''Breaking News'' () is a 2004

Hong Kong action film Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese culture, Chinese and Culture of Hong Kong, Hong Kong cultures, including Chinese opera, storytelling a ...

produced and directed by

Johnnie To Johnnie To Kei-fung (born 22 April 1955) is a Hong Kong filmmaker. Popular in his native Hong Kong, To has also found acclaim overseas. Intensely prolific, To has made films in a variety of genres, though in the West he is best known for his H ...

, and starring

Richie Jen Richie Jen Hsien-chi (, born 23 June 1966), also known as Richie Ren, is a Taiwanese singer and actor. He graduated from the Chinese Culture University's physical education department. Jen debuted in December 1990 with the studio album ''Ask ...

Kelly Chen Kelly Chen Wai-lam (born Vivian Chen Wai-man on 13 September 1972) is a Hong Kong singer and actress. She has been referred to as a " Diva of Asia" (). Chen has great success in the East Asian entertainment industry with nearly 20 million rec ...

, and

Nick Cheung Nicholas Cheung Ka-fai (; born 2 December 1964) is a Hong Kong actor, singer and director. He first gained recognition for his roles in '' The Conman'' (1998) and '' The Tricky Master'' (1999). He went on to star in the films '' Beast Stalker'' (20 ...

. The film premiered out of competition at the

2004 Cannes Film Festival The 57th Cannes Film Festival took place from 12 to 23 May 2004. American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino served as jury president for the main competition. While American filmmaker Michael Moore won the Palme d'Or for the documentary film '' Fahrenh ...

Plot

The

Hong Kong Police The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) is the primary law enforcement, investigative agency, and largest Hong Kong Disciplined Services, disciplined service under the Security Bureau (Hong Kong), Security Bureau of Hong Kong. Pursuant to the one c ...

finds itself in a

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...

crisis after a disastrous shootout and the scene of a police officer surrendering in apparent fear to the mobsters was captured and telecast by the local media. Inspector Cheung and his crew are assigned to the task of catching these mobsters, led by the intelligent and resourceful Yuan. In the meantime, Superintendent Rebecca Fong leads an effort on the part of the Hong Kong Police to mislead the media and salvage the reputation of the police team. She sees the chance in a raid on the mobsters hiding out in an apartment, while Inspector Cheung leads his own team to search for the mobsters, with many gunfights breaking out in between. While the police are evacuating the apartment, Yuan accidentally rescues another team: the killer Chun and his companions. Yuan and Fong use the media to wage a propaganda war. Yuan and Chun finally decide to create chaos. They escape from the apartment after freeing the remaining residents of the apartment, having a gunfight with the police during the chaos with the death of their companions. Cheung and Fong see through their trick and followed Yuan. Yuan takes Fong as a hostage and goes to the place where Chun goes to assassinate the target, and acts in his place, but Cheung and other police officers follow Fong's tracker and rush to the scene, which makes the assassination impossible. Fong says that she would not let this "show" be messed up in her hands. Yuan knews that the defeat was doomed, so he decides to expose himself and is shot dead by the police. The police promotes Cheung and Fong as the heroes of this "show". At the end of the story, the killer Chun takes Yuan's place in hijacking the cash withdrawal vehicle and is also shot dead.

Cast

as Yuen, an intelligent criminal *

as Superintendent Rebecca Fong *

as Senior Inspector Cheung of District Crime Squad *

Eddie Cheung Cheung Siu-fai (; born 4 February 1963), also known as Eddie Cheung, is a Hong Kong actor. He is best known for his many supporting or everyman roles similar to Liu Kai-chi. Filmography Film Television series References External links ...

as Chief Superintendent Eric Yeung *

Benz Hui Benz Hui Shiu-hung (born 4 November 1948) is a Hong Kong film and TV actor. Hui is credited with over 165 films. Hui is a currently a TV actor with TVB. Early life and family Hui comes from an influential family in Canton. His great-grandfathe ...

as Sergeant Hoi, subordinate of Inspector Cheung *

Lam Suet Lam Suet (; born 1964), or Lin Xue, is a Hong Kong film actor. Life and career Lam was born in Tianjin, and came to Hong Kong as a youth in 1979 to receive inheritance money left by his grandfather. Soon after, all the money had been squander ...

as Yip, hostage *

You Yong You Yong (born 13 December 1963) is a Chinese actor. He enrolled in the Xi'an Drama School (西安话剧院) in 1979 and joined the Shanghai Theatre Academy Shanghai Theatre Academy () is a municipal public college for dramatic art education ...

as Chun * Ding Haifeng as Lung * Li Haitao as Chung *

Simon Yam Simon Yam Tat-wah (; born 19 March 1955) is a Hong Kong actor and film producer. He is best known for his performances in films such as '' PTU'' (2003), ''Election'' (2005), '' SPL: Sha Po Lang'' (2005), ''Triangle'' (2007), '' Sparrow'' (2008), ' ...

as Asst. Commissioner Wong (special appearance) *

Alan Chui Chung-San Chui Chung-San (often known as Shu Zhong Xin, Tsui Chung-San, Hsu Zhong-Xin or Alan Hsu; 16 August 1954 – 2 November 2022) was a Hong Kong actor, director, choreographer, martial artist and stuntman. He was known for being an action director ...

as Chun's target *

Maggie Shiu Maggie Shiu (born February 27, 1965) is a prominent Hong Kong actress. Career Her career began in 1985 when she joined Hong Kong TVB. As her career developed, she took on variety of roles in TV series and movies. Hong Kong audiences still remembe ...

as Inspector Grace Chow, Police Public Relation (special appearance) * Wong Chi-wai as Wang * Wong Wah-wo as White Hair

Awards and nominations

Remakes

A remake called '' Goryachie Novosti'' (international title: ''

Newsmakers ''Newsmakers'' () is a 2009 Russian action thriller film directed by Swedish director Anders Banke. It is a remake of the Hong Kong film ''Breaking News'' by Johnnie To. Plot Moscow police officer Smirnov sets out to capture the violent ganglead ...

'') has been shot in Russia. It is produced by Moscow-based Tandem Pictures and

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

's Illusion Film and helmed by young Swedish director

Anders Banke Anders Banke (born 2 August 1969) is a Swedish director. He was born and raised in Ystad and developed an early interest in film. He was trained as a director at VGIK in Moscow and learned to speak Russian. There he met his friend and future collab ...

. The Russian/Swedish version of ''Breaking News'' was theatrically released in Russia and ex-USSR on 7 May 2009.

References

External links