Breaking News

I have watched a few of Johnnie To's movies before, which I enjoyed, so I decided to buy the "Breaking News" DVD. Like his other movies, it was not too bad. I'm looking forward to watching "Election", which is supposed to be his best movie to date. The opening sequence of "Breaking News" start off with a gunfight between Hong Kong cops and a gang of armed thugs. It was shot so cool-ly. Is that a word? Western movie directors should take note of how gun battles should be portrayed. It was raw. It was real. It was perhaps sort of like watching something that could occur in real life. Well. Not really. But you get the idea of what I'm trying to convey here. The plot of the movie is about the police giving a live news coverage of the Hong Kong police apprehending or subduing a gang of thugs that apparently made the Hong Kong police look incompent in another incident. In order to portray the police in a better light, the news reports are edited. The bad guys are given characters as well as the cops so the viewer sees why they do what they are doing on both sides. This gives the movie viewer not just a one sided view to route for the good side like what most movies try to do. That is why I liked this movie as well as Johnnie To's other movies. Other action movies that I've seen directed by Johnnie To is "Running on Karma" and "PTU". You should check those movies out if you want to see one of the best directors in Hong Kong, in my opinion. One a scale between 1 to 10, this one is a 7/10.