Yau doh lung fu bong (2004)

Director:

Johnny To

Writers:

Nai-Hoi Yau (written by) &
Tin-Shing Yip (written by) ...

Release Date:

July 2004 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A former Judo champion is given the chance to redeem himself after he befriends a competitor and an aspiring singer.

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Louis Koo	...	Sze-To Bo
Aaron Kwok	...	Tony
Cherrie Ying	...	Mona (as Cherrie In)
Tony Leung Ka Fai	...	Lee Kong (as Tony Leung)
Siu-Fai Cheung	...	Brother Savage (as Cheung Siu Fai)
Jordan Chan	...	Mona's Agent
Hoi-Pang Lo	...	Master Cheng (as Lo Hoi Pang)
Calvin Choi	...	Jing (as Calvin Choy)
Jack Kao	...	Mona's Dad (as Kao Kuo Hsin)
Albert Au	...	Judo Actor
Fan Yeung	...	Judo Actor (as Yeung Fan)
Chung Wing	...	Judo Actor (as Wing Chung)
Park-Yin Kwok	...	Judo Actor (as Kwok Park Yin)
Ka-Ho Chiu	...	Judo Actor (as Chui Ka Ho)
Wai Kit Cheung	...	Judo Actor (as Cheung Wai Kit)

Also Known As:

Throw Down (Hong Kong: English title)
Throwdown (Singapore: English title)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

Hong Kong | China

Language:

Cantonese | English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Hong Kong:IIB | Singapore:PG

Company:

China Star Entertainment

Movie Connections:

References Sugata Sanshiro (1943)

Highly entertaining comedy drama - but don't expect and action movie

Throw Down is a real crowd-pleaser despite being more interested in the quirky characters than the judo bouts in the film. Johnnie To's tribute to Kurosawa and filled with references to Sugata Sanshiro (far more than the one that To admits to), it actually feels more like a Hong Kong version of Britcom Black Books, with Luis Koo's drunken former judo prodigy staggering his way from scam to scam with his two employees between mismanaging his nightclub with about as much grasp of conventional reality as Bernard Black.

It's a redemption story, of course, with the cocky young challenger Aaron Kwok and the death of a friend eventually spurring him to clean up his act. Although it's filled with great moments of pure film-making, from the slow-motion bar-room judo brawl that spills out into the street to Cherrie Ying running joyfully through the streets with her hands full of stolen cash while her pursuers sporadically stop to pick up the stray notes that fall from her arms, it's not really an action movie: even the final fight between Koo and Tony Leung Ka-Fei is almost thrown away. It's the disparate characters and the sheer enjoyment To takes in them that makes this work. Even one of the villains of the piece, Siu-Fai Cheung's Brother Savage, who lives to humiliate children and customers by beating them at the games in his arcade, is impossible to really hate, while Leung's character is never turned into a monster who must be destroyed but simply an adversary who must be beaten fair and square. Great fun.