Yeah, I didn't like him until he put on all that makeup and started spanking Kathryn Grayson
Throwdown Johnnie To, 2004
What a weird movie. It's about this disgraced former Judo champion or whatever that does nothing but drink and gamble all day but then this random guy comes in and challenges him and everything changes. I don't think I've ever seen a Judo film (still need to see
Sanshiro Sugata, a film that's referenced here a lot apparently) but it's kind of a weird looking. Why? Because it gets kind of comical seeing people being thrown on the floor over and over again. I think To understands that which is why this huge brawl that starts out in a nightclub and spills over into the HK streets feels as much as musical number as it does a fight set piece (is there really a difference?). The film's tone is very strange, too. There are a lot of playful scenes where the gang steals money from gangsters (gangsters that hang out at arcade stores beating kids at fighting games) and then there are scenes that are extremely sentimental, bordering on mawkish. What happens then? I don't know. It just felt weird and at the end of the day I was unsure of what it added up to.