Drug War: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
After losing control of his car and crashing into a local restaurant, a man loses consciousness on the street. Later, while working on a case, the police’s anti-drug division captain, Zhang Lei (Honglei Sun), realizes that the man in the crash is drug lord Tian Ming (Louis Koo). In order to avoid the death penalty, Tian Ming helps the police put a stop to the entire drug trafficking circuit, but just as soon as the police are ready to make a large bust, Tian Ming makes a decision that shocks everyone involved.
Fresh on the heels of the finale of Breaking Bad we have another meth story. This one comes from veteran director Johnnie To and shows just how much he has grown as a filmmaker. The performances are intense and believable which pulls you into the film immediately and you find yourself quickly forgetting that you’re reading subtitles the whole time. When that happens then you know you have a film with an excellent story. From beginning to end the film plays out as one long police sting operation which has its pros and cons. The good thing is that is had me intrigued the whole way and even had me on the edge of my seat with moments where Zhang Lei’s cover could’ve been blown. The only con of the film was that I wish other aspects of the drug running or manufacturing were explored. The finale sequence was just a “pull out all the stops” shoot out scenario which will definitely get the action crowd going. It’s very fast paced and a good way to not over think the film and just enjoy the chaos. Some of the editing could’ve been not trimmed down so much but it was otherwise an excellent ending to a really exciting film.
