Of the Johnnie To movies I’ve seen, they often work in a macho register like Michael Mann movies, focusing on professionals and process. As an action thriller, the main driver for Drug War (2012) is surveillance, as drug enforcement police in China get wind of a deal happening. One member of a drug syndicate, Timmy (Louis Koo), is waylaid by a drug factory explosion and captured by police. With the fear of execution for any drug-related crime, Timmy turns reluctant informant and is conscripted to broker an upcoming deal at the harbour. As the operation picks up speed, and continues on, like the undercover cops endlessly driving to tail a truck transporting chemicals, the film creates tension at a low boil. Characters play their cards close to their chest, like our main cop Zhang (Sun Honglei) fixated on making a major bust, and we only see a spark of something else within his ease switching personalities during undercover work, shifting from a stern enforcer to a gregarious gangster named “Haha.” Even the drug informant exposes some semblance of humanity, overcome with sadness at his spouse who died in the factory explosion.
And yet, the third act escalates, and a character makes a choice that leads to a shoot-out on the streets, which has a Peckinpah flair for the number of bodies being shot repeatedly and dropping endlessly. While as a Milky Way production, not everything strikes a gritty tone such as the over-the-top, broadly played scene of an undercover cop spinning out over a heavy dose, and fans of Johnnie To will be happy to know one of his regular players Lam Suet shows up as a character named “Fatso.” There’s a disquieting aftertaste to Drug War. Even with a concluding scene approved by the Chinese censors, it strikes a nihilistic feeling comparable to William Friedkin. Nothing heroic about the bloodshed here. Available to stream on Kanopy. Recommended.
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