and present RUN TIME/FORMAT 105 min DCP/Blu-ray 2.35 Scope Color MPAA RATING Not rated, recommended for 17 and up (for some strong violence and graphic drug use) RELEASE DATE July 26, 2013 (NYC), August 2 (LA), August/September 2013 (Regional expansion) DAY/DATE OR ACCELERATED VOD/DVD WINDOW? No- theatrical only. THEATRICAL RELEASE CONTACT Dylan Marchetti, Variance Films / dylan@variancefilms.com, 212-537-6769 x1 PUBLICITY CONTACTS NYC- Emma Griffiths, EG-PR / emma@eg-pr.com, 917-438-5074 LOS ANGELES Alex Klenert, Prodigy PR / ak@prodigypublicrelations.com, 310-857-2020 REGIONAL Kristen Osborne, Variance Films / kristen@variancefilms.com, 212-537-6769 x2 ASSET DOWNLOADS (STILLS, POSTER, TRAILER) variancefilms.com/drugwarpress DRUG WAR is presented in its full, original international cut and Cantonese/Mandarin language (with English subtitles)
SYNOPSIS LONG FORM Manufacturing just fifty grams of meth in China will earn you a death sentence, and Timmy Choi (Louis Koo) has manufactured tons of it. After a violent lab accident, he's in the custody of Captain Zhang (Sun Honglei), and now he has only one chance to avoid execution: turn informant and help Zhang s undercover team take down the powerful cartel he s been cooking for. But as the uneasy allies are forced to compress months of police work into just 72 sleepless hours, the increasingly desperate police are quickly stretched past their limits. As things spin wildly out of control, the line between duty and recklessness is blurred, and it becomes unclear whether the cop or the criminal truly has the upper hand. Long considered the master of the Hong Kong crime thriller, Johnnie To s first mainland production eschews two guns at once mayhem in favor of atmosphere and a tightly-wound plot punctuated with impeccably choreographed bursts of violence, making DRUG WAR an intricate puzzle box of a film that ignited a firestorm of controversy in its homeland. SHORT FORM Manufacturing just fifty grams of meth in China will earn you a death sentence, and Timmy Choi (Louis Koo) has manufactured tons of it. After a violent lab accident, he's in the custody of Captain Zhang (Sun Honglei), and now he has only one chance to avoid execution: turn informant and help Zhang s undercover team take down the powerful cartel he s been cooking for. With the uneasy allies forced to compress months of police work into just 72 sleepless hours, things begin to spin wildly out of control, and it becomes unclear whether the cop or the criminal truly has the upper hand in master director Johnnie To s puzzle box of a crime thriller.
THE CAST Captain Zhang Timmy Choi Yang Xiaobei Xu Guoxiang Guo Weijun Chen Shixong Senior Dumb Junior Dumb Birdie Su East Lee Sal Fatso Hatred Darkie Haha s Wife Brother Haha Captain Liu (Erzhou) Lin Driver Driver 2 Snake Head Ming s Wife Li Shuchang Uncle Bill Sun Honglei Louis Koo Huang Yi Gao Yunxiang Wallace Chung Li Guangjie Guo Tao Li Jing Lo Hoi Pang Cheung Siu Fai Lam Ka Tung Michelle Ye Lam Suet Ng Yuk San Keung Hon Man Gan Tingting Hao Ping Cheng Taishen Zi Yi Xiao Cong Gao Xin Ying Zhushen Wang Zixuan Tan Kai Li Zhenqi
THE FILMMAKERS Directed by Producers Screenplay by Editor Supervising Editor Costume Designer Art Director Music Director of Photography Cinematographer Executive Producers Production Manager Line Producer Johnnie To Johnnie To Wai Ka-Fai Wai Ka-Fai Yau Nai Hoi Ryker Chan Yu Xi Allen Leung David Richardson Boey Wong Horace Ma Xavier Jamaux Cheng Siu Keung (H.K.S.C.) To Hung Mo Liu Yanming Gu Guoquin Yan Xiaoming Jackson Ha Elaine Chu Beijing Hairun Pictures LTD Huaxia Film & Distribution Corporation CCTV 6 Movie Channel present A Milkyway Image (HK) Limited production a Johnnie To film DRUG WAR Distributed in China/Hong Kong by Media Asia Film Distribution (HK) Limited Presented in North America by Well Go USA and Variance Films
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION In 1999, the Hong Kong film industry was at its nadir. With leading commercial filmmakers like John Woo and Tsui Hark having defected to Hollywood and megastars like Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat and Jet Li following close behind, the productions had largely become stale and audiences weren t interested. Johnnie To s production company, Milkyway Image, was struggling as well. The Triad and crime thrillers that had been To s trademark simply weren t connecting. In a meeting with longtime producing partner Wai Ka-Fai, they came upon a solution. The audience was complaining about the quality of Hong Kong films, so, they d give the audience what they wanted by taking their talents and applying them to some truly commercial films. The first, the romantic comedy Needing You, starring Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng (and co-directed by To and Ka-Fai), was a smash, out-grossing every other Hong Kong film for the last several years, rivaling even John Woo s Hollywood blockbuster Mission Impossible 2, and is widely considered a key pivot point in the revival of the Hong Kong film industry. Since then, To has been on a tear, mixing the occasional light-hearted comedy or romance with a nearly unprecedented streak of critically acclaimed thrillers and dramas that have earned prestigious slots and nominations at the big three international festivals (Cannes, Venice, Berlin). Films like PTU, Election 1 and 2 (aka Triad Election), Mad Detective, and Exiled are cornerstones of the Hong Kong crime thriller genre, which is all the more impressive considering To and Ka-Fai shrewdly obtained financing for the pictures through comedies like 2001 s Love on a Diet (a delightfully bizarre romp re-teaming Lau and Cheng after the success of Needing You, this time wearing latex fat suits) and 2002 s back-to-back comedies My Left Eye Sees Ghosts and Fat Choi Spirit (a highly profitable foray into the genre of Mahjong films). After the success of two romantic comedies filmed in mainland China (as opposed to Hong Kong, To s typical stomping ground), where the film industry and attendance is booming, To and Ka-Fai decided to make a crime thriller set on the mainland. There was considerable debate as to how exactly to go about things- censorship, often an issue in Hong Kong, is incredibly strict for mainland films. Another romantic comedy would be the safest bet. To remarked, out of five hundred plus films produced in the mainland each year, only two or three are crime thrillers. Why? There are reasons behind that. Nonetheless, To and Ka-Fai decided to press ahead. With the new film intended to be To s highest-budgeted film ever, the director and producer decided to go for accuracy, thinking this would not only be more thrilling for the audience but could potentially help get the film past the censor board unscathed. Before the script was written, To and Ka-Fai immersed themselves in extensive research. They met with dozens of mainland police officers, from high-ranking brass to new recruits, and collected dozens of great stories. In the end, many of those were ruled out for being too controversial and therefore unlikely to ever get past the Censor Board, and others were ruled out for being so outlandish that the filmmakers feared audiences simply wouldn t believe them. They decided on a story about the drug enforcement unit of the police. China is currently facing a very unique problem with drugs, and the figures show that s it s not one demographic that s the problem. In one province, the issue may be poor, rural youth who have recently relocated to urban areas, in another, it may be young, newly wealthy young adults emulating Western club culture (and the drugs that come with it). Regardless, it s indisputable that a byproduct of China s recent boom years has resulted in the use of hard drugs skyrocketing. Methamphetamine (crystal meth, also known as ice, shabu, and bingdu in China) has been a particular concern, due partially to the nearly unrestricted availability of key ingredients such as pseudoephedrine and ephedrine that are largely manufactured in China, and in the end, that s what the filmmakers elected to base their story around. To remarked, nobody will disagree with the idea of arresting drug dealers. I felt this story would be safe [from censorship].
As To and Ka-Fai dug deeper into research, they found themselves fascinated by the complexity of the operations on both ends. On one hand, the police were incredibly well equipped and well funded, and many of the officers took the fight against drugs quite personally, putting in 18-20 hour days. But on the other, the drug manufacturers had been constantly adapting to police techniques, using a mix of high-tech equipment and extremely ingenious, low-tech solutions to keep the police at bay. Of particular surprise to the filmmakers was the shocking level of violence involved. Despite strict gun control in China, in areas where the drug trade is active, massive gunfights were common- in Yunnan province alone, over two hundred police officers have died in drug-related gunfights in the last several years. One reason for this may be attributable to mainland China s zero-tolerance policy on drug possession and manufacturing: the manufacture of just fifty grams of methamphetamine will earn you a death sentence. (In Hong Kong, where the death penalty was abolished in 1993, the same offense will earn you a short prison term) With nothing to lose, everyone from cartel kingpins to low-level dealers often became incredibly aggressive, with frequent gunfights with the police spilling out into the streets. This was intriguing enough to start To and Ka-Fai on their path, and after more intensive research, the first round of the script was completed. Some of the stories they heard from real drug enforcement officers, such as using deaf/mute dealers, the testing of undercover officers by forcing them to consume large quantities of drugs and detailed explanations of how drugs were smuggled from factories to dealers, wound up as major plot points in the final script. The meth lab built for the film was done under the guidance of a university professor, and accurately showed the complete process for manufacturing methamphetamine, down to the need for the large equipment to be completely portable (it may have to be loaded quickly onto a truck at any moment should the cops approach). Longtime To collaborator and Hong Kong megastar Louis Koo was cast as Timmy Choi, a high-level manufacturer, and mainland star Sun Honglei was cast as Zhang, the dedicated police captain. With so many of To s films focusing on mainlanders who come to Hong Kong and stir up trouble, To and Ka-Fei took particular relish in the opportunity to reverse the roles. The actors undertook intense preparation. Sun Honglei went so far as to undergo training so he could join the police department on actual assignments. Remarked Honglei, I was with a drug enforcement team in Yunnan. I put my life into their lives and at one point, even participated in a life-threatening action. On the way there, a source informed us that the drug dealers we were about to raid were likely armed with grenades and machine guns. I decided to still volunteer to go with them. I wasn t scared at the time, but now that I ve had a minute to think about it, I most certainly am now. Despite a story the filmmakers expected would be safe from censorship, To did not pull any punches, inserting his trademark political satire and dark humor throughout the film- including one particularly clever interrogation scene where an instructional sign that says No torturing suspects for confessions is partially blocked by a police officer, clearly reading torturing suspects for confessions. The film was submitted to the Censor Board in a 105-minute cut (the same cut is presented here in North America). Slightly hedging his bets, To shot several hours of alternate content that could be used. Because the story was so intricate and the pace of the film so fast, had the Censor Board required a scene or plot-line to be cut out or altered before approval, the remainder of the film would simply not have made sense. Thankfully, the film made it through the Censor Board with only change- for accuracy. In the original cut (note: spoiler alert), the surviving members of Zhang s team attended the execution of Timmy Choi- however, that is actually illegal in China, which the Censor Board pointed out. The change was easy to make, and didn t impact the storyline of the film. Executive producer Liu Yanming speculated that perhaps the government believed the film conveyed the consequences of drug trafficking, therefore easing its passage.
Emboldened by this, To has become very optimistic about the potential for crime thrillers set and shot on the mainland. Society is changing, To remarks, and we can t afford to not catch up with the world. How can China be considered a superpower if not even a single crime thriller can come out of its vast land? To remarked further, slow development is better than no development. I can t change today s conditions, but I m trying to adapt to them. At the end of the day, I just want to make a great film. One might not be able to make many great films in a lifetime, but I have always been looking for opportunities to do so. It s ok. Three [commercial films] in exchange for one [great film]. It s important that there are still great films, but I won t avoid profits. I want an audience, and I also want to stick to my own style. I want both.
FILMMAKER BIOGRAPHIES Johnnie To (Writer/Producer/Director) One of the most prolific directors and producers in Hong Kong, Johnnie To had already won international acclaim for films like Running Out of Time, The Mission, Fulltime Killer and PTU before setting foot on the red carpet at Cannes for the first time with Breaking News (Official Selection, 57 th Cannes Film Festival) in 2004. To s subsequent works have screened in competition repeatedly at the Big Three international film festivals - Election at Cannes in 2005; Exiled at Venice in 2006; Sparrow at Berlin in 2008; Vengeance at Cannes in 2009; and Life Without Principle at Venice in 2011. Additionally, To has garnered Best Director honors all over the world: at Changchun (China), Sitges (Spain) and Golden Horse (Taiwan) for Breaking News, at Sitges (Spain) and HKFCSA (Hong Kong) for Election, as well as HKFA (Hong Kong) and HKFCSA (Hong Kong) for Exiled. To was on the official competition jury at the 65th Venice Film Festival in 2008 and the 64th Cannes Film Festival in 2011. CAST BIOGRAPHIES Louis Koo (Timmy Choi) Louis Koo began his film career in the mid-90s and has acted in over 70 movies to date, including Wilson Yip s Bullet Over Summer, Tsui Hark s The Legend of Zu, Derek Yee s Protégé, and Overheard by Alan Mak and Felix Chong. Over the past couple of years Koo has forged a close working relationship with director Johnnie To, after having collaborated with him on the Cannes entries Triangle and Election I & II and the Venice International Film Festival competition entry Accident in 2009 as well as Don t Go Breaking My Heart in 2011. Sun Honglei (Captain Zhang) Sun Honglei attended the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, where he graduated in 1997. He has since gone on to star in numerous TV dramas and films, and has won many awards for his stage work. Sun is probably best known to Asian cinema fans for his performances in Seven Swords, Triangle, Blood Brothers and If You Are the One 2. Since 2011, Sun has played the starring role in the popular Chinese series Men, portraying urban romantic life from a male perspective. Huang Yi (Yang Xiaobei) Born in 1979, Huang Yi is a renowned singer and actress. Also known as Betty Huang, she can also be seen in Herman Yau s Ip Man films, The Legend Is Born- Ip Man and Ip Man- The Final Fight. Her personal cause is the education of children, and she notably donated 100% of the proceeds from her hit 2005 album The First Summer to construct and staff a new primary school in a rural province of China.