Drug War (Johnnie To, Louis Koo)

[SimBelm]

One of the top films of the year for me. To fluidly orchestrates one exhilarating set piece after another with such precision and without resorting to unnecessary explanations of the elaborate plans made by the key characters (whilst still letting the audience understand them completely). David Bordwell wrote a great piece on the film particularly in regards to the way it only drops a specific piece of exposition once and never again, sometimes dangling a clue in front of you which you will only understand later in the film (if you're paying attention). By cutting off all the usual fatty exposition found in modern action films as well as rejecting the cliche tendency of police procedurals to focus on the cops' emotional relationships and back stories, To leaves you with 72 hours of pure intrigue and action condensed into less than 2, a cat and mouse play which is both suspenseful and engrossing.