Watch Drug War For Free

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Just so...so bad

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Johnnie To's Drug War is a very well shot, and well directed film about a Chinese police operation to take down a drug operation. Timmy, a high level meth dealer, is busted after his drug factory explodes, and he crashes his car trying to escape. The police agree to waive the death penalty if he helps take down the operation he is a part of. This leads to an intricate operation from Captain Zhang and his fellow officers. The operation takes them all through the supply chain, as they try and net the organizations kingpins and bust them all.This movie was excellent. It was shot very well, showcasing the smoggy locales of big-city China. It was excellently choreographed, with the police operations especially looking professional and intricate. The action was well done, with gritty and well shot gun fights. The acting on all sides ranged from good to great, with some of the minor police officers and gangsters under performing, but some great performances from the films protagonists. Really, most of the elements of this film, from the story, to the direction, to the shots, to the action, was well done.Two small complaints on my part keep the film from a higher rating. The first is the sound direction. It never wowed me like some other elements of the film. The gun shots were hollow and underwhelming, and lacked meat. The street sounds were muted. It just felt a little weak. The second complaint I have already mentioned above. Some of the minor characters were not acted well or fleshed out, so in the final showdown, when police officers you have been seeing the entire film go down, I felt little connection to them, and sometimes even had to look back to remember why they were there in the first place! All in all, an 8 out of 10 is a solid film. It is exciting, taught, suspenseful and has excellent direction, action choreography, and is shot well. A few minor complaints aside, this is a fabulous crime drama, and worthy of your attention if you enjoy crime films, or are into Asian cinema. I certainly enjoyed it, and look forward to giving it a watch again in the future.

So which side is our man on? That's the question in this drug mafia movie where the police have found a way to take down a major drug crew, but have to use one of their key arrests to help them. However, who is he playing for and with? This is a clever and ambitious little movie. Well directed and acted, this film takes influence from others in the genre (such as The Wire) but maps out its own story, and it's really interesting.The Far East has a rich history of mafia movies, and this isn't amongst the classics, but that doesn't devalue it. It still is a fine film, with good directing and acting. Some interesting characters too.Very much worth watching.

As with the other Johnnie To films I have seen, I am left a bit torn. One part of me likes the visuals and story, but the other cannot deny that there's something missing. I have noticed a lot of To's films can be quite confusing at times. It's a mix of not enough character back-story, too many characters sometimes, and some iffy directing and editing. The storyline is quite simple in a way, and honestly a little under developed. We get launched straight into the story with a car crash, and all of the characters don't really get much development besides what is happening to them in the present moment. This leaves you a little confused on what every characters intentions are, ESPECIALLY Timmy, played by Joseph Koo. We aren't sure whether he is helping the cops, or trying to play them. Now obviously this is the point, especially towards the end, but it's even worse because we barely know his character. I would have liked to of seen a little of him before these events occur to at least get an idea of what he might be trying to do. This problem leads to an ending that is pretty unclear until it's pretty much all said and done with.Probably the best sequence is the final shootout, which could be compared to the shootout in "Heat", except it's not quite as tightly made. This sequence really shows of To's weaknesses in his films. Characters are all over the place, and because there are so many and we don't get to know them, we sometimes can easily mistake the side police characters for the side criminal characters. It can become quite confusing and gets in the way. We also bounce back and forth between different events in the shootout, making it confusing. Also, the choreography in regard to the shootout is weak. There's a lot of standing out in the open which police wouldn't do, and people get shot but just keep going as if they got hit by a paintball. We don't know if someone is shot and killed or just shot and injured, completely taking away from any emotional impact it could have. I will give the ending credit, because how it all turned out kind of surprised me. I didn't expect it to go down that way. The final scene may be a little anti climatic, but I guess they couldn't end it any other way.Overall I was let down. I heard good things about this, and it just kinda gave me a "meh" experience. Slow at times and some weak direction certainly brought the film down a lot. I know Johnnie To has a lot of fans, but I honestly don't think he's as good as they say. Clarity is what his films lack.

Jonnie To cannot do wrong by me. It's not only the perfectly choreographed action scenes, but also the way he depicts the characters in his movies. The story twists are also really good, as in this one, where you get the cat and mouse game between cops and bad guys too. Really good acting in it too.Without going further into the story and without saying there is too much violence in it either (though some might feel that way), I can only tell you that you need a great home system to really enjoy this. While I too compared To to John Woo at first, he has surpassed him and is a brand of his own. This is not his best movie (Election 1+2, Fulltime Killer), but even so a really great one