Popular reviews

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  Review by Jake Cole ★★★★★

  To's grace is replaced by a caustic bluntness more to-the-point than even the Category III films he ghost-directed for Patrick Yau in the '90s. But do not mistake this ostensible calming of form for acquiescing to Chinese censors; it instead gets one over them, mirroring the no-nonsense approach taken by police to drugs until it becomes a savage, uncompromising attack on that myopia. It's telling that, for all the planning and swift execution of the cops to put down a drug lord's operation, the generic upheaval of the final act comes out of nowhere to show how much they've missed.

  And if the swooping crane shots and rapid leap of perspectives only make sporadic appearances here, what is left is…

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  Review by Sean Gilman ★★★★★ 1

  From the beginning, it explains that this is not your typical heroic bloodshed Triad film, concerned more with codes of honor and brotherhood and the mirroring of good and evil than anything else. No, instead this is going to be a straight police procedural, with no metaphysical mumbo jumbo: "You're a drug dealer, I'm a cop. I didn't betray you, I busted you," explains Sun Honglei's Captain Zhang, and with that 25 years (at least) of Hong Kong genre convention, from John Woo's A Better Tomorrow and The Killer to To's own cop/Triad movies (Breaking News, PTU, Mad Detective, etc) is summarily dismissed.

  More here.

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  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  handcuffing your own corpse to a perp... metal

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 3

  86/100

  An efficient, mechanical rush of a thriller, shown through a sturdy mix of discussion and character actions. Not a second of fat, not a moment of flabby pacing, just laser-focused cinema and a beautiful disorganization of a well-worn genre. Its filmmaking is spotless - especially all the crane shots and the expert usage of surveillance footage - but the editing is sublime, cutting from and between multiple setpiece moments and areas while never losing sight of narrative. It only helps that each performance is terrific and the ending practically ripped the jaw off my face.

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  Review by comrade_yui ★★★★★ 5

  jesus fucking christ, i don't know how in the hell something this cynical about state authority ever made it past chinese censorship, it's like anti-copaganda WITHIN a copaganda film, i'm totally in love.

  this and michael mann's blackhat feel like thematic and stylistic twins, one tentatively hopeful and the other extremely nihilistic.

  and with that astonishingly brutal third-act kindergarten shoot-out in this, johnnie to is the only director i know to give heat's iconic street gunfight a run for its money

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  Review by Joe ★★★★★

  To turns the state-mandated requirement that his cops be heroes and his criminals scumbags, which could have easily been a detriment, into an asset in the best way possible. The result is a chilly, Friedkin-like depiction of a completely skewed moral universe that has been completely internalized by the characters - no one on either side of the law stops for a moment to question or even lament the idea that this white powder is worth shooting and killing each other over. The lack of moral center is reflected in Louis Koo's character - it's easy to imagine in a more traditional version of the story he would be the hero, but he starts out as being purely self-serving and…

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  Review by Nakul ★★★★ 3

  Johnnie To's Drug War is a merciless, tightly constructed and relentlessly paced procedural thriller that rarely pauses for breath, there’s not a single wasted frame in this film. To's use of geography and editing in action sequences make them feel so visceral. Honglei Sun & Louis Koo, both solid.

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★½ 10

  Action! - Johnnie/Ringo's Hong Kong Actions: In The Mood For King To's Sweeping Realism

  Hot Take (?): This has the second coolest (after Heat) street shooting in cinema.

  Finally, after nearly sixty films, Johnnie To has found a way to blend his distinct style with a story that is consistent, intriguing, and exhilarating from beginning to end. There aren't as many memorable slow-motion or old-school action sequences as in some of his other thrillers, but that's more than made up for by the film's excellent moments of suspense and tension. The editing is never sluggish or tedious, but rather methodical, and it always maintains a steady rhythm. While not To's most technically impressive film, the cinematography here is nonetheless excellent.…

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  Review by Filipe Furtado

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  Something of a heist film in which Johnnie To and his Milkyway crew goes to China to try to do a crime film on their terms under Chinese censorship eyes and mostly pulls it off with minimal wounds. The usual HK cliché of the Long Arm of the Law-like mainland gangster causing trouble is reversed with many Milkyway regulars running away trough China adding a lot of color in a film that intentionally plays like a very somber procedural. It is To’s most Hawkasian film from the way character in it is seem through action (none of the Chinese cops are allowed every a minor scene to establish a backstory, they exist sole for work and will fade away as…

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  Review by Tao A ★★★★ 14

  Johnnie To's first film to be entirely shot in Mainland China. And boy did he take advantage (or lack thereof) of that. Surveillance cameras on every street (which is literally the case in most cities); cops (all happen to be mainlanders) act like robots, devoid of any emotions while the criminals (all happen to be Hong Kongers) are actual characters with families and struggles; smuggling boats with Chinese flags proudly on display; burning RMB; "police torture" written on prison cell with "do not" blocked out; the great and mighty mainland Chinese police force ends up battling two physically disabled characters, and lost....and a pitch-black yet pitch-perfect ending just to show how entirely pointless the "War on Drugs" is. 

  How did this thing get past the Chinese censorship, I'm sure I'll never know. But it shouldn't be too surprising that it was pulled off by none other than Johnnie motherfucking To.

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  Review by comrade_yui ★★★★★ 4

  great movie to throw on during a snowy winter afternoon; wrap yourself in a comfy blanket, sip on a warm cup of tea, and learn precisely how to help someone suffering from an acute cocaine overdose.

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  Review by Ayush ★★★★½ 15

  No wasted motion. A drug lord, a cop, and their destination intertwined but stripped of the romanticism present in Hong Kong's heroic bloodshed movies. A sniff of cocaine here, guns blazing there; none of it has a shred of heroism.

  Drug War laughs in the face of the viewer's expectations before knocking them out cold with its swiftness. The simmering tension inevitably boils over, but the ensuing carnage is far from a bullet ballet. It is cold-blooded and uninterested in making the viewer sympathise with either side.

  Begrudging trust and betrayal going hand-in-hand. A rat's journey to escape the clutches of the law by promising to redeem himself, wasting no time in outing every single thug he can think of.…