The real deal

Renowned Hong Kong director Johnnie To has arrived at a landmark moment in his long, illustrious career. The new film “Drug War”, which follows the story of a police investigator waging a deadly battle against drug lords in mainland China and Hong Kong, is the auteur’s 50th venture, and is already proving one of his most successful films. The first two weeks of its release in China saw “Drug War” haul in 600 million Taiwan dollars (Bt598 million) at the box office.

Director To collaborates here with scriptwriter and co-director Wai Ka-Fai, with whom he has worked before.  

“Without Wai Ka-Fai, this would have been impossible. He has an amazing imagination. He can make a movie in any kind of genre. We’ve been working together for so many years, but each project with him always brings something new and exciting,” says To.

Filming for the first time in China, and backed by a crew whose members come from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, the two masterminds have come together to create yet another nail-biting thriller.

Making “Drug War” was an “intense’” experience, says actor Wallace Chung, who plays a cop in the film. Several of the actors, he says, suffered minor injuries, usually in the process of filming the chase scenes littered throughout the script.

Chung himself accidentally set his gun off after placing it between his legs while shooting an action sequence in a car. The gun was loaded with blanks rather than live rounds, but the flash burns were very real indeed, leaving a large, visible wound on Chung’s left thigh.

“Another time I hurt my knee in a car collision,” he says. “We took the necessary safety precautions, but some of the scenes were very demanding.”

Such risks come with the territory, shrugs Chung, saying that despite the dangers involved in making such a high-level action thriller, he feels “honoured” to have been a part of the film. 

“When you’re an actor, you have to commit yourself to a role, regardless of what that entails and that’s what we did.”

“Drug War” is a realistic – often shockingly so – look at the world of drug crime in China. The film’s makers have delved deep to explore the prevalence and repercussions of drug use and trafficking in the region, and the power dynamics behind the lucrative narcotics market. 

The biggest challenge To and his backers encountered was getting the approval of the Chinese government.

“‘Drug War’ is a commercial film, but it’s also grittier than your usual mainstream fare,” says Wai. “And police crime flicks are not very common in China, so we knew it wouldn’t be a piece of cake to get the go-ahead.”

To spoke to the Hollywood Reporter about his approach to Beijing censorship. 

 “What was most brain-racking was whether what we’ve done could pass the censors – so we shot two versions for quite a few scenes, so that if there’s a problem with one cut, we can just replace it. That anxiety about getting approval from the censors was more stressful than the actual production. But the actual engagement with the censors was not that difficult, as we put much thought about what to put into the film. 

“They said there were too many gunfights, and too many detectives dying; they said nothing like that ever happened in the history of the [modern China]. So we just trimmed the film along those lines. We thought the final scene, in which a death penalty by lethal injection is shown, wouldn’t get the green light – but that passed. The only thing they objected to was Huang Yi’s character, a policewoman, watching the execution through a one-way mirror; they said this simply couldn’t happen, as there is a distinct separation between officials upholding the law and acting on it.”

Wai says that the original script went through a lot of modifications as they gauged how far they could go while still being ensured the government’s approval. “It wasn’t easy knowing what we could retain and what we had to throw out. There was no clear rulebook or guidelines to follow, so we just basically had to keep changing things around, and that meant the final product was a lot different from what we’d started out with.”

Rather than using a fixed script, To and his crew juggled seven to eight scripts, trying to keep things as fresh as possible, and leaving as much room for improvement as they could.  While this certainly inspired more spontaneous performances from the actors, it also compounded the stress on set, with the director – known for his stern standards and hot temper – often flying into a rage. 

“With no script and a personality like To’s, there was naturally a kind of constant temper in the air,” says Chung. He reveals that To would even start smashing things around him when certain mistakes were made. (The director has admitted to breaking a TV set when things were going particulary badly on set.)

“As nervous as it makes you to work under such conditions, it’s also necessary,” says Chung. 

“It forces you to focus on your craft – no sitting around and chatting. You need a strict leader if you are to get things done right.”