poe426 THROW DOWN is unquestionably filmmaking of the highest caliber and Johnnie To is one of those filmmakers whose movies deserve much more attention than they ever seem to get here in the west. Like John Woo, To has a very distinctive voice, although I think that To is a tad more versatile. There are echoes of Kurosawa throughout THROW DOWN, as one might expect from what amounts to a homage, but To doesn't simply emulate the greatest filmmaker of them all: he tips his hat while at the same time infusing this moving martial arts drama with its own distinctive feel. It's about blindness of all kinds: the characters seem to be trapped each in their own particular vacuum and, while running away from, say, their past, they are at the same time running TOWARD their future(s). There's an amazing three-way conversation that takes place in a nightclub, with overlapping and intertwining dialogue, that has to be seen to be appreciated. THROW DOWN is as much about blindness and transcendental beauty as it is about judo. As someone pointed out to me years ago: one must first learn to fall.

Marc Ferriere I thought I was a Johnny To fan. I loved PTU, Running on Karma, and Fulltime Killer. I rank Yesterday Once More as one of my favorite films of all time. But I watched Throwdown with my mouth agape in horror at the sheer lameness of it all.I will not even try to lie - I didn't understand what was going on, not even for five minutes. I still can't explain to you what I just watched. Characters' motivations fluctuated wildly, no background was given until your interest had long since waned, and the martial arts sequences were short and unsatisfying in relation to the western marketing and box copy.Tai Seng's translation and subtitling department needs a rework. There is one major scene in a restaurant with about 8 characters talking at once - the subtitling does NOTHING to try to keep up with the important dialogue. Instead of taking a note from Animeigo or ADV and using different colors and stacking lines of text, Tai Seng took the cheapie way out and presented it in a way that was frustrating.

dragonpenchant After hearing a lot of praise for To's movies and being really excited to finally see one (on the big screen no less), this film ended up being a grand disappointment. I can appreciate hokey melodrama as much as the next guy, but this shite was unbearably trite. My foremost criticism is of the over the top and out of place musical sequences and i don't quite care if To's satirizing other HK movies because it just wasn't funny enough. The movie wasn't totally w waste of time considering a few memorable moments and some brief humorous moments. Maybe if he had just finished the movie after the balloon scene i would respect his audacity but instead he drags this trifling, self indulgent piece on another 20 minutes. Kurosawa you're not, Johnny.

Zabadoh Director/writer Johnnie To throws down lots of HK movie clichés: The Heist, The Young Challenger, The Fighting, The Master, The Rival, The Gangsters, The Gambling. But all of it's entertaining nonsense used to set up his usual innovative scenes and a little drama. Give Director To credit for parodying these clichés to a fault.This movie is challenging. This is not easy to digest chop sockey flash bang action. So what is this movie about? A lot: Rediscovering relations from happier times, rediscovering oneself, and a director having fun and dropping references to Kurosawa's "Sugata Sanshiro" (1943).