Updated RankingRunning on Karma (2003)
★ ★ ½ This is the one with Andy Lau in a muscle suit. It never looks real, but the seams are so visible, with a heap of full body nudity, you just kind of shrug and go with it before long. Besides, there’s a lot going on here. The film defies all genre classification, but can be best described as a spiritual journey. One that starts with a killer who is cinema’s greatest contortionist and turns completely off the map for the last 30 minutes, causing a Mulholland Drive rethink of everything that comes before. That’s where this film lost me, but I deeply admire its commitment to every unusual idea.
Throw Down (2004)
★ ★ ½ I was relieved to see Wai Ka-Fai didn’t have a hand in this one because the idea and execution dials To’s usual up to 11. (Comparing To to Wes Anderson, this is his Life Aquatic.) Again, the story crosses multiple genres, but everything seems to be happening more on a symbolic level than a literal one. I love sdedalus’ comment,
”it wasn’t really about judo, it’s about getting back up again after you get thrown down, it’s about money and how it flies out of your hands when you run, it’s also about how sometimes you need someone to pick up your shoes for you.”Breaking News (2004)
★ ★ ★ – OkayA great premise, making a Raid like stand-off into a satire on police media relations, some great directing and a terrific bad guy, who does unexpected gestures like cooking a meal for his hostages. On the police side however, is a female cop written with a narrow range of being cold, manipulative, controlling and unhappy with everything. Maybe it’s the point to show the bad guys as more human, but this limited part is a little insulting.
Election (2005)
★ ★ ½ Election 2 (2006)
★ ★ It seems aside from his early wuxia comedies, this is my least favorite period of Johnnie To. No longer satisfied with his special blend of genre storytelling, the director wants to be taken more seriously with densely layered, somewhat confusing narratives that contain more talking points than tense situations. The ending of Election is pretty superb, a gut punch to all the political chess plating that occurs up to then. I just don’t find him half as engaging as I used to.
I don’t think my downturn is related to the volume of films I’m watching. I’ve spaced this Marathon out and it’s taken half the month to get this far. I’m looking forward to what’s left because from the little I know, To goes away from narrative muddle and gets back to experimenting with genre expectations
The three films left:
Exiled (2006)
Sparrow (2008)
Vengeance (2009)