A Propaganda Duel: Johnnie To's Breaking News
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 11 окт 2024
- Johnnie To's "Breaking News" works as a heroic-bloodshed-style action flick. However, the meta-textual propaganda war between crooks with cellphones, and cops partnered with TV agencies, is where it truly shines.
finally a youtuber who talk about breaking news without reducing it to the opening oner
For me Johnnie To is one if the best and most consistent directors of his generation.
From 1995-2012 he did put out a string of consistently great movies (along with some forgettable genre movies). From there, he got worse. I don't blame him for that though. Mainland China's influence on his decisions affected his work ethics drastically. Now To wants nothing but pure HK filmmaking style back and refuses to work in the Mainland ever again
Johnnie To is one of the most underrated directors of his time. Breaking News is a masterpiece and the Russian remake isn't bad either.
He’s been putting out a quality film every time for over a decade now. Also had no idea there was a Russian version! Will have to give that a spin
What's the name of the Russian film?
he is really only underrated in the west, while in Hong Kong or even China and Taiwan, he is very notable
This was the first HK film I ever saw. I bought it because the front cover caught my eye in the shop (this would have been circa 2008 when DVD stores were still important). I'm a Brit and this was my introduction into "Hong Kong" (which had been handed back for about 10 years by this point). I didn't realise how many things looked similar (obscure things like driving on the right and police that are based on ours etc). It was enough to make me visit a few years later.
There's a few parts of this film I don't quite understand the humour in and it would be nice to have a Hong Konger explain the nuances to me. I watched the Mission this week and that is particularly nuanced.
The first scene of B.N is a masterclass.
Great analysis! It's very rare and a pleasure to see content about Johnnie To, which sadly is still not well known in the west. The fact that (imo) Breaking News is not even one of his best ten movies says a lot about this great filmmaker. Also, other than Throw Down, in the last months A Hero Never Dies, PTU, Expect the Unexpected and The Longest Nite got new blu ray releases
Yeah, there are some pretty big gaps in his filmography for me - I love PTU, but I haven’t seen those others, or Sparrow, which I’ve heard rocks. I first learned about him with Exiled, and along with what’s referenced in the video, I’m a big fan of the Election films, Vengeance, and Drug War. As with a lot of Asian cinema, western distributors seem to only release his stuff if they can market it as nonstop action mayhem, when he’s so much more than that.
His peak was in the late 90', basically all the movies I wrote above plus The Mission (btw, the copy you used in the video is pretty poor, I can provide a higher quality one if you need). Also, If you want to dig more, I recommend the book Johnnie To and the Hong Kong Action Film by Stephen Teo and the chapter about To inside Planet Hong Kong by David Bordwell.
I don’t think a blu ray for A Hero Never Dies exists.
@@isaacpartridge4493 It was released by the french label Spectrum Films over a year ago. There is also a japanese version.
Nice video, Johnnie To is a great director and this movie is my Favorite from him
Great analysis. What's the name of the song playing the back ground of this video?
I sampled it from the end credits; Ben Cheung & Chung Chi-wing are the composers, but I’m not sure what it’s called! Someone else might, I learn things from my comments every video