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Stay Puft
07-15-2013, 06:09 AM
DRUG WAR
Director: Johnnie To

http://25.media.tumblr.com/ef7385d1d0a907f7747cf2ac36ebea bd/tumblr_mp52ggrim81rla35go1_r1_ 500.jpg

IMDb page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2165735/?ref_=sr_1)

Stay Puft
07-15-2013, 06:21 AM
Pretty good.

Loved the sequence in the hotel, when Timmy is supposed to be introducing Chang and Haha, but the detective is playing both roles. Strongest segment of the film, but the shootouts near the end are also well staged, as per To's usual strengths. What an incredibly senseless ending, though. Yikes.

Interestingly, To suggested in the Q&A afterwards that Chinese censorship forced the ending, which makes sense; as I recall, one of the primary mandates of the censorship board is that criminals are only allowed to be depicted engaging in illegal activities (theft, murder, etc.) as long as they are punished at the end of the movie. To talked about how the entire production was basically focused on compromise - they shot hours of footage for the sole purpose of having alternate scenes/takes if the board didn't like something - and the way To and his screenwriters make some of those compromises is interesting, e.g. the irony of the ending that Derek discussed in the upcoming forum, or another shot I recall of cops exchanging cash for their op against a television in the background showing surveillance of Timmy and the mute brothers burning cash as an offering for Timmy's dead wife. Also, the cops riding their car into battle at the end LOL.

number8
07-15-2013, 03:16 PM
I also really like the contrast between the two leads. One is so cowardly that he'll do anything and give up anyone to escape, while the other is so bullheaded that he'll get his man even in death.

I knew that the movie would end in Timmy's death either by execution or otherwise for the reason you said, since I knew that it was a Chinese co-production going in, but when he was the last one standing after the shootout, I was on edge trying to figure out what's going to happen. Then, that handcuff. Awesome, tense stuff.

What I didn't like were the ridiculous Reefer Madnessian portrayals of drug use, obviously government imposed too.

D_Davis
07-15-2013, 03:30 PM
It's remarkable that a film about drugs got made at all in China.

You rarely see drugs on any level in any of the HK gangster films.

Stay Puft
07-15-2013, 04:21 PM
I knew that the movie would end in Timmy's death either by execution or otherwise for the reason you said, since I knew that it was a Chinese co-production going in, but when he was the last one standing after the shootout, I was on edge trying to figure out what's going to happen. Then, that handcuff. Awesome, tense stuff.

Yeah, still a great scene. My audience cheered.


What I didn't like were the ridiculous Reefer Madnessian portrayals of drug use, obviously government imposed too.

Agreed. Most of those moments stuck out like a sore thumb, too, in otherwise expertly staged sequences. There was some weird tonal stuff because of that (particularly the ott truck drivers, crashing otherwise low-key dramatic sequences).

number8
07-15-2013, 04:32 PM
Agreed. Most of those moments stuck out like a sore thumb, too, in otherwise expertly staged sequences. There was some weird tonal stuff because of that (particularly the ott truck drivers, crashing otherwise low-key dramatic sequences).

The expertly staged hotel scene you mentioned ended on an awful note because of the over-the-top cocaine reaction.

Stay Puft
07-15-2013, 04:40 PM
Yeah, that too. I rolled my eyes when he just immediately hit the floor and started yelling about bugs crawling over him.

number8
07-15-2013, 04:45 PM
Yeah, that too. I rolled my eyes when he just immediately hit the floor and started yelling about bugs crawling over him.

And when Timmy yelled, "I just saved your life!"

Mofo had like two lines... Calm down.

Rowland
07-17-2013, 11:38 PM
The last scene may on the surface by interpreted as a compromise to the Chinese censors, but I read it as a devastating irony that really hammers home the hopelessness of a war that is not only fought over drugs, but with them.

Grouchy
07-25-2013, 04:36 AM
I gave this a Nay because of the reasons you all stated. To directs this movie like a boss, since he's a great director, but... come on. It was hard to take it seriously after that hotel scene. And the truck drivers? I seriously doubt drug lords hire Cheech and Chong to do delivery work. Basically they were all idiots.

But apparently that was all due to censorship. It's still a Nay. Then again, the shoot-outs are incredible. And Hahah is a brilliant character. His introduction to the cop is priceless.

dreamdead
12-15-2013, 12:00 AM
This gets breakneck fatalistic in the last act. Though stuff like Exiled foregrounds that possibility, it didn't feel like this film would go for broke like that. Some of the material feels rote in that there's really no interiority to the cops--that allows an anything-goes edge to what happens to them, but it also dampens any ultimate impact. That said, the sense of doubling in the burning money sequence was nicely operatic, and that ending is killer.

A few points lack simple cuts (the final handcuff, what happened to the kids on the school bus for like ten minutes of the shootout), but generally a good To film.

Qrazy
12-15-2013, 08:52 PM
This gets breakneck fatalistic in the last act. Though stuff like Exiled foregrounds that possibility, it didn't feel like this film would go for broke like that. Some of the material feels rote in that there's really no interiority to the cops--that allows an anything-goes edge to what happens to them, but it also dampens any ultimate impact. That said, the sense of doubling in the burning money sequence was nicely operatic, and that ending is killer.

A few points lack simple cuts (the final handcuff, what happened to the kids on the school bus for like ten minutes of the shootout), but generally a good To film.

Not seeing the handcuff go on was very much intentional, agree about the kids.

Bosco B Thug
02-17-2014, 09:11 PM
Holy crap, that got real really fast. One of those "Oh I get it now" last act reinventions. Throughout it's pretty good - To's inward, romantic style seems tailored to depict the glorified banality of drug world business. But the finale finally makes apparent the point. I see the goofy mainland conservatism now (honestly I had to read about it after to catch it), but while imposed, To seems to actively transcend it, rendering the straight-edge police as fatalistically driven as the condemned criminals fatalistically complacent, essentially each side feeding and enabling the other.