By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
To and fro: HK's Johnnie To on staying put
For AFP, via Malaysia Star, Stephanie Wong talks to director Johnnie To as Election 2 opens in Hong Kong. Predictably, she writes, “for someone so closely linked to Hong Kong’s ultra-violent action-drama movie genre, internationally-acclaimed director Johnnie To cuts a remarkably sedate figure. In scholarly rimless glasses, a blue V-neck jumper and with a clean-cut hairstyle, To gives away little of the tough, deprived upbringing that informs films so stark and brutal they have been called the Chinese Godfather series.” 
To grew up in Kowloon’s Walled City, and he says “The most memorable thing about the place was the darkness everywhere… During heavy rain, the water would reach our beds and all the dead rats would float to the surface in the flat… There were a lot of little interesting details inside. We always saw the druggies lying dead on the narrow cobbled streets. Their bodies were often left there for one or two days until someone came and collected them… No one cared about them. Human lives did not matter in there, perhaps because the people were poor. “No matter where we moved to, there [were always] a lot of triad members around. I was probably influenced by this while I was growing up,” he says while puffing on a cigar. “There are so many different types of characters in the triads. That’s why I choose to make films about them. They are like heroes; they have their regrets, there is life and death, brotherhood and friendship.” [More bio and philosophizing at the link.]
