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I confess, I don’t know as much of the work of the revered Johnnie To as I should. I remember seeing Election when it came out in UK cinemas, but I’m not sure that I’ve got round to anything else, so this latest set from Eureka should prove something of an education.

The Films

Cheung (Andy Lau) is dying. With just weeks left, he decides to play a game with Police and a local gangster, with the objective of stealing both a valuable necklace and the 5million the gangsters are willing to pay for it. Inspector Ho (Ching Wan Lau) is assigned to the case, and he and Leung develop a relationship of respect as adversaries.

It is fairly obvious where Running Out Of Time is drawing it major inspiration from. Michael Mann’s Heat pre-dates it by just a few years and the central relationship, while...

After the controversy following “The Longest Nite” and particularly the rumors regarding Johnnie To taking over the direction after Yau had shot only five scenes, it seemed that the latter had learned his lesson, on the way Milkyway Image and To shot genre films of extreme quality. The result was “Expect the Unexpected”, a movie that mostly follows To’s footsteps, but has enough elements to distinguish it as a separate entity.

As quite frequently in Milkyway productions, the action begins immediately. Three shady-looking guys enter a small cafe, where they start harassing the waitress, Mandy, whose mind, however, is on the image of a policeman, Ken Wong, who has just before been on TV on a reportage regarding a fugitive on the run. At the same time, some people from the mainland are robbing a jewelry shop, while a few moments later, all the aforementioned criminals,...

Due to winning the prestigious Best Asian Film award at Fant-Asia Film Festival as well as Andy Lau the award for Best Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2000. “Running Out of Time” has to be one of the most popular movies directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To. Its success even led to a sequel produced and co-directed by To in which Lau Ching-wan would reprise his role as Inspector Ho of the Hong Kong police department. However, as with “The Mission”, which was also made in 1999, production was quite stressful as To has admitted in several interviews, especially since working with Andy Lau proved to be quite difficult given his busy schedule that year. Regarding the title of their collaboration this fact seems somewhat ironic since Lau’s character is also constantly pressed for time, although the reasons for that differ of course.

After...