Breaking News: Viewer Comments

I'm not really fond of Hong Kong crime films until a friend introduced me to Johnnie To. I've seen a couple of his films in Star Mandarin back then (if I remember t'was "Running Out Of Time 2" and "Fulltime Killer") but didn't pay much interest. Recently, I blind-bought "Breaking News", which I heard from that same acquaintance that it was shown at Cannes. Tried it. Liked it. However I found the plot was as shallow as most Hollywood action flicks tend to be. The action sequences are heavy, right from the start and towards its predictable payoff. The cast is fine, except he should have cast those that rotated on much of his previous crime dramas (Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Lau Ching-Wan) and given the film a certain credibility on how its entirety should be played. Anyway, the gunbattles compensated for To's miscasting, but I think the ultimate letdown of the film is its finale--something I believe is a total opposite of how a majority of crime/triad films are resolved. I'd rather see an ambiguous resolution than the usual "crime does not pay" cliche. I wouldn't complain. To's the master of crime/triad entertainment; and to that end, he didn't fail on this one.