Johnny To is turning into a real favorite of mine. After praising Mad Detective and Sparrow earlier, now it's time to rewind and take a look at a slightly older To film. PTU proved to be just as impressive as his successors.I try not to expect too much when I approach older films of a director as his trademark style might not be perfected yet. This is the point where PTU surprised me the most. It just breathes To and even though it is starting to age a little, you will hardly notice it when watching the film. To's trademark style is already fully present and already a real spectacle to behold.Do mind the marketing of the film though, as it is often presented as somewhat of an action flick. PTU is clearly not that. Even though there a few action scenes and one major stand off, the rest of the film is brooding and slow, playing on atmosphere and emotion. But if you've seen any other recent To flicks, you'll already know what I'm talking about.Visually PTU is a little gem. The lighting is exquisite as Hong Kong's nightly appearance is a collection of dark patches broken down by bright lights. To is constantly playing with the visuals, trying to create a ghostly and barren city which at the same time steams and is ready to burst. Camera work is equally impressive as the camera floats and flies through its surroundings. To knows how to shoot film, that much is certain.The soundtrack is interesting (again a trademark To element) as it captures a certain atmosphere not often found in a film like this. Always a little off-key and uncommon, but To manages to make it work time after time. The film benefits from the score in several key scenes where the tension is built up to explode into a stylish climax. Good stuff alright.I guess most people will trip over the storyline, since PTU is pretty sparse when it comes to actual events. The setup is simple, as Lam's character loses his gun and Yam and his crew aid him in recapturing it. Things get out of hand and it all leads up to an impressive gathering of all parties involved (which are quite a few near the end). And even though the film boasts a very amusing ending the key is not within the main story arc but within the individual scenes themselves.To is one of those directors that can bring life to a scene. He dares to stretch them and brings audio and visuals together to build up tension and to develop a solid atmosphere. The storyline becomes nothing more than a hook and for those hungering for telltales to keep them occupied this could well be quite frustrating. Other film fans will appreciate To's magic and the way he applies it to turn each scene into something more than just a presentation of a storyline.PTU is first class film-making. Lam en Yam are good actors and know how to play their parts. The soundtrack is solid and the film is visually impressive. It even boasts a simple but fun and sufficiently developed storyline. But if that is what you care about the most, you will miss the real magic of To's film-making. 4.0*/5.0*

The reason why I bought this was simple. Since I was on a DVD buying spree, and had picked up Johnnie To's The Mission (see review here), I thought I might as well pick up yet another of his movies which I have not watched, and so PTU presented itself because of the price, and the uber cool slip case cover.PTU, or Police Tactical Unit, is quite unlike To's movies like the Election series, or The Mission. Here, we look at cops. Ordinary cops, who like everyone else, just want to go home safe and sound after their tour of duty. The movie started off with the sounds of the bustling streets of Hong Kong, before we find ourselves inside a police truck, with everyone in sombre mood during their trip to their patrol grounds of Tsim Sha Tsui, and listening quite ominously to an announcement over the radio regarding the death of a cop.And so begins am eventful night, which is the time period where PTU takes place in. We follow quite a number of characters - Lam Suet as Lo from the Anti-Crime Division, whose firearm was lost during a scuffle with thugs, and forms the crux of the story in which the lives of everyone else in the movie revolves around, Maggie Siu as Kat, sergeant of her team of PTU cops, and Simon Yam as Mike, her counterpart leading the other team. It's a great character study piece of the three main characters, initially one who knows he's in lots of trouble for the loss, and desperately trying to recover it, in order to save face, and keep his reputation intact for an upcoming promotion, Kat's sense of doing what's right, following procedure, and Mike, who's willing to risk it all to help another of his own "for kay" (slang for cop).Under To's direction, PTU is a brilliant visual piece. Creative use of light and shadow illuminates PTU, making it a visual spectacle, so much that you'll still enjoy the movie even if you turn off the volume. I particularly enjoyed the rather quiet moments which were plenty throughout the movie, rather than the usual wham-bang kind of action with guns ablazing. In fact, a shot is never even fired, until the end-all finale, combining all the separate threads of the story into one heck of a finale. What could probably raise eyebrows, are the unorthodox methods employed by the upholders of the law. You can't help but ponder over the methods, and how the lieutenants either turn a blind eye to, or are in full agreement with the provocative procedures meted out by their captain. Surely a talking point, if fire should be met with fire when dealing with scum.There are many subtle touches in this compact tale of less than 90 minutes, with the ubiquitous mobile phone being so important as a plot element, and that strong sense of irony in the narrative. And again in To's cops and robbers / triad movies (though I may be wrong), it seemed that the cool soundtrack which is peppered throughout the film, seemed to stem from a single primary theme music, this time with some electric guitar riffs.PTU doesn't get bogged down by wasting time explaining the many whys and how comes, and prefers to zap you right into the moment. It's the sense of contemplative urgency that makes it compelling to watch, and every turn brings something unexpected. The ending is particular interesting too, especially for those who have written statements in uniformed groups - you surely know what they're doing!

PTU is undoubtly one of To's best work to date, to me, it's as good as The Mission, with a more developed Johny To touch in it. and for me the best John To film has to be Running Out Of Time. i'd like to point out that PTU is a Johny To's "personal" work, meaning that it's solely produced and distributed by his own production company - MilkyWay Image, and there have only been 2 other movies that are considered Milkyway Image films, or Johny To's personal works, one is 1999's Running Out Of Time, and one is The Misson, he's stated that he'd only make one in about every 3 years(numerous times), in his career he's done a lot of movies, but they are mostly block busters. so if you are interested in other movies by him, just know that they are not really the kind of movies he want to make.

I have not seen many of Johnny To's films, until I hit on The Mission. From that point on, I was hooked. So I went back, and watched all his other "masterpieces", specifically his cop films. These included The Heroic Trio (interesting, in a strange, anything goes kind of way), A Hero Never Dies (an excellent piece), Running Out of Time (excellent, if a bit contrived), The Mission (his best piece IMO), Fulltime Killer (excellent, though with another terminally ill Andy Lau and therefore reminiscent of Running Out of Time, therefore lowering its value in terms of the characterization), Running Out of Time 2 (obviously a half-hearted and very commercial attempt to make a fast buck, riding on the original). And, based on the above, it must be said that PTU is weak.The film spends over 90% of the time trying to weave together the various characters, and, based on what we know of To, we expect everything to come together seamlessly and end with some sort of a bang. If not, at least with some elation as to how things will pan out in the end. Instead, Johnny To seems to realize, 70 minutes into the film, that he can't really do it or can't be bothered, and throws in another group of wholly irrelevant and previously unseen stand-ins. Just so everything can be explained away in one word: Coincidence. That is just weak. And sloppy too. For me, this rates up there with the disappointment that was the film called Hero (Zhang Yi Mou).On the technical side, however, To is of course his usual self. The dark moods were nicely cast by the dark alleyways, the semi-lit and deserted streets. I do agree that the supporting cast is a bit weak, in that they do not seem natural. In fact, the only people who seem natural in the whole film were Simon Yam and Lam Suet. The female cast, of course, were dispensable as in all Johnny To (and John Woo) films.All in all, the film only rates as "see it if you have nothing else to do on a Sunday afternoon" fare.