Drug War (2013)
Average Rating: 8/10
Reviews Counted: 38
Fresh: 36 | Rotten: 2
A taut, solidly constructed action thriller with uncommon intelligence, Drug War delivers exhilarating set pieces without skimping on sophisticated filmmaking.
Average Rating: 7.9/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 1
A taut, solidly constructed action thriller with uncommon intelligence, Drug War delivers exhilarating set pieces without skimping on sophisticated filmmaking.
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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 1,361
Movie Info
Manufacturing just fifty grams of meth in China will earn you a death sentence, and Timmy Choi (Louis Koo) has manufactured tons of it. After a violent lab accident, he's in the custody of Captain Zhang (Sun Honglei), and 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 just 72 sleepless hours, the increasingly desperate
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All Critics (38) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (36) | Rotten (2) | DVD (1)
Another inkling of the style limitations perhaps most responsible for To's lower visibility stateside compared with, say, his countrymen John Woo and Wong Kar-wai.
Top Critic[To] gives a solid 90 minutes of edgy foreplay before delivering the goods.
Few other working filmmakers display this degree of visual sophistication and old-school craftsmanship.
As always, To delivers fantastic set pieces ...
Drug War is a deeply intelligent, exhilarating and eminently satisfying adult crime story, one of the best thrillers you're likely to see this year.
An intense and constantly surprising crime story in which destiny seems to fold in on itself ...
"Drug War" may not add anything particularly new to the genre, but that doesn't make it any less of a thrilling ride.
Cops and robbers, drugs and money, and the brutal violence at the end of it all: Yes, Hong Kong action director Johnnie To is back in town.
To orchestrates a huge cast and multi-layered plot like the ringmaster of a three-ring circus, his explosive, nihilistic finale layered with betrayals.
To's film is solidly directed, and brutal and unflinching in its depiction of the drug world at the center of the story.
Filled with intrigue, plot twists and monumental gunfights, it's an expertly crafted if at times quite violent affair.
Like a cross between "The Wire" and "The French Connection," even if To's blood-drenched fatalism goes a little overboard by the end. Despite the familiarity, it's an impressive piece of work.
Breaking Bad fans, foreign film cineastes and gangster flick aficionados should all find something worthwhile in Johnnie To's taut, impeccably staged film, an involving, atmospheric cops-and-criminals import.
An almost incongruously exciting effort from Johnnie To...
It's like a Chinese version of The Wire.
A sizzling crime melodrama seemingly inspired by "The French Connection". The best Hong Kong movie I have seen in years even remarkably filmed in China.
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.
Magnificent. Johnnie To's police procedural, involving Tianjin police department sting operation, shares William Friedkin's sense of muscular filming techniques - see "The French Connection."
Audience Reviews for Drug War
Super Reviewer
Drug War (Du Zhan) follows a drug cartel boss who is arrested in a raid is coerced into betraying his former accomplices as part of an undercover operation. The plot moves at its own deliberate pace for a cerebral experience. Slowly moving becoming more intricate showing the procedural of China's finest attempting to capture drug cartels and the criminals avoiding being captured. Both the police and criminals are given equal treatment in how they are presented. None of them ever come out with the upper hand seeing both sides constantly having to change tactics to survive no matter the lengths of their go is. It allows time to give a variety of criminals and law enforcers their own personalities and allowing room for some lowbrow laughs. Giving two distinct feel in how each side is viewing the on going events. With the exception of a bullet hail storm in the last twenty minutes it feels realistic. Nothing here asks you to suspend your disbelief nor does it fall victims to tropes of the genre. Containing a unpredictable nature that'll constantly have eagerly wanting to see what happens next. Focusing on an untrusting loyalty between the rat and the police and the different goals they strive for. Its tone is grim with the outcome devastating putting everything into perspectives of the risks both sides face from each other.
Sun Honglei and Luis Koo performances are strongly versatile. Sun Honglei stoic nature brings weight into the film and even humor when imitating another criminal over the top behavior. He unflinchingly can transit from being a hard boiled cop to a loose canon criminal with ease. Luis Koo on the other hand is the exact opposite of Honglei. He's plays a cunning and desperate criminal who you could never fully trust. He gets across an aura where he comes across trustworthy but never reliable. Adding tension as you'll never sure what Koo intentions are being difficult to read. The supporting cast also sports Johnnie To's regular such as Lam Suet, Gordon Lam, Eddie Cheung, Lo Hoi Pang and Michelle Ye. All of whom deliver a solid performance in their role showing commitment no matter the size of their role. To's direction is masterful. He brings a cold tone and darkly color gritty look to his film. When needed to he keep things grounded and realistic. When it comes to the few action scenes (in the last thirty minutes) he keeps gunfights fresh with perfectly time usage of slow motion and variety in the choreography. Not simply staying in place waiting for someone to get out of to shoot them dead. To's action never feels restrained in their execution and a easy free flowing feel to them even if exaggerating how many bullets these character can take before dying.
Du Zhan (Drug War) is a phenomenal crime film that keeps your eye glue from beginning to end. It's an intelligent film pitting two equally opposing sides against each other for an appropriately grim and devastating outcome. Sun Honglei and Luis Koo bring top notch performances with interplay with one another bringing an extra layer of weight to an already well written script. It doesn't inherently bring anything new to the genre, but succeeds in being something greater with the rules it played by.
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Foreign Titles
- Drug War (DE)
- Drug War (Du Zhan) (UK)
