Born in Hong Kong in 1955, Johnnie To began in television and directed romantic comedies and action films for hire before founding his own company, Milkyway Image, in 1996. His crime films, among them The Mission (1999), PTU (2003), Election (2005) and Exiled (2006), are admired for their formal precision, long takes, the choreography of gunfights and an interest in male loyalty and the codes of the underworld. Election, about a vote for the head of a triad society, won wide acclaim, and the Chinese-mainland-set Drug War followed in 2012.
Filmography
- The Mission (1999)
- Running Out of Time (1999)
- PTU (2003)
- Breaking News (2004)
- Election (2005)
- Exiled (2006)
- Election 2 (2006)
- Mad Detective (2007)
- Life Without Principle (2011)
- Drug War (2012)