Joseph_Gillis A police captain assigns his unit to help a colleague retrieve his gun, lost in an altercation with a street-gang, before a reporting deadline expires.Just as much as the style and the look, it's the choreography and orchestration - and the way To shuffles the characters and objects about on his late-night chessboard; and the sound-scapes, in addition to the glorious night-lit streets and skyline which delight almost to the extent that the opening restaurant confrontational, ultimately tragic, musical chairs and climactic set-piece shoot-out serve as mere book-ends for what comes between. Or even, as brief irritants.The characters don't particularly matter either - although there are some particularly wonderful-looking villains - because they're all just pawns for this visual, and aural feast.You've seen plenty of tyre-squealer car-chases - maybe you've seen too many of them; To's come up with a new angle: the cars that glide at intervals through city streets, unobtrusively, apparently disinterestedly, and almost noiselessly - perhaps just to get you thinking "now I wonder what they're up to'? A crime film where all the cars keep within the speed limit? Shurely shome mishtake? And then there's the kid on the bicycle: by the time of his third sighting you're wondering is he a midget gang member, or undercover cop - or afterhours drugs mule, even; and will it be his fate to be ripped apart with bullets, by all sides? How cruel could that be, for somebody so young? It's all about building tension, and keeping you on edge - or maybe filling in the spaces on that chessboard.There are some great scenes and ideas, too - of course: as with that opening restaurant scene where various customers get re-assigned according to their place in the hierarchy, and phone messages that we only later become privy to, have fatal consequences. Then there's the tense confrontational scene in the video-game arcade, with the array of flashing video screens vieing for our attention with a synchronised symphony of unanswered cell-phones; and there's the men in cages, bent over almost triple.Thematically, it reminds me of Kurosawa's 'Stray Dog' - and there may have been more than one scene of that classic referenced; visually; and to a certain extent narrative-wise, it reminded me of Scorsese's 'After Hours'. The boy on the bicycle reminded me of the boy in 'The Third Man', and also of 'M'. But these were only in passing: To obviously has his influences, but his style is all his own. And, sometimes, style matters.

politic1983 This is another film purchased on DVD while in Hong Kong last summer and that for some reason or other I never got round to watching, which is a shame, because it's a good little film. 'PTU' – or 'Police Tactical Unit' (do you want to see my unit?) – follows the plight of Detective Lo, as he searches for his gun; lost to street punks. Enlisting the help of fellow officers, he roams the streets on Tsim Sha Tsui in hope of retrieving it by dawn.Directed by Johnnie to, this feels like one of those fun films that gets made quickly in between much larger productions, a la 'Chungking Express', also set in Hong Kong. The plot is simple enough – though the characters may not always be – and it is easy to dip in and out of without too much thought.Filmed with wide-angled lenses, with close-up shots, this is classic Hong Kong cinema: capturing the claustrophobic nature of the milieu, with bright lights, dingy streets and an endless array of colourful characters trading blows through the night. Hardly To's best work, but a further stamp in his place as the John Woo for the new millennium and probably the best director from the SAR over the last decade.Using regular collaborators, such as Simon Yam and big-and-beautiful Suet Lam, To's police are a far cry from the hapless characters of Jackie Chan's 1980s, giving the impression that if one thing is illegal in Hong Kong: it's smiling. The look and feel are both slick and stylish and cult at the same time, though the music – typically a weak point in Hong Kong films, bar the work of Wong Kar-wai – is, at times, more sixth-form college hopeful with a synthesizer after a two litre bottle of Tizer than professional. But that's minor, and along with 'Breaking News' and 'Exiled', 'PTU' shows that To is the master of the roaming groups of loners…in Hong Kong and Macau, at least.www.politic1983.blogspot.com

Robin Cook I rented this on DVD yesterday and did not realize it was a "character study" type of movie, so I struggled to watch about an hour of it before hitting the Stop button.Even with a character study theme, I just could not get into this film at all. Perhaps it was my mood in wanting to watch something else, or maybe I had other expectations, but setting that aside, I tried my best to move on to finish watching, but gave up. The actors played their roles well, but the global combination did not come together to keep my interest. About the only interesting thing was the sergeant's gun being stolen and he hurried to buy another one, and spray painted it black to appear as police issue. I think this movie should have been entitled, "Who Stole the Sergeant's Gun?" Scenes were well done but putting them together I once again felt robbed for anything cohesive to keep me viewing.Since I didn't finish watching it I'd say there is some merit to renting this film ... maybe. To me, it was a waste of good viewing effort and time. I'll leave it up to you to try it, but it's not one I'd strongly recommend.

NIXFLIX-DOT-COM Johnny To returns to THE MISSION territory, where style is of utmost importance, and dialogue is for weak directors who can't tell a narrative film. Or at least that's one of many conclusions to be drawn from PTU, a film that has less to do with telling a story than it is to look, feel, and be cool. And yes, it is quite cool to behold.Simon Yam leads the cast, once more proving that any movie starring Simon Yam, Anthony Wong, or Francis Ng can't be bad. PTU further proves this theory of mine.The ending deserves mention, because it will most likely be pointed out to by many people. The ending will only seem "weak" if one takes the film seriously up to this point. This is not a movie, this is a study of movement, of telling a movie without actually bothering with all the things that encompass the making of a "movie". I.e. Nothing of real consequence will have happened by movie's end.7 out of 10.