Hong Kong filmmaking giant Johnnie To on Monday confirmed plans to make a Hong Kong gangster movie to be shot in Japan.
Speaking to Variety at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event, To said he’d like cameras to start rolling on this film in Japan – where the shoot is reportedly expected to take place mostly in Hokkaido – in 2026. However To added that “several things,” including casting, are still hanging in the air.
Asked whether he’d like to reunite with fellow Hong Kong legend Tony Leung – who is best known for roles in movies such as Wong Kar Wai’s “In the Mood for Love,” and Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” but has worked with To on titles including “Tomorrow,” “The Royal Scoundrel,” and “Lucky Tomorrow,” To said: “Yes. I hope we can make another movie together.”
Meanwhile To – who last directed the 2019 feature “Chasing Dream” about a boxer and a singer chasing the Chinese Dream – has quietly returned behind camera on another film that is having a long gestation due to the fact that the revered prolific director has been in a creative impasse due to the onslaught of political upheavals in Hong Kong following the territory’s handover from Britain to China in 1997.
“I cannot concentrate. There is too much change,” To said. “But I must face it and finish my movie.”
“I have been shooting over a time period of three years,” To said about his new film. “But I have only [actually] shot for ten days,” the director pointed out, adding that he hopes to finish it by July.
“The movie talks about hope,” To said, asked about his new film, which features Hong Kong popstar Anson Lo. Other details on the film, that is being produced by To’s Milkyway Image, are being kept under wraps.
To, whose highly stylized crime films – often with existential social overtones include “Election” and “Vengeance,” that played in Cannes, and “Exiled,” “Mad Detective,” and “Life Without Principle,” that launched in Venice — is known to frequently use improvised locations and minimalist screenplays and often works on multiple productions at the same time.
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