Breaking News
I found out about the U.S. release of Breaking News by way of an advertisement that ran on the site. Apparently the distribution company, Palm Pictures, found the right demographic in me because I'm on record fairly regularly saying all my favorite movies are coming out of China and Korea at the moment. Breaking News is probably one of the better films from Hong Kong director, Johnny To, who has a long list of movie credits that range from exceptional to fairly lackluster. The movie is a traditional crime action flick with the cops in hot pursuit of some thieves. Nothing out of the ordinary at first, but there's a slick twist commenting on the nature of mainstream media and propaganda used to alter the perception of things with both the police and criminals using this to their fullest advantage. Rather than being concerned with resolving a number of criminal events efficiently and safely, the lead cop (played by Canto-pop music star Kelly Chen) in charge of the investigation is putting on a "show" to maximize media exposure and make the police department look as good as possible in the process. While the story is presented with a Hong Kong twist on the events, the concept is certainly not far from what I might expect to see in coverage of criminal cases in the U.S. either. The DVD is in Cantonese with English subtitles. The original Hong Kong release came out in 2004 available for import by way of YesAsia and includes a Mandarin dubbed track. The trailer is available on YouTube.
Action/Crime - 98min
Rating - (NR)
Release Date - 2006
Order Breaking News on Amazon.com