1999 ‘鎗火’ Directed by Johnnie To
Triad boss Lung, who has just escaped being killed in an assassination attempt hires the killers Curtis, James, Mike, Roy and Shin for his protection. Their grown solidarity is under compulsion when Lung orders Curtis to kill Shin in punishment for his affair with Mrs. Lung.
ザ・ミッション 非情の掟, Cheung fo, 미션, Миссия, ザ・ミッション 非情の掟：1999, The Mission - Ihr Geschäft ist der Tod, 枪火, 槍火
Hong Kong
Germany16
France
France
Germany
Hong Kong
This movie is cool. Like, downright cold as ice. Like I get chills just thinking about it. Does a cooler movie exist?
There is an intuitive logic to this film. Do your job, I'll do mine. There is no need for words. We're here because of the mission. None of us care for each other much. Yet, there's an unspoken bond, perhaps the strongest of them all, because this stranger next to you might be the only thing keeping you alive. You love him. He loves you. Now defend him with your life. There is no need for words.
I swear to god I've seen one particular scene here least twenty times by now. It exemplifies everything I love about…
The poetry of The Mission is packing a frame full of bodies with all of them being visible, doing something different than the person they're standing next to, and then having that composition challenged by an outside force wanting to destroy the men in frame. That To can create all of this without even moving his camera much at all is god-like moviemaking.
The Mission is set on two different principles. As a dramatic piece it is a loose hangout movie about five dudes learning they really enjoy each other company predicted in a minimalist approach, only essential info (and in a key case not even that), nearly everything that doesn't involve the five guys hanging pushed offscreen. As an action movie it is predicted in the main characters occupation as temporary bodyguards, so everything is stilness, long antecipations and finally bursts of reactive moves. To's camera barely moves and neither does the characters. The mall shooting which is rightly the movie most celebrated setpiece is choreographed through camera placement, archtecture and very posed bodies. Indeed, while it isn't unusual to compare action…
85
With every new Johnnie To movie I discover for myself, he continues to climb the ranks of my very favorite directors. The Mission is just another reason why. Its economy of style is so stripped down and deliberate. The absence of more overt, 'balletic' energy in its action is razor-sharp. Johnnie To depicts a poetic sense of comradery and shifting loyalties in response and reaction, with violence functioning as a business necessity. Any lingering instances of pain is simply a natural end to a system of brotherhood. Finding out that The Mission was shot in twelve days and without a full shooting script is vital to understanding the methodology of its movements, or lack thereof. The camera is often so still that every sense of action becomes a statement of purpose. Johnnie To redefines Triad friendship by rebuilding concept and execution from the ground up.
Reportedly shot in 12 days with no script, The Mission feels like someone superimposed the loose hangout vibe of Cassavetes' Husbands onto the familial Triad melodrama of Woo's A Better Tomorrow. Which is not to say this exactly resembles either one. Take the mall shootout scene, for instance. It's the antithesis of a Woo shootout. All of the characters remain stationary and the excitement and tension are derived through editing and camera placement (the only camera movements coming as slow push-ins on the actor's faces). This sequence should be studied in film schools for any budding action directors to learn how geography, angle, rhythm, and even character can be utilized to make an exciting, non-traditional action set-piece.
Is there any…
Action! - Johnnie/Ringo's Hong Kong Actions: In The Mood For King To's Sweeping Realism
Johnnie To returns with almost eighty minutes of pure gunplay and bodies being shot on the ground everywhere in what at one point felt like a precursor to that "Dear Sister" SNL Sketch.
The picture could have benefited from more style, as it's ultimately lacking in substance, but what we do have is enjoyable enough to keep us watching. The film's cool mall scene, with its outstanding staging and camera work, is the most clear and brilliant example of what the filmmaker seems to have been going for throughout the film: a fusion of the crime genre and the Western. The elevator music-style tracks that make…
half of my movie taste is just watching men doing their jobs really well, i love to see these amicable fellas ply their trade and form a loyal workplace brotherhood, johnnie to is one of the all-time greats at portraying cool dudes just vibing with each other
every director wanting to make an action film should be forced to analyze each frame of this movie, then we wouldn't have any of that second-unit over-edited bullshit. perfect blocking, perfect staging, perfect framing, perfect choreography, men trying to navigate the psychogeography of their own internal selves as much as surviving the gun pointed right around the corner.
Camaraderie of cold-blooded scoundrels. Five guns for hire brought in to save an ageing Triad boss find themselves trusting each other in a way that transcends their job and blossoms into unshakeable brotherhood.
The danger of breathing their last breath looms over them for the entirety of The Mission, but not once does that grim uncertainty matter to them. Guns in hand and having each other's backs, they kill to live another day. For a film which sees the leads voluntarily thrust themselves into a matter of life and death, The Mission is not cynical in the least. It instead grows into a hangout film with immaculate vibes.
Pranking each other with sparkling cigarettes. Making amends by slicing open the throat of a friend's enemy. Risking it all just to save one of them. When loyalty grows in the most unexpected trade, smiles are bound to be contagious. Perhaps the coolest film that I've ever seen.
johnnie to's traid hangout movie. a bunch of mercenary, part-time hired bodyguards simply putting in the hours at work: sitting around in cars and office lobbies, standing outside convenience stores and various hallway doors. riding escalators, making coffee, smoking, snacking and ultimately bonding with each other over the realization that there is nothing for them after the job except each other, and if this is how you're going to spend all your remaining time before the boss puts you on the chopping block might as well try and enjoy the company and find some pleasure in the mundane. even when the obligatory action does rear its head it's in a series of sudden show-stopping shootouts/executions that despite the chaos maintain an intense formal focus on waiting, anticipation and a geometric stillness that borders on tableaux, serving as a direct counterpoint to the hyperactive, melodramatic ballet of most heroic bloodshed. really cool movie.
Along with EXILED, a terrific entry point into To's world, which makes sense as both are so similar. Both are films of Triads who become friends through their bonds of honor and then have those bonds tested by that same honor. Both communicate these ideas of personal and professional loyalty (and their occasional matter/anti-matter negation) through exchanges of body language and minimal spoken language, the methodical movement of each shootout a display of professionalism borne through their closeness. Here, it takes the form of action scenes that patiently move toward their targets with perfectly orchestrated relay movements of advancement and support as each member progresses to a point to provide cover for the others. Such movement silently establishes the way…
The scene where The Mission finally clicked for me was when our five triad bodyguards sit around in some anonymous office space, waiting for their boss to arrive, kicking around a crumpled piece of paper like a soccer ball (sorry, football) until the boss finally walks in and they all straighten up and pretend as if nothing was happening. This scene elegantly weaves together two of our central thematic threads: the tedious mundanity of organized crime and the playful bond of criminal brotherhood.
"How long do you think we have to do this job?" the bodyguards ask, treating crime syndicate work as just another job, a bit of professional labor like any other, and not even their favorite on their…
