- Director : Johnnie To
- Actors : Yoyo Mung, Waise Lee, Ruby Wong, Kelly Lin, Ching Wan Lau
- Media Format : NTSC, Anamorphic, Widescreen
- Run time : 3 hours and 8 minutes
- Country of Origin : Hong Kong
- Number of discs : 2
- Studio : Arrow Video
- Release date : August 30, 2022
When other directors like John Woo and Ringo
Lam took their success to Hollywood in the later part of the 1990s, Johnnie To continued
to make and release films in Hong Kong. Two of these were Running Out of
Time and Running Out of Time 2, action thrillers following police
hostage negotiator Ho Sheung Sang (Lau Whing Wan). Each film is also
highlighted by the villains that he must go up against, played by Andy Lau (Infernal
Affairs) and Ekin Cheng respectively. Both films play like buddy cop action
films, but ones in which the relationship is between combatants rather than
partners.
In Running Out
of Time, a cancer-ridden criminal named Cheung Wah (Lau) is given four
weeks to live, and decides to spend them challenging hostage negotiator Ho Sheung
Sang in a three-day battle of wits, starting with the robbery of a finance company.
As a man of great intelligence and nothing to lose, Cheung is a worthy adversary
for Ho. Although Running Out of Time features exciting chase sequences
and clever heists, the action film is also intelligently made with solid
performances. Lau won Best Actor at the 19th Hong Kong Film Awards, and the
film received multiple other nominations.
Running Out of
Time 2 repeated the formula from the first film, this time pitting Ho against an
elusive unnamed thief (Elkin Cheng) who is determined to extort money from a
high-strung businesswoman (Kelly Lin). When Ho attempts to catch him, the games
of cat-and-mouse begin. It always surprises me how light To manages to make
both of these films, primarily because of the tone he establishes and the
careful balances brought out in the performances.
Both films are
included on Blu-ray disc in the special edition Running Out of Time
Collection from Arrow Video, which includes high definition presentations of
each film, scanned and restored in 2K. They each are also presented in the original
lossless Cantonese and Mandarin 5.1 audio, as well as lossless English mono (Running
Out of Time) and lossless English 5.1 (Running Out of Time 2). Both
have optional English subtitles, newly revised for this release.
The package itself
contains newly commissioned artwork by Lucas Peverill, with the original
artwork of each film combined on the opposite side. Inside the case is a
booklet with still photos from the films, along with cast and crew info,
information about the transfer, and an essay on the films from David West
titled “On the Edge: Connection, Isolation, and Identity in Running Out of
Time 1 & 2.”
Special Features:
DISC 1 (Running Out of Time)
- Brand
new audio commentary by Hong Kong film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film
Festival)
- Audio
commentary by writers Laurent Cortiaud and Julien Carbon, moderated by
Hong Kong film expert Stefan Hammond
- Archival
interview with screenwriters Julien Carbon and Laurent Courtiaud
- Archival
interview with director Johnnie To
- Archival
interview with star Lau Ching-wan
- Archival
interview with composer Raymond Wong
- The
Directors’ Overview of Carbon and Courtiaud, an archive featurette
- Theatrical
trailer
- Image
gallery
DISC 2 (Running Out of Time 2)
- Brand
new audio commentary by Hong Kong film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film
Festival)
- The
Making of 'Running Out of Time 2', an archive featurette
- Hong
Kong Stories, a
52-minute documentary from 2003 by director Yves Montmayeur (Johnnie
Got His Gun!) about Hong Kong cinema mythology via Julien Carbon and
Laurent Courtiaud’s experience as screenwriters in the HK film industry,
working for Wong Kar-wai, Tsui Hark, Daniel Lee and of course Johnnie To
- Theatrical
trailer
- Image
gallery
Entertainment Value:
7.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 8/10
Historical
Significance: 7/10
Special Features: 8/10
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