Throw Down | Blu-ray

The glory days of Hong Kong action cinema may belong firmly to the 80s and 90s, but Johnnie To is one of the rare filmmakers to carry that torch well into the modern era. A workhorse director with more than seventy credits to his name, To’s signature style really started to coalesce in the early 2000s—with titles like PTU, the Triad Election series, and Exiled.

Released in 2004, Throw Down is To’s ode to Judo and the martial spirit, imagining a criminal underworld with deep ties to competitive martial arts. Neon drenched and filled with sexy jazz-pop, this may be the perfect distillation of the director’s artistic vision. An almost dreamlike story of crime and violence, beautifully filmed.

In a sea of Johnnie To action movies, Throw Down is among the most unique. A modern martial arts movie that blends the idea of budo seamlessly with present day narratives of crime and ambition. A must watch, not just for fans of Hong Kong Cinema, but film lovers of all stripes.

Special Features (via criterion.com)

• 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• Interview from 2004 with director Johnnie To
• New interviews with coscreenwriter Yau Nai-hoi, composer Peter Kam, and film scholars David Bordwell and Caroline Guo
• Short making-of documentary from 2004 featuring To and actors Louis Koo, Aaron Kwok, Cherrie Ying, and Tony Leung Ka-fai
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Sean Gilman