Review of PTU (2003) by Mattias E — 07 Jun 2009

After a series of light comedies Johnnie To finally returns to familiar noir-territory with the stylish PTU, to re-utilize the ultra-minimalistic style of late nineties classic The Mission. In essence this means lots of scenes completely devoid of dialogue and extremely stylized action set pieces.

In fact the latter are more like installations, so static it often seems time stands still. With it's refined aesthetic appeal, of which light and contrast are of major importance, PTU puts To's all previous work literally in the shade, and sometimes even creates a kind of verfremdungseffect.

Late night Hong Kong looks deserted in these images, like an empty stage. Realism is obviously not what To aims at here, which also sadly means less character depth and less emotional involvement. For it's stunning visuals, though, PTU deserves to be called a masterpiece.