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A great thriller by Johnnie To and wry look at how 21st century news is broadcast all rolled into one – Hong Kong filmmaking at it’s best…
When a police operation to catch a ruthless gang of bank robbers goes wrong, live cameras broadcast footage of a police crying and begging for his life on Hong Kong television.
Deciding to turn the gangs capture into a public relations exercise, police Commissioner Rebecca Fong (Kelly Chen, An Empress and the Warriors, Infernal Affairs, Tokyo Riders), engages the press to watch Hong Kong’s finest successfully and efficiently bring down the gang, now hiding in an apartment block with father Yip (Lam Suet, Exiled, Election, Mad Detective) and his two children hostage.
Things don’t go to plan, though, as the apartment block also contains two assassins, soon holed up in the same flat, and the tenacious detective in charge of the original operation, Inspector Cheung (Nick Cheung, Exiled, The Beast Stalker), who refuses to give up even when ordered.
Soon the gangs’ leader Yuen (Richie Ren, Accident, Sniper) gets the better of Rebecca’s plan and starts turning the tables on the police’s version of events. In this game of wits, can the police win the publics confidence, let alone capture the criminals?
Undoubtedly one of Johnnie To’s finest works, shamefully it was the Russian language remake Newsmakers that brought me to it – a film that stands alongside Infernal Affairs as one of the best Hong Kong movies of the last decade. As fine as remake was, it really doesn’t compare to the original.
Utterly enthralling from the start, it’s in the sort of film that can totally engross you in moments, the kind that can make you forget where you are watching it in chucks on a tiny screen. (Trust me, I’ve tried!)
The infamous opening tracking shot beautifully sets the pace. Mellow music plays while To follows the action spiralling from a peaceful if lively street with cops staking our their intended arrests, to an all out gunfight and even a bazooka explosion.
All the time the camera weaves in an out of buildings, up and down the street, from above and below, in the sort of perfectly choreographed way that would make Brian DePalma jealous. He forces us, the audience, to be constantly one step behind, eternally a spectator.
(It also brilliant sets a core theme of one level of cops inadvertently stepping into larger operations, the beat cops step into Cheung’s operation as he does exactly the same later.)
A wonderfully wry observation of our modern consumption of news media, flippantly played out like a reality TV show, it’s hard not to draw parallels over the authorities inability to control the media with China’s own habit of wanting to control the Internet (an observation that can’t have been lost on its original Hong Kong audience).
With superb performances by the cast, including Johnnie To favourites Nicky, Suet and Richie, Breaking News is a superb thriller, even if you don’t like thrillers!
A genuine Hong Kong classic!
DVD details
Distributor: Palm Pictures (US)
Considering the age of the movie, this US transfer seems quite disappointing. It's not as sharp as you might expect, and the colours seem overly dull.
On the plus side, the extras mirror the original HK release, with a 'making of' featurette, and a deleted scene. Though it doesn't say on the DVD itself (why do they forget to do that?) the scene appears to come before the fantastic opening, showing some of the background in Inspector Cheung's relentless pursuit of the bank robbers. Interesting, but you can see why they lost it.
Perhaps you might be better looking out for the Blu-ray version?
