Breaking News – Blu Ray Review


breaking news movie poster

breaking news johnnie to film

Director Johnnie To is one of the best directors working in Hong Kong at the moment and this film made in 2004 was just the start of his growing success and Winning Best Director at the 41st Golden Horse Awards.

Breaking News follows a team of thieves led by Yuan (Richie Jen) as they make their getaway and engage in multiple shootouts with the cops. The criminals’ bold escape is all captured on camera, leading to a public outcry against police cowardice and incompetence. In steps Inspector Rebecca Fong (Kelly Chen) who proposes fixing this public relations nightmare by putting on another big show for the media: televising their capture of the criminals.

The film opens with an amazing 8-minute tracking shot, all done in one take as it follows the start of the game of cat and mouse between cops and robbers. The film tries to have a dig at the media and how both sides try to manipulate it to there own ends. The action scenes are exciting and well shot and the cast, in general, do a good job. Richie Ren as the main robber is charming and dealy at the same time while the police officer played by Nick Cheung has just one thing on his mind to stop the robbers at any cost. Kelly Chen plays the inspector in charge of the case and comes across as annoying at times and is the only flaw in the casting.

Overall a good solid thriller and all fans of the director should see it.

breaking news film

The Blu ray released by Mega Star in Hong Kong is region free so will play on any Blu ray machine worldwide. The 1080p picture is solid if a little soft and flat at times but overall is a good presentation. Audio is a great Cantonese Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mix which is very well presented with good separation but clear dialogue. English subtitles are good with no grammatical errors.  Extras are just trailers and a short making of which does not have English subs.

FILM : 7.5 PICTURE: 7.5 AUDIO: 8.5 EXTRAS: 2

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