IMDb RATING
6.9/10
2.5K
YOUR RATING
A former Judo champion is given the chance to redeem himself after he befriends a competitor and an aspiring singer.A former Judo champion is given the chance to redeem himself after he befriends a competitor and an aspiring singer.A former Judo champion is given the chance to redeem himself after he befriends a competitor and an aspiring singer.
- Awards
- 3 wins & 8 nominations
Cherrie Ying
- Mona
- (as Cherrie In)
Tony Ka Fai Leung
- Lee Kong
- (as Tony Leung)
Eddie Cheung
- Brother Savage
- (as Cheung Siu Fai)
Hoi-Pang Lo
- Master Cheng
- (as Lo Hoi Pang)
Calvin Choi
- Jing
- (as Calvin Choy)
Jack Kao
- Mona's Dad
- (as Kao Kuo Hsin)
Fan Yeung
- Judo Actor
- (as Yeung Fan)
Chung Wing
- Judo Actor
- (as Wing Chung)
Park-Yin Kwok
- Judo Actor
- (as Kwok Park Yin)
Ka-Ho Chiu
- Judo Actor
- (as Chui Ka Ho)
Wai Kit Cheung
- Judo Actor
- (as Cheung Wai Kit)
Lim-Tso Lee
- Judo Actor
- (as Joe Lee)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMarks the third time director Johnnie To and actor Louis Koo collaborated in a director/actor relation.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Boundless (2013)
Featured review
For this one? Sure! Lyrical excess and brilliant direction overcome OK script
First impression... directorial tour de force, if (dont kill me for saying this) light on character development. I suspect Johnnie To did a minor miracle getting what was (or may have been) fairly thin stuff on the page via other writers to be far more (dare I say) poetic and lyrical (and even innocent) vibe than it would be in the hands of a Journeyman. This flows much more like a something Id actually expect to see in, I dont know, an animayed feature than live action, like from the fluidity of the tracking shots and movements of the camera as well as the slow motion.
It's the work of a dedicated Smuggler, bringing something deeper about how some of us out there - like the Gambling addict nightclub owner, more clear-eyed and pragmatic (would be) Nightclub singer, and ex Judo champion who may or may not find redemption as the plot summary says - are in an exiential rainstorm and its hard to run fast enough to find shelter or what to do. If I even tried to break down "story beats" it would sound silly, and rightfully so. Its an expressionistic experiment first, kick-ass action-crime thriller second.
Maybe a little too much sappy synth music for my taste to lift up the mood, maybe one or two flourishes that I didn't love (the guy singing mournfully during the nightclub fight, hmm gotta sleep on that). But this is often sumptuously directed, which is not what I was expecting, albeit I think my exposure to To has been the Election films and not a lot else (shame I can hear you crying), and I'd love to analyze the lighting and shots with a class or a film club or something. If it ever plays Alamo or the like, count me in.
And when I say To did a lot with the direction here, I also can tell he worked with the actors - Kwan and Ying but Ko especially in the kind of expressive/tortured masculine role Mickey Rourke could've crushed 20 years prior- and I felt depth from them in the style. If nothing else, it makes Judo fighting seem the most like a calling I've seen in any other film I can think of (even more than the directly cited Sanshiro Sugata by AK).
Raise my rating or lower it by tomorrow? Place your bets.
It's the work of a dedicated Smuggler, bringing something deeper about how some of us out there - like the Gambling addict nightclub owner, more clear-eyed and pragmatic (would be) Nightclub singer, and ex Judo champion who may or may not find redemption as the plot summary says - are in an exiential rainstorm and its hard to run fast enough to find shelter or what to do. If I even tried to break down "story beats" it would sound silly, and rightfully so. Its an expressionistic experiment first, kick-ass action-crime thriller second.
Maybe a little too much sappy synth music for my taste to lift up the mood, maybe one or two flourishes that I didn't love (the guy singing mournfully during the nightclub fight, hmm gotta sleep on that). But this is often sumptuously directed, which is not what I was expecting, albeit I think my exposure to To has been the Election films and not a lot else (shame I can hear you crying), and I'd love to analyze the lighting and shots with a class or a film club or something. If it ever plays Alamo or the like, count me in.
And when I say To did a lot with the direction here, I also can tell he worked with the actors - Kwan and Ying but Ko especially in the kind of expressive/tortured masculine role Mickey Rourke could've crushed 20 years prior- and I felt depth from them in the style. If nothing else, it makes Judo fighting seem the most like a calling I've seen in any other film I can think of (even more than the directly cited Sanshiro Sugata by AK).
Raise my rating or lower it by tomorrow? Place your bets.
helpful•11
- Quinoa1984
- Nov 4, 2022
- How long is Throw Down?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Nhu Đạo Long Hổ Bang
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $1,055,267
- Runtime1 hour 35 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content