Drug War

Drug War (Du Zhan) (2012)

Runtime: 107 minutes

Directed by: Johnnie To

Starring: Louis Koo, Honglei Sun, Ka Tung Lam, Yi Huang, Suet Lam

From: Hairun Movies & TV Group

This is a film I heard quite a bit of buzz about on a messageboard late last year and while I hadn't seen any film from popular Hong Kong director To, I figured I should kill two birds with one stone and check this out via Netflix Instant. Turns out, this won't be the last film I see from To. To steal the plot description that I think its American distributor put out:

“Long considered the master of the Hong Kong crime thriller, Johnnie To's first mainland production turns an eye on China's rising, ultra-violent drug epidemic. In China, manufacturing just fifty grams of meth will get you the death penalty. Timmy Choi has manufactured truckloads of it, and after a violent lab accident he's in the custody of Captain Zhang. Now, he has only one chance to avoid execution: turn informant and help Zhang's undercover team take down the powerful cartel he's been cooking for. But as the uneasy allies are forced to compress months of police work into 72 sleepless hours, things begin spin wildly out of control, the line between duty and recklessness is blurred, and it becomes unclear whether Zhang or Choi actually has the upper hand.”

I will note that this is a police procedural thriller. I mean, you literally see nothing besides the undercover cops working on this case. Talk about being focused. Throughout the very interesting case that has twists and turns, you get to learn who everyone is just from seeing them in action; there usually isn't any exposition to speak of. Things are grounded and in fact they seem realistic as to what Chinese cops would experience on this kind of case. To list some cliches, things are tense and you're almost always on the edge of your seat. But it's true.

It isn't action-packed but when you do see it, it's done real well. It's shot cleanly and you always know what's going on. I know I talk about that all the time but it can't be stressed enough. The final 20 or so minutes, though... that is an exceptional ending to the movie, I say. It's a greatly done setpiece all around from the surprising setting to all that happens, to how most of it is realistic, at least by movie action standards. It was a satisfying way to end everything, I say.

This will end up on my Top 10 of 2013 list, coming out early next month. It was released in the U.S. last year so that's why it qualifies for the list. That's how great I thought it was. I gave it 4 ½ out of 5 stars on Letterboxd. The movie also proved to me that what I had heard was true: Buick cars are VERY popular in China. You see many of them here. I shall return tomorrow night.