The Mission

Cheung fo

Hong Kong

1999

81 Min

Color

2.35:1

Cantonese

Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
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CAST Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Francis Ng, Jackie Lui Chung-yin, Roy Cheung, Lam Suet, Simon Yam, Tian-lin Wang, Eddy Ko, Elaine Eca Da Silva, Keiji Sato, Wai Ai, Man Shing Yau, Cub Chin

Following his directorial debut with the 1980 period martial arts fantasy The Enigmatic Case, To’s career came to something of an apex in the late 1980s thanks to such memorable action films as The Big Heat and tender, personal dramas like All About Ah-Long (the latter of which landed star Chow Yun-Fat a Best Actor award at the 1990 Hong Kong Film Awards). After taking the helm for such memorable action films as The Heroic Trio and directing Stephen Chow in such films as Justice, My Foot and Mad Monk in the early ‘90s, To moved into producing with the creation of independent film company Milky Way Films, a company which yielded such popular Hong Kong action efforts as Nai-hoi Yau’s The Longest Nite and Expect the Unexpected. Though To’s production company was indeed a success, his career behind the camera was in need of some rejuvenation, an issue which he readily addressed with the release of his highly praised 1999 crime drama The Mission.

Utilizing convention as a springboard… read more

Utilizing convention as a springboard to explore new territories of characterization in the well-worn crime genre, To breathed new life into Hong Kong cinema and began to gain international attention thanks to such efforts as The Mission and the outrageous 2001 action thriller Fulltime Killer. Despite the fact that To excelled at action films, it wasn’t all about the gunplay. Such projects as the lightweight New Year’s comedy Fat Choi Spirit and the supernatural comedy My Left Eye Sees Ghosts proved without a doubt that he was equally adept at getting laughs from fun-loving filmgoers. It was during this period that To began to develop fruitful professional relationships with such talents as director Wai Ka-Fai and actor Andy Lau. After exploring the effects of karma among the musclebound set in the bizarre but effective 2003 action thriller Running on Karma (the film which served as the seventh collaboration between To and Lau), the director explored the effects of media violence on the public in the fast-paced action thriller Breaking News.

(From http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:119050)

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HKFanatic

13Oct12

I've always considered this to be Johnnie To's most accessible film, so if anyone is looking for a place to start with his filmography - it's right here. One of the last great Hong Kong 'action' pictures, "The Mission" is as existential as it is cool. The controlled, precise movements of both To's camera and his cast mean this film has more in common with the work of Jean-Pierre Melville than it does with John Woo.

H. K. ‡ likes this

HKFanatic

13Oct12

The real shame is that "The Mission" has yet to receive a satisfactory DVD release, let alone Blu-ray. The Mei Ah DVD is region free and has English subs but the terrible picture quality just doesn't cut it (there's actually a watermark burned into the image)

Blake Barrington Ellis

1Apr12

The most flamboyantly gay heroic bloodshed film EVER. Loved it. Lesser than Exiled and A Hero Never Dies, and not really eligible for relevant comparison to the stylistically worlds apart Election series, but still fun as hell. Lam Suet, quiet as ever, rules the day with his quirky characterization of James.