Exiled (2006)

Exiled (2006) is Hong Kong director Johnnie To’s tribute to the spaghetti western embedded within a contemporary gangster film. The opening sequence sets the tone. An apartment where a woman, Jin (Josie Ho) feeds a baby, waiting for her partner, Wo (Nick Cheung). She is visited by two sets of men. One duo – Blaze […]

Sparrow (2008)

Movies in love with the movies. Hong Kong director Johnnie To began making Sparrow (2008) over three years in between other projects, most of them crime movies about cops and/or gangsters like Election and Exiled. There’s an element where it feels like Sparrow was another lane to escape to, and even though it is still […]

Drug War (2012)

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 […]

Breaking News (2004)

Director Johnnie To and his Milky Way production company set themselves a challenge with Breaking News (2004): How to restage the street shoot-out from Heat but introduce it with an unbroken seven minute shot? Opening with a showdown conveyed in that one-shot take between a heist crew (led by Richie Jen) and a squad of […]

Motorway (2012)

I love that the skill which the hotshot highway traffic cop (Shawn Yue) has to master is nailing a tight ass turn. Talk about a hero’s journey! This is what Motorway (2012), a Hong Kong crime thriller from Milkyway Productions, Johnnie To’s company, offers. That and Anthony Wong as the hotshot’s senior partner giving him […]