Drug War

Name: Drug War
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller, Crime
Released: July 26, 2013
Duration: 107 min
Rating: 86
Cast: Honglei Sun, Louis Koo, Michelle Ye, Yi Huang

2013

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 19 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 49 Ratings

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7.2

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7.2	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 49 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Variance Films | Release Date: July 26, 2013 | Not Rated

Starring: Honglei Sun, Louis Koo, Michelle Ye, Yi Huang

Summary: A drug cartel boss who is arrested in a raid is coerced into betraying his former accomplices as part of an undercover operation.

Director: Johnnie To

Genre(s): Action, Drama, Thriller, Crime

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 107 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

G. Allen Johnson

Aug 15, 2013

I'll go ahead and call Drug War the best Hong Kong action movie since "Infernal Affairs" (the 2002 film that Martin Scorsese remade as "The Departed"), even though technically it's a Chinese film. Read full review

100

Chuck Bowen

Jul 17, 2013

The film is a singularly huge, relentless, all-encompassing set piece that mutates and spasms with terrifying lack of foresight. It's all business, business, business. Read full review

IndieWire Eric Kohn

Jul 23, 2013

More traditional in terms of atmosphere and plot, Drug War nevertheless features a tense, unstoppable momentum, a morally ambiguous protagonist and hugely involving action scenes. Read full review

Deborah Young

Jul 17, 2013

In Drug War, Hong Kong genre master Johnnie To gives a superlative lesson on how to give an updated, thoroughly engrossing twist to the classic cops-and-robbers chase. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Simon Abrams

Jul 26, 2013

The film's flintiness and initially subdued nastiness set it apart from most other action films about the thin line separating cops from crooks. Read full review

Noel Murray

Jul 25, 2013

While Drug War is ultimately more an exercise in craft than a movie with a lot on its mind, it’s a remarkably skillful exercise, and hardly devoid of ideas. Read full review

Tom Russo

Oct 17, 2013

It’s clear To is striving to keep the action gripping and creative. Modestly inspired is more like it. Read full review

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User Reviews

lucianogeneroso

Jun 15, 2014

Not only a surprise, this is a great score for that part of the world. It's not a forged atmosphere, a lot action movies try (unsuccessfully usually). It's a serious movie, showing to Hollywood what is forgotten when the plot mixes guns, undercover agents and ferocious quest to overcome crime.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Motcritic

Dec 7, 2013

Its sad when people rate a movie or a game according to their expectations, quite egocentric, leading to misleading scores. Drug War is exactly what it claims to be, a crime thriller that mixes a good amount of drama and action, and does it very well, not without minor flaws.

The movieIts sad when people rate a movie or a game according to their expectations, quite egocentric, leading to misleading scores. Drug War is exactly what it claims to be, a crime thriller that mixes a good amount of drama and action, and does it very well, not without minor flaws.

The movie timeline is the summary of a couple of days, dialogue and character development is clearly not the goal of this movie. Therefore the 'Drama' isn't given by the usual standards since the viewer won't connect much with the characters, this choice works very well. No boring unessential nonsense dialogues to fill the movie.

Plot 9
Simple and very well done, presented in a linear timeline without any holes, held me to the screen until the very last scene, this is a thriller from the start to the end.

Cinematography 9
Good solid camera work, it has the right amount of movement and the shot montage in each scene is near perfect, the right pace for a thriller without at any time feeling like a drama or an action movie.

Action 7
Considering that this movie takes a more 'realistic' approach there's some action sequences that don't look as good as they could/should. While it never feels completely far-fetched, the same can be said about never feeling 'realistic', but its all acceptable and enjoyable.

Acting 9
Its not an acting intensive movie, but when the actors have to perform they do it very well.

Special Effects 8
Most of them are gun wounds and they made a good job, not perfect however.

A good movie, enjoyed every minute of it, strongly recommend it for any thriller and/or crime fans. If you aren't into this kind of movie, if you want a movie with a highly developed story and characters, then this is not the movie for you, and if you choose to watch it, don't go later criticize it negatively just because you expect every movie to fulfill your egocentric needs.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

narthur

Jul 19, 2014

Really big surprise, I expected a film full of actions (and with scenes of kung fu) but it have a really a good trama, good actors, and the end was really good and amazing.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

theseparator

Sep 22, 2013

The drab, dusty, industrial backdrop of what is purported as the unglamorous metropolis of Tian Jin, China, tacky haute facades are the setting for Drugs War’s series of raw, tension filled episodes. From a country riddled with censorship, Drugs Wars, a film by Johnnie To, is an unbridledThe drab, dusty, industrial backdrop of what is purported as the unglamorous metropolis of Tian Jin, China, tacky haute facades are the setting for Drugs War’s series of raw, tension filled episodes. From a country riddled with censorship, Drugs Wars, a film by Johnnie To, is an unbridled glimpse of organized crime and crystal meth in China. Although perhaps a tad sensationalistic, the film delivers a bold statement: the Chinese the drug market is alive and well.

Louis Koo plays a busted crystal meth baron who has a choice, either help police bust a massive organized crime syndicate, or be executed. He chooses to help police.

In an elaborate tireless scheme, actor Honglei Sun dazzlingly plays a police officer portraying a criminal in the attempt to infiltrate this upper echelon syndicate. The best scene of the film is when Sun’s character is forced to rail two massive lines of crystal meth as part of this act. The effects of the meth play out into a powerful piece of cinema. Post- OD, literally having come back from the edge death, the chase for the criminals continues with out a flinch.

At times this police tenacity is too exaggerated to be believable. The chase for the bad guys goes on endlessly for days. None of the cops ever eat or sleep. They seem to have inexhaustible resources at their disposal. They are able to commandeer an entire harbor just to put on a show of authenticity for the crooks. The cops risk their lives over and over, and for what? To rid the world of a few truckloads of drugs? The conventional divide between the good guy cops and bad guy criminals doesn’t blur, until it does. After an epic final gun battle, we have no idea who’s who.

Drug Wars attains excellence as an action movie and serves as a rare example of a controversial work to emerge from a country that produces so much state-approved propaganda.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

JLuis_001

Sep 6, 2017

A huge and pleasant surprise that I found on television. This is a very good, intense and frantic thriller, it is very well crafted and is quite entertaining.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

snoozepill

Jul 27, 2013

I really don't understand the wildly positive reviews this is getting. It's a basic police procedural. A drug dealer gets busted and agrees to cooperate with the police, but his allegiances remain unclear until the final third of the film. You can guess where this one's going. The last 15I really don't understand the wildly positive reviews this is getting. It's a basic police procedural. A drug dealer gets busted and agrees to cooperate with the police, but his allegiances remain unclear until the final third of the film. You can guess where this one's going. The last 15 minutes are full of over the top John Woo-style gun violence, but it's nothing worth sitting through the rest of the movie to see, especially since the film gives you absolutely no reason to care whether any of the characters live or die. Don't bother with this garbage.… Expand

5 of 9 users found this helpful54

financialwar

Mar 9, 2015

Really 86 for this crap? First of all, Cantanese and Mandarin are two mutually unintelligible languages, as a Chinese, it is utterly ridiculous that characters can talk to each other in two cantanese and mandarin, and it's annoying for as audience.

Utter crap.

0 of 5 users found this helpful05

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