Drug War

Director Johnnie To （杜琪峰） remains a controversial figure in intellectual film circles for being seemingly inconsistent in mood and melody in his films. Still， he is considered a directorial auteur for staying true to his methods during periods in which style and even technique have dramatically altered. To’s work almost always encompasses the constantly changing nature of Hong Kong. While some focus on his earlier happy-go-lucky romantic comedies， others focus on his dark and bleak crime noirs that reinterpret the nature of the Chinese Triad （三合會 S`nh9hu#） gangster in an ironic and nihilistic light. To spent his youth in Hong Kong’s housing projects， which ultimately became Triad havens. In a spring 2007 interview with Robert Cashill， To revealed that his gangster films were a response to what he deemed an oversimplified and greatly exaggerated image of the Triads， put forward by then directorial veterans John Woo （吳宇森） and Andrew Lau （劉偉強） in their own films concerning Chinese gangsters.

In many ways， To’s aesthetic is modified for Drug War， his first foray into the mainland film industry. Drug War is set in Tianjin， and prominently features veteran Chinese actor Sun Honglei （孫紅雷） as a narcotics special division police captain Zhang Lei， To-film veteran Louis Koo （古天樂） as ambiguous drug dealer Timmy Choi， and Crystal Huang （黃奕） as Zhang’s right hand agent. Timmy is captured by the narcotics division and agrees to help end the cocaine-smuggling drug ring on the condition that he is spared the death penalty， although he plays both sides against each other throughout the film.

Drug wars don’t happen very often in the Chinese public limelight， let alone in Chinese cinema. Such controversial topics are usually shunned by Chinese directors and production studios who prefer to “play it safe” with period pieces and gratuitously nationalist anti-Japanese war films. In cases of exception， the box office can get away with more gore， sex， foul language， and violence if it can politically justify its use of offending materials. As such， creating more nuanced movies that push the envelope on such cinematic taboos—topics such as drug use， nudity， sexual content and violence—is often up to Hong Kong and Taiwanese directors. As the postcolonial older brother of the two and subsequent inheritor of European cinematographic auteurism， Hong Kong filmmakers have shouldered the yoke of this thematic role. Certainly then， the blatantly-titled Drug War makes no pretensions about its mission； to go boldly where no Chinese film has gone before.

To provides a glimpse of Tianjin that most people will have never seen on the Chinese silver screen： a gritty， filthy and sprawling city with all the industrial glamour of a hunk of coal. There are no gleaming malls， glamorous apartment buildings or glitzy actresses. Instead， Drug War finds itself worming through decrepit makeshift warehouses， sprawling highways and crusty harbors， all conveyed in a bleak grey that reeks of pollution. Drug War is To’s attempt to not only redirect the topical taboos in Chinese cinema but also reinterpret the shooting locations in mainland cinema， gives us a nuanced， even negative， perception of a fatally-flawed， industrial Tianjin. Obviously， this has high implications for what Chinese censorship deems palatable and acceptable for a Chinese audience， particularly with regards to this film. Allowing such an altogether negative image of Tianjin would almost never be allowed in any Chinese film. Letting To push the envelope on diegesis breaks open the door for more nuanced films in the future.

Interestingly， Drug War ends in a gunfight between police and the antagonist drug dealers， during which many of both side are killed. The majority of Chinese films are not allowed to show police officers being killed or being capable of misjudgment， as their image is highly controlled by Chinese censors and the Public Safety Bureau itself. In light of To’s corpus of work， Drug War finds itself surprisingly light on action； more time is spent in hotel rooms and highways interrogating and investigating criminals than on gunfights.