At first glance, Drug War is basically just what it says on the tin– cops crack down on kingpins, lords, and lackeys to save regular people from illegal addictive substances. Even the drug lord-cop dynamic would be a familiar plotline for crime thriller fans. But through this familiar plotline, Hong Kong director Johnnie To takes his first mainland China production to subtly comment on the dynamics between his native region and the larger country, taking the contrast to craft simmering tension each time Choi Tin-ming lies to his allies to save his skin. It’s less action-packed than To’s usual, but the subtext and the shift in style makes Drug War a surprisingly dynamic take on the crime thriller scene.
"...features a tense, unstoppable momentum, a morally ambiguous protagonist and hugely involving action scenes, all of which provide a welcome alternative to many of the less precise spectacles released on American screens this summer."
— Eric Kohn
"While it takes a while to come to a full boil, Drug War is an atypically grim gangster film from the typically inspired Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To."
— Simon Abrams
A drug cartel boss is arrested in a raid and coerced into betraying his former accomplices as part of an undercover operation.
After being taken into custody by Police Captain Zhang Lei, drug lord Choi Tin-ming reluctantly agrees to team up with him in an undercover operation to betray his former accomplices in his methamphetamine ring.
Louis Koo and Sun Honglei were such good choices for the leads because there’s just something so unscrutable about their faces here. Usually, we seek out the opposite, but for a film with a plot twist like this? They help make the plot twist feel believable, as well as making it fun to observe their reactions upon rewatch.
I’m actually surprised this went past the censors.
