we will see a Hollywood rip-off of this film some time in the next couple of years.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Goofs
      When the Police Commissioner calls a meeting after the humiliating defeat of his police that was broadcast on television, he sits down in front of a large projection screen television that features a Microsoft Windows desktop. The Windows clock at the beginning of the scene displays the time of 10:55. Seconds later it reads 11:10, and by the end of this 2 minute scene, the clock reads 12:53.
    • Quotes

      Long: The most dangerous time is also the safest.

    • Connections
      Featured in Johnnie Got His Gun! (2010)

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    FAQ17

    • How long is Breaking News?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 20, 2005 (France)
    • Countries of origin
      • Hong Kong
      • China
    • Official sites
      • Official Site (Chines, English) (Hong Kong)
      • Pathé (France)
    • Languages
      • Cantonese
      • Mandarin
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Đại Sự Kiện
    • Filming locations
      • Kowloon, Hong Kong, China(Main filming locations)
    • Production companies
      • Media Asia Films
      • China Film Group Corporation (CFGC)
      • Milky Way Image Company
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross worldwide
      • $1,051,419
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 30 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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