Drug War ( China, 2013 )

Directed by – Johnnie To | Staring – Louis Koo, Honglei Sun | Genre – Drama | Language – Mandarin | Country – China & Hong Kong | Year - 2013

In an attempt to breach the Great Wall of China, FilmBulb introduces a recent Chinese film. Having already seen a Johnnie To’ film (Mad Detective), I went to ‘Drug War’ with some expectations. Usually I don’t expect too much from a film before seeing it, because it kills the experience.

Johnnie To, a Hong Kong based director. Drug War a collaboration of Chinese and Hong Kong is filmed in mainland China, JinHai Province, so it’s more of a Chinese production than Hong Kong, and also it is evident in its making. As the name of the film, it’s a movie about drugs, a juicy subject for any film maker. The catch is not to make a stereotypical Hollywood-ish Asian version film. Drug War at ease gives a different template.

Timmy (Louis Koo) a hi-profile drug dealer is caught by the undercover police captain Zhang (Honglei Sun). In an attempt to redeem himself from the death penalty (In China possessing 50 grams of methamphetamine will lead to hangman). Timmy then makes a pact with Zhang to escape death penalty. He agrees to point all the big shots in the Chinese drug trade. The rest of the film is how the two run over each other, did Timmy escape the death rope or Zhang succeed in busting the drug trade.

A “good character development” is done, when we feel pity when the character dies. Joker in The Dark Knight is a good example, I felt for him! Johnnie To places good screen space for every character just by placing the camera for extra few seconds on the characters. The women cop Yi Huang (Yang Xiaobei) and mute brothers- Senior Dumb and Junior Dumb are such finely crafted characters. Wait, did I say mute brothers, yes, these two brothers (Guo Tao & Li Jing) are mute drug makers.

If you are familiar with Hong Kong films, you can foresee the ending. By having a heavy government censorship over his head, Johnnie To has walked a thin line. He delivers a master blow in the end.

Trailer

**Other Chinese & Hong Kong Films - Summer Palace | Mad Detective