PTU (Hong Kong, 2003) [CVF 2021]
One of Johnnie To’s most nocturnal of films, especially since it takes place within the course of one evening into the wee hours, PTU is...
Chasing Dream (Hong Kong/China, 2019) [NYAFF 2020]
For those who are familiar with the filmography of Hong Kong auteur Johnnie To, Chasing Dream is less of a surprise in terms of its...
Reflections on Surface Culture in The Mission (1999) [DCCFF 2017]
One of Johnnie To’s breakout films, The Mission plays like an insider’s view on Hong Kong gangster cinema. If John Woo — the filmmaker who was globally...
Preview – Creative Visions: Hong Kong Cinema 1997-2017, TIFF Bell Lightbox, June 23-25
In partnership with Create Hong Kong and the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society with support from the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in...
Love on a Diet (Hong Kong, 2001)
This doesn’t happen as often anymore, but back in the early 2000s, Johnnie To would space out his highly stylized crime thrillers with crowd pleasing...
To Dreams of Kurosawa; or, Space of Authorship and Homage in Johnnie To’s Throwdown (2004)
Between the last shot of Throwdown and its ending credits, Johnnie To reveals a dedication: ‘A Salute to Akira Kurosawa, the Greatest Filmmaker.’ This video...
Johnnie To’s Shadowplay: A Cinema of Space and Orientation
This video essay is the first in a multipart series on Johnnie To’s ‘nocturnal’ films of the 2000s. Modern-era Hong Kong cinema is about many...
CRIME: Hong Kong Style, HOME, Manchester, UK
The crime cinema of Hong Kong has always had a distinctive flavor with its iconic star personas, vibrant filmmaking technique, and unique urban milieu defined by cultural...
PTU (Hong Kong, 2003)
The crime genre has been a staple of Hong Kong cinema since the 1980s with both cops and criminals being the focus of these films,...
Accident (Hong Kong, 2009)
Stamped with the Milky Way seal of approval and coming from a director on a hot streak of strange, brutal but unique films, Accident sets to...