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Released by: Well Go USA
Released on: October 15, 2013.
Director: Johnnie To
Cast: Louis Koo, Honglei Sun, Yi Huang
Year: 2012
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The Movie:
Johnnie To's latest crime thriller to come to domestic shores is 2012's Drug War, a movie that centers around Timmy Choi (Louis Koo), a man who runs a meth lab in China. His life goes to hell when the lab explores and kills not only his wife and kid but her two brothers as well. A cop named Captain Zhang (Sun Honglei) brings Timmy in and he's basically given the death sentence. To get out of this, he offers to help the cops bring in some of the men responsible for some drug operations even larger than the one he was running.
As such, Timmy and Zhang become begrudging allies and Zhang decides to go deep undercover to infiltrate the Chinese drug trade using Timmy as his way in. As their plan develops, things start to get increasingly tense between the two of them. As Zhang's ambitions and Choi's sense of self-preservation collide, what initially seemed like a mutually beneficial situation soon descends into a labyrinth of suspicion and betrayal.
As much a police procedural as it is an action film, Drug War is a pretty engaging thriller that takes a hard look at drug use and the authorities' efforts to curb it in mainland China. It's a violent film that deals heavily in the loyalty that develops between the men on both sides of the spectrum and which also offers up theoretical repercussions as to what can go wrong when those loyalties are broken. Surprisingly enough the censors in mainland China don't appear to have chopped out some of the harder content present in the film, it's quite a violent picture, but you've got to wonder if the convenience that occurs towards the movie's finish wasn't a concession to the powers that be. Without heading into spoiler territory the way things all tie together in the end has an air of happy convenience to it that feels at odds with some of the movie's more challenging content.
The good does most certainly outweigh the bad here, however. To has worked with Louis Koo a few times at this point so it's probably a safe assumption that they have a strong working relationship. This likely helped in coaxing out a really good performance from Koo who is quite believable in his part and we really get a feel for the inner turmoil his character is dealing with. Likewise, Sun Honglei does great work here as well. We can buy him as a cop and it's interesting to see how his performance shifts in tone as his character goes undercover.
The film does build really nicely, and as the intricacies of the plot begin to unfold, the film easily sucks us in and keeps us on the edge of our seat. A few stylish action sequences and great use of color help to keep the film visually interesting while the way in which the story handles the details of police procedure without ever getting bogged down in minutia and risk slowing the pace works quite well. This is an efficient film to be sure, but it makes great use of the mainland shooting locations and its talented leads to bring a strong script to vivid life.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Shot on high grade professional digital video cameras, the transfer on this AVC encoded 1080p high definition release frames the movie at 2.40.1 widescreen and it looks excellent. As you'd expect, there's no dirt or debris here (one of the benefits of a digital to digital transfer) and detail is generally outstanding. Colors are nicely reproduced and look quite natural most of the time even if they are a little on the bleak side in terms of style. Black levels are strong throughout and contrast is solid. No complaints here, this is an excellent looking transfer from Well Go USA.
The Chinese language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix is also very strong. Though you'd think that this might be one of those tracks that beats you over the head with shoots outs and action sequences, and there are moments where this is the case, but at times the sound mix is more subtle than that. Yes, there are moments of intense surround activity but more often than that the film relies on a more subdued mix. There are stretches here without any action that are instead more dialogue and mood based - pay attention during this more restrained moments and you'll pick up on some subtle but effective use of the surrounds which all goes towards building some welcome ambience and atmosphere in these scenes. There are no alternate language options but a Chinese Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix is also on the disc and optional English subtitles are available.
Aside from previews for a few other Well-Go USA properties that play before the menu screens load, there are no extras on this disc save for a trailer for the feature.
The Final Word:
Drug War finds To and company in fine form as the picture delivers some rock solid acting, excellent direction and loads of wonderful tension in a setting that is believably gritty and realistic. The movie unravels a little bit towards the end but certainly not enough to ruin the picture and if Well-Go USA's Blu-ray is unusually light on extras for a film of this pedigree, it looks and sounds great and is absolutely worth checking out.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
