Throw Down

Such a deliciously weird genre-defying mayhem. From screwball to martial arts, from musical to gangster thriller, an exquisite essay on drinking, singing, fighting, making friends, wasting your life. Not the easiest To film, but easily one of his most striking -- bar brawls scenes, red balloon "rescue" and so many other remarkable moments of just pure cinematic bliss.

Johnnie To's homage to Kurosawa is pervaded by a moody and stylish atmosphere but ultimately it's pretty superficial. Hard to place into a specific genre, it's a story of how you must persevere in order to reach your goals. Judo provides the perfect metaphor for getting up each time you're knocked down but it doesn't translate as an entertaining spectacle on screen. Plenty of charming moments which only serve to highlight the lack of substance underneath the subtle touches.

this is a warming little film that plays with expectations and has a strong formal tricks that benefit its seemingly light narrative.

Viewed August 4, 2020.

Flashy, but not substantial.

dedicated to 'the greatest filmmaker' kurosawa, this is to's favourite of his own films and stands alongside SPARROW as an undiluted passion project. no other sports movie displays such affection for its characters, this ragtag trio of loser-dreamers who at the expense of plot spend most of the movie helping each other learn how to persevere and love themselves even in the act of losing, no matter what's being lost. a precious gift that nobody else in the world would make.

Leave it to To to make a stylish neonoirish movie about the least exciting martial arts; judo. What makes this a very atypical martial arts movie, if you even want or can call it that, is that the fights are secondary to the characters developments. It really focus on that martial arts are about the betterment of oneself and less about beating once opponent. Although the last also happens plenty and delivers probably some of the coolest looking judo fights ever shown.

Star Rating: ★★★★

the absolute one-two punch of the dedication to Akira Kurosawa and the ad for Gillette!!