Johnnie To Confirms Two New Features and Offers Update on Election 3

The film world was set alight when learning Johnnie To and Tony Leung would reteam for a Japan-shot gangster feature. (That collection of words sort of speaks for itself, so I won’t elaborate upon our excitement.) It overshadowed semi-recent news of To and pop star Anson Lo shooting a feature on which nothing had been heard since; fortunately, with the director present at this year’s Doha Film Institute, new light’s been shed on his doings.

To and Lo (there’s a marketing tag) have, per Screen Daily, been attached to this project for three years, despite only shooting about ten days thus far, alongside “an old actress, and a young girl.” He elaborated to Variety that the untitled film (which “talks about hope” and supposedly features Lo as a driver) has found him “in a creative impasse due to the onslaught of political upheavals in Hong Kong,” but is anticipated to finish in July. One wonders if certain political subtexts are keeping To quiet on exact contents of the feature; I’ll be glad to find out any which way before long.

That’s seemingly confirmed in another conversation with Deadline, to whom To said, “The story is Hong Kong, its people,” adding that the “value of life, value of everything changed” after China’s recent push against pro-democracy protestors. This is perhaps part and parcel with him claiming, on the Anson Lo project, “I have a very rough idea, but it’s not mature. The first thing I have to settle [is] my feeling about Hong Kong.”

No matter how many years pass, To remains “hopeful” and “optimistic” on Election 3, for which no script but “many ideas” exist. While that film could only be made in Hong Kong, it’s necessary that “things change” therein––seemingly issues with international sales, which he notes have been less and less hospitable to his national cinema in the age of streaming services. (This ties with To’s endorsement of Trump and tariffs, plus the note that “America is too left-wing,” about which, well…)

Should that fail to pass, all is not lost: he hinted to Deadline there’s early development on a project in Taiwan. But notice of what that is will have to wait.

The post Johnnie To Confirms Two New Features and Offers Update on Election 3 first appeared on The Film Stage.