This project has been around for few years now, with Johnnie To shooting it on and off, when he wasn’t busy producing new films or working on his rom-coms made for the chinese market.
Over time, this film has changed. It was first introduced late 2008 under the title Death of a Hostage, which was a kidnapping story. But somehow, this story gave birth to a whole new project, directed by another filmmaker, Law Wing-cheong’s Punished. What about Johnnie To’s film? It became Life Without Principle, using the financial crisis as background for the story.
The official synopsis states that it’s about “Three ordinary people [who] find their destinies entwined when a loan shark is assaulted after having withdrawn $10 million from the bank”. Not another thriller from Johnnie To, who seems more interested here to depict a drama with commoners trying to survive in Hong Kong, an always-evolving city (To talking about the film in this behind-the-scene clip).
So, Johnnie To’s Life Without Principle should deal with the social & moral issues of the crisis. Something quite different from Edmond Pang’s Dream Home, which used this subject more like an excuse to deliver some nice gory scenes.
The film will be released in Hong Kong on October 20th.
To go further, watch these four clips presenting the main characters of the story. With each one dealing with some specific issues; money, financial crisis, adoption. In other words, it looks very much like Johnnie To directed a socially-oriented film.
Fully using some of the ideas seen in his seemingly harmless romance Don’t Go Breaking My Heart. A short note about the last clip, apparently one of the crucial points of the story, as every characters is facing some trouble. And of course, they’re visually isolated/improsed. In fact, stuck in a situation they can’t escape (nice music btw).
Sources: FilmSmash, TFC, MediaAsia, TIFF, Facebook
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