Review of Drug War (2012) by Caesar M — 13 Aug 2013

The crime genre is perhaps one of the most difficult to work with storytelling. Being home to hundreds of classics and iconic criminals it's daunting to create anything on the level as the genre greats. Du Zhan (Drug War in English) goes into detail into the process of stopping a drug cartel doing so with an original story, tense atmosphere, and a unpredictable nature to keep your attention.

Drug War (Du Zhan) follows a drug cartel boss who is arrested in a raid is coerced into betraying his former accomplices as part of an undercover operation. The plot moves at its own deliberate pace for a cerebral experience. Slowly moving becoming more intricate showing the procedural of China's finest attempting to capture drug cartels and the criminals avoiding being captured. Both the police and criminals are given equal treatment in how they are presented. None of them ever come out with the upper hand seeing both sides constantly having to change tactics to survive no matter the lengths of their go is. It allows time to give a variety of criminals and law enforcers their own personalities and allowing room for some lowbrow laughs. Giving two distinct feel in how each side is viewing the on going events. With the exception of a bullet hail storm in the last twenty minutes it feels realistic. Nothing here asks you to suspend your disbelief nor does it fall victims to tropes of the genre. Containing a unpredictable nature that'll constantly have eagerly wanting to see what happens next. Focusing on an untrusting loyalty between the rat and the police and the different goals they strive for. Its tone is grim with the outcome devastating putting everything into perspectives of the risks both sides face from each other.

Sun Honglei and Luis Koo performances are strongly versatile. Sun Honglei stoic nature brings weight into the film and even humor when imitating another criminal over the top behavior. He unflinchingly can transit from being a hard boiled cop to a loose canon criminal with ease. Luis Koo on the other hand is the exact opposite of Honglei. He's plays a cunning and desperate criminal who you could never fully trust. He gets across an aura where he comes across trustworthy but never reliable. Adding tension as you'll never sure what Koo intentions are being difficult to read. The supporting cast also sports Johnnie To's regular such as Lam Suet, Gordon Lam, Eddie Cheung, Lo Hoi Pang and Michelle Ye. All of whom deliver a solid performance in their role showing commitment no matter the size of their role. To's direction is masterful. He brings a cold tone and darkly color gritty look to his film. When needed to he keep things grounded and realistic. When it comes to the few action scenes (in the last thirty minutes) he keeps gunfights fresh with perfectly time usage of slow motion and variety in the choreography. Not simply staying in place waiting for someone to get out of to shoot them dead. To's action never feels restrained in their execution and a easy free flowing feel to them even if exaggerating how many bullets these character can take before dying.

Du Zhan (Drug War) is a phenomenal crime film that keeps your eye glue from beginning to end. It's an intelligent film pitting two equally opposing sides against each other for an appropriately grim and devastating outcome. Sun Honglei and Luis Koo bring top notch performances with interplay with one another bringing an extra layer of weight to an already well written script. It doesn't inherently bring anything new to the genre, but succeeds in being something greater with the rules it played by.