Drug War (2013)

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Jonnie To cannot do wrong by me. It's not only the perfectly choreographed action scenes, but also the way he depicts the characters in his movies. The story twists are also really good, as in this one, where you get the cat and mouse game between cops and bad guys too. Really good acting in it too.Without going further into the story and without saying there is too much violence in it either (though some might feel that way), I can only tell you that you need a great home system to really enjoy this. While I too compared To to John Woo at first, he has surpassed him and is a brand of his own. This is not his best movie (Election 1+2, Fulltime Killer), but even so a really great one

The plot has potential, albeit the fact that the theme (e.g. drugs with an obsessive cop, and a bit of double agent) has been way over done. The first 5 minutes immediately introduce the two main characters in this film, the obsessive cop in an undercover op. and a meth supplier (Louis Koo) crashing his car after escaping from an explosion from his meth lab. The two inevitability meets at the hospital. In exchange for freedom, Koo offers information regarding the bigger drug lords and his other manufacture operations nearby. Unfortunately, this is where the movie begins falls flat and drag on for the remainder of the movie. Characters are quickly introduced but left to fend for themselves. Eventually, the movie does drag itself to the climatic shoot out. At this point, I recommend turning it off and do something else. Because the science behind it is similar to cheesy action flicks made back in the 80's (i.e. a wooden table can stop bullets, guns have unlimited ammo, especially pistols. Perhaps, the director and/or special effects team should do a little bit of research on how guns work. No, empty oil barrels cannot stop bullets from a gun. Not even if you have two barrels. Also, the trunk of a car cannot stop bullets either.Overall, avoid. Not sure how this movie won several awards in Asia.

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.

I can appreciate the work that went into making Drug War, the action scenes are well-directed and it has a likable cast, but what it boils down to, is that it just isn't fun to watch. I was checking how long I had left of the film every 25 minute or so, and that's not a good sign. I'm not asking for mindless action and shoot-outs, I just don't think the story was exciting enough to keep me interested for the films almost 2 hour long running time.If you absolutely love thrillers from Hong Kong and don't mind a somewhat slow pace, then maybe this film will appeal to you. Director Johnnie To has made some really great films in the past, such as the Election-films and Mad Detective. 5/10