Zhang and Yang icily grill him, and give him an ultimatum/proposition: work with the cops to cut off the local drug supply at its source, or get the death penalty. These interchangeable thugs are little fish compared to Timmy Choi (regular To collaborator Louis Koo), a mid-sized predator in a seemingly tiny body of water. Buffoonish mules are humiliated, waddling around with their pants down after being forced to strip and take an enema. Smalltime crooks are snapped up and put through the ringer by Captain Zhang Lei ( Honglei Sun) and his partner Yang Xiaobei (Crystal Huang). To ("Sparrow," " Exiled"), and the film's four screenwriters (led by regular To collaborator Wai Ka-Fai) start by breaking down the hierarchical relay of information during a drug bust. But the film's flintiness and initially subdued nastiness set it apart from most other action films about the thin line separating cops from crooks. At first it looks like an extra-slick and gratuitously mean-spirited police procedural. When it`s over, none who have seen it will be able to say they did not know what it was all about or where it was leading.While it takes a while to come to a full boil, "Drug War" is an atypically grim gangster film from the typically inspired Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To. At least those who advocate ''education'' as the key to winning the war will have been well-served by the film. No one is going to tell us that this is a business that`s not going to be allowed to go on.''`Įven if the war is lost, however, it will have its heroes, and Camarena and his long-suffering wife and children will be forever enshrined by ''Drug Wars'' in their pantheon. They`re saying, `We`ve got the richest business ever created by man, and no one`s going to stop us. It`s inconceivable that they will relinquish their right to the amount of money involved. ''With the money that`s at stake, it`s all or nothing for them. They have said, `We are a force to be reckoned with and we will kill. ''The Camarena case was the first shock in seeing just how seemingly invincible the drug kings are. ''As long as they`re growing it and manufacturing it, and as long as there are buyers, it will be there,'' he said. Like the DEA agents with whom he worked, Bauer is gloomy about the prognosis of the ''war on drugs.'' My feeling about Kiki was that his was a life that had to be spoken for.'' The moment I started reading the script, I thought, `Yeah, this is a story I can bring something to and be a great asset to the story being conveyed. ''I became obsessed with this part,'' Bauer said. Kiki was the middle brother-right between them.'' One of his brothers had a problem with drugs the other was a Vietnam war hero. ''It came from his background where he grew up in (the California border town of)Ĭalexico, which has the highest per capita of heroin addiction in the United States. ''People who knew Kiki said he was driven by an obsessive need to make an impact in deterring the influx of drugs into our society,'' Bauer said. The result is a sort of Super-''Miami Vice''-also one of Mann`s creations-calculated to leave the viewer unstrung and exhausted in the midst of the national drug crisis. Treat Williams (''Prince of the City,'' ''A Streetcar Named Desire'') brings added power to the plot as Ray Carson, a tough Irish cop from New York who is sent to Guadalajara to head the special task force pursuing Camarena`s killers. Nelson (''Coach,'' ''Call to Glory'') portrays Camarena`s partner and best friend, who nearly cracks under the frustration of investigating his death in a country more determined to protect its drug lords than to prosecute them. Bauer (''Scarface,'' ''Sword of Gideon'') relives the drug agent`s life of high tension both on and off the job.Ĭraig T. In a case that strained diplomatic relations between Mexico and the United States and revealed drug trade connections in the highest levels of Mexican government, Camarena was interrogated, tortured and murdered, along with the pilot who frequently had flown him on search-and-destroy missions against narcotics operations.īauer stars with Elizabeth Pena (''Shannon`s Deal,'' ''Down and Out in Beverly Hills'') as Camarena`s wife, Mika.
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