China’s all-time highest grossing crime thriller, “Drug War”, opens at the 4-Star Theater this Friday. Directed by Johnnie To, the film is about a drug cartel boss who is arrested in a raid, and is then coerced into betraying his former accomplices as part of an undercover operation.
Manufacturing just fifty grams of meth in China will earn you a death sentence, and Timmy Choi (Louis Koo) has manufactured tons of it. After a violent lab accident, he’s in the custody of Captain Zhang (Sun Honglei), and now he has only one chance to avoid execution: turn informant and help Zhang’s undercover team take down the powerful cartel he’s been cooking for. But as the uneasy allies are forced to compress months of police work into just 72 sleepless hours, the increasingly desperate police are quickly stretched past their limits. As things spin wildly out of control, the line between duty and recklessness is blurred, and it becomes unclear whether the cop or the criminal truly has the upper hand.
Film reviewer Simon Abrams gives Drug War 4.5/5 stars, writing, “The fact that the film’s drama isn’t personal but rather about a clash of inevitably similar personalities makes “Drug War” that much more devastating. It’s a strong film until it kicks into overdrive, and becomes an exceptional effort from a master filmmaker.”
Drug War stars Louis Koo and Sun Honglei and will be shown at the 4-Star beginning this Friday in Mandarin and Cantonese with English subtitles.
Sarah B.