Popular reviews

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  Review by Willow Maclay ★★★★

  The way Johnnie To sneaks about ten people into frame without overcrowding anything & still giving worth to every character present is some witchcraft.

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  Review by comrade_yui ★★★★★ 2

  johnnie to's ability to humanize the police here while still portraying the utter terror and oppression that they inflict is nothing short of a tonal miracle. he treats them with empathy and understanding, but never sympathy, and takes huge strides to show how exactly cops are a group of state-sponsored thugs that don't give a shit about the lives of everyday people. i've never seen someone thread that needle before, but here it's made to look easy as pie through the simple gestures of actors, smart writing and intricate environmental blocking.

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  Review by Sean Gilman ★★★★★ 2

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

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  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★

  Crime and punishment. The cat and mouse antics of cops vs. crooks stripped down to the base essentials. Palpable hostility and questionable extrajudicial application of force turned into a series of moody, minimalist, wide-angle tableaux setpieces. Feels like an unbearable slow-motion collision painted in harsh concrete, ringing cellphones, bleeding street lights, electric guitar wails, gunsmoke and blood mist, and the ambient hum of the city. Johnnie To the God.

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  Review by Logan Kenny ★★★★★ 1

  the depiction of Hong Kong here feels unlike any city I’ve ever seen in a movie. it seems like the sun will never rise.

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  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★★ 1

  Johnnie To dreaming of Hong Kong night and the many dramatic twists he can find in it.  The form is romantic, and the gaze is caustic. The tension between individualism and the cohesion of the unit always present. There is comedy on the overwhelming corruption, while the film image offers an escape. The filmmaking choreography in contrast to the nastiness of the action it contains. Beautiful and sharp.  I love To, but 2003/04 To is my favorite, a heroic film run.

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  Review by Will Sloan

  Tired of how movies promote unrealistic beauty standards. How could a normal person be expected to grow as much hair out of a mole on their chin as Lam Suet can?

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★½ 7

  Action! - Johnnie/Ringo's Hong Kong Actions: In The Mood For King To's Sweeping Realism

  One of those films that illustrate what makes Johnnie To distinctive as a filmmaker, and that is more than anything else the way he often uses space to create these simple but magnificent scenes. In the case of this picture, we get a terrific series of moments where everything is blocked in such a manner that it feels like a Western, especially in the final firefight where it is evident that everyone is in their position not by chance but by design, and with this, the fine line between reality and surrealism cracks. I especially enjoyed it near the end when the bodies are lying on…

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  Review by Christina ★★★★ 17

  officially rebranding as a johnnie to stan account… 

  splitting from criminal glory while remaining in his forte of stylish camaraderie, to lights a sizzling match under this procedural noir (the unofficial remake of kurosawa’s stray dog). a detective loses his gun—fearing it’s been used to commit a murder that ignited triad warfare, he enlists help from a buddy in the titular police tactical unit. from there we trail the woozy thrills of patrolling hong kong’s after hours, surreptitiously searching for a fellow officer’s weapon to exonerate his name. to’s film draws back the systematic “blue curtain” in the midst of denizen chaos, revealing the corporal bloodstained hands of corrupt loyalty—prioritizing one’s reputation over law and order. 

  in PTU, the audience winces…

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  Review by Lou (rhymes with wow!) ★★★★

  With PTU, Johnnie To basically makes one of those One Crazy Night movies, but instead of us following around a bunch of people getting into trouble/wasted, we follow around a special police squad who is frantically searching for their colleague's missing gun.

  At times very vicious, this really is a high quality crime drama. The entire thing just screams cool.

  None of the characters are very likeable, yet the movie remains such an enthralling watch.

  Absolutely wonderful.

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  Review by Justin Decloux ★★★★

  In the cavernously empty streets of Hong Kong, cops use their powers to viciously get one of their own out of trouble that he absolutely deserves.

  One can view it as a pure exercise in suspense, but it's impossible not to shiver at all of its real-life implications. Where Johnnie To's THE MISSION was the warm side of camaraderie between professionals, PTU is all about the rotten side of protecting your own.

  Wild to consider Milkway spun a film series out of this starring Simon Yam.

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  Review by Tao A ★★★★ 30

  Mesmerizing. At this point I think Johnnie To might just be the best director working today. No one blocks a scene or moves the camera like him and no one is as consistent. Especially not when you have like over 60 vastly diverse movies under your belt.