15. Drug War
I stumbled onto this late one night on Film4 and was blown away by it. On the one hand, Drug War (Du Zhan) is a fairly straightforward story of cops, criminals and moles, not too dissimilar from something like The Departed in its tale of undercover agents and stings. On the other hand, though, Drug War is a riotous action picture, hugely indebted to Michael Mann in its slick style. This Chinese/Hong Kong picture comes from cult director Johnnie To, a man with a whopping 64 directing credits to his name. An absolute institution in his native Hong Kong, To here directs one of his best films, and one that's outright nasty at times. The action is frenetic and relentless, and the fifteen minute shootout that closes the picture is surely one of the greatest ever shot - a masterpiece of the form that ranks alongside the one in Heat. It's that good.