How Hong Kong action movie director Johnnie To’s films Lifeline and The Mission show the different sides to his filmmaking

Best known internationally for a run of highly individual crime films, Johnnie To has also been lauded in Hong Kong as a producer or director of commercial hits

We look at two of the best films from each side of his filmmaking: the fiery commercial hit Lifeline, and the critically acclaimed gangster movie The Mission

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Lau Ching-wan in a still from the movie “Lifeline” (1997), directed by Hong Kong action film auteur Johnnie To. Photo: Shaw Brothers Studio

Published: 4:15am, 20 Aug 2023Updated: 8:24am, 20 Aug 2023

“For every commercial film that I do, I have to do something without considering what the market wants,” said prolific Hong Kong director and producer Johnnie To Kei-fung in an interview with the Post in 2003. “I get a lot of satisfaction from that.”

Best known internationally for a run of highly individual crime films including The Longest Nite in the 1990s, To has also been lauded in Hong Kong as a producer or director of commercial hits such as All About Ah Long and A Moment of Romance since the mid-1980s.

Here we look at two of the best films from each side of his filmmaking: the fiery commercial hit Lifeline, and the critically acclaimed gangster movie The Mission.

Lifeline (1997)

Lifeline 十萬火急 (1996) **Official Trailer** by Shaw Brothers

The firefighter drama Lifeline was quickly dubbed “Hong Kong’s Backdraft” by local fans when it was released in 1997, referring to Ron Howard’s 1991 Hollywood firefighter film.

The big difference was that the Hollywood filmmakers used special effects to create the blaze, whereas To and his team used real fire.

“It was a very difficult film to make, and we were very lucky that we did not have a major accident,” To told the Post’s Winnie Chung in 1999.