''Throwdown'' () (Judo Dragon and the Tiger List) is a 2004 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Johnnie To and starring

Louis Koo Louis Koo Tin-lok ( zh, t=古天樂; born 21 October 1970) is a Hong Kong people, Hong Kong actor, singer and film producer. He began his professional career as an actor in local television series, winning TVB's Best Actor award in 1999 and 2001 ...

Aaron Kwok Aaron Kwok Fu-shing (born 26 October 1965) is a Hong Kong singer, dancer and actor. Active since the 1980s, Kwok is known as one of the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Hong Kong pop music. Dubbed the "God of Dance", Kwok's onstage dancing is influenc ...

Cherrie Ying Cherrie Ying Choi-yi (born 20 June 1983), better known as Ting Yim-yi or Ting Man, is a Taiwan-born Hong Kong actress. She moved to New York City at a young age, and later to Hong Kong. Her nickname is "Dingding" (丁丁), and she is often credit ...

and

Tony Leung Ka-fai Tony Leung Ka-fai (; born 1 February 1958) is a Hong Kong actor who is a four-time winner of the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor. As he is often confused with actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Tony Leung Ka-fai is known as "Big Tony," while Tony Leu ...

. The film is one of To's most personal to date; he dedicated it to the late Japanese filmmaker

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...

and, in making it, had drawn upon elements of Kurosawa's debut feature, '' Sanshiro Sugata''. ''Throw Down'' had its premiere at the

61st Venice International Film Festival The 61st annual Venice International Film Festival was held between 1 and 11 September 2004. The festival opened with Steven Spielberg's ''The Terminal'', and closed with Katsuhiro Otomo's '' Steamboy''. The Golden Lion was awarded to the fi ...

Plot

Karaoke manager and band leader Sze-to Bo (

) was a

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

expert and former champion who gave up judo a few years ago for unknown reasons and became depressed and an alcoholic. Current judo champion Tony (

), a competitive fighter, admires Bo and challenges him to a duel. Bo's longtime rival, Lee Ah-kong ( Tony Leung), also arrives to challenge Bo for an old unfinished competition. Bo's mentor, Cheng (

Lo Hoi-pang Lo Hoi-pang (born 21 December 1941) is a Hong Kong actor and singer. Lo attended TVB's Training Classes in 1973. Among his classmates are Chow Yun-fat and Ng Man-tat. Lo won the 2012 31st Hong Kong Film Awards for the Best Supporting Actor c ...

), is old and frail and has a dementia ridden son, Ching (Calvin Choi). Wanting to save his judo dojo, which have become a depressing ruins, Cheng also asks his disciple to help him to restore the reputation of his dojo. Mona (

) is a girl from

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

who dreams to become a singer, but was nearly forced into prostitution by her evil manager. She seeks refuge in Bo's karaoke, but thugs manage to chase her there. At this time, Bo can no longer keep his secret and reveals the true reason he gave up judo: he had developed an incurable retinal disease and his vision is gradually declining and currently only having one tenth of his vision left. When Master Cheng dies for his ideals battling on the judo stage and Bo's eyes are nearly becoming blind, Bo's heart is suddenly able to see clearly and his fighting spirit reignites. Bo is determined to defeat all his opponents before seeing the last line of light.

Cast

as Szeto Bo *

as Tony *

as Mona *

as Lee Kong * Eddie Cheung Siu-fai as Boss Savage *

as Cheng *Calvin Choi as Jing *

Jordan Chan Jordan Chan Siu-chun (born Chan Siu-tsun on 8 July 1967) is a Hong Kong actor, singer and dancer, known for starring in the ''Young and Dangerous'' film series and for his role in the 1998 TV adaptation of Louis Cha's novel, '' The Duke o ...

as Mona's agent *

Jack Kao Jack Kao (, born 23 April 1958) is a Taiwanese actor. Career He began his career in the late 1980s films of Hou Hsiao-hsien. Kao credits his success to the many real-life gangsters he knew when he was young. He appeared in '' City of Sadness' ...

as Mona's father *

Albert Au Albert Au Shui Keung () is a Hong Kong English pop and Cantopop singer-songwriter and DJ of RTHK. Albert grew up in Hong Kong, and his ancestral hometown is Zhaoqing city, Guangdong province. A graduate of Hong Kong Baptist University, he debute ...

*Yeung Fan * Wing Chung *Kwok Park-yin *Chui Ka-ho *Cheung Wai-kit

Release

''Throw Down'' was released in Hong Kong on 8 July 2004 and in the U.S. on 22 July 2004. On Metacritic, it receives 53/100 Metascore from four critics (

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...

and

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

Home media

''Throw Down'' was released on both

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

and

VCD Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard optical discs. The format was widely adopted in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the ...

in Hong Kong on September 3, 2004. In the United States, the film was released on DVD by Tai Seng on July 26, 2005. The film was later released on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

in Hong Kong by Kam & Ronson Enterprises on August 9, 2011. On May 18, 2020, British home media company

Eureka Entertainment Eureka (often abbreviated as E!, or Σ!) is an intergovernmental organisation for research and development funding and coordination. Eureka is an open platform for international cooperation in innovation. Organisations and companies applying t ...

released ''Throw Down'' on Blu-ray for its Masters of Cinema collection; this release features a new

4K resolution 4K resolution refers to a horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. Digital television and digital cinematography commonly use several different 4K resolutions. In television and consumer media, 38402160 (4K Ultra-high-definitio ...

master of the film and a new audio commentary from Frank Djeng. The film will later be released on Blu-ray by

the Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

in North America on September 21, 2021, and will feature new interviews with screenwriter

Yau Nai-hoi Yau Nai-hoi () is a Hong Kong screenwriter and director. He is best known as a frequent screenwriter for films produced by the independent Hong Kong production company Milkyway Image, notably films directed by Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai. Yau ...

, composer

Peter Kam Peter Kam Pui-Tat (, born August 23, 1961) is a music composer for Hong Kong films including ''The Warlords'', '' Bodyguards and Assassins'' and ''Dragon''. Kam is an eight-time winner at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Partial filmography * ''Big B ...

, and film scholars David Bordwell and Caroline Guo, along with an essay by critic Sean Gilman.

References

External links

* * *
hkcinemagic entry''Throw Down: Down but Not Out''
an essay by Sean Gilman at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

{{MilkywayImage 2004 films 2004 martial arts films 2000s Cantonese-language films China Star Entertainment Group films Films directed by Johnnie To Films set in Hong Kong Films shot in Hong Kong Films with screenplays by Yau Nai-hoi Hong Kong martial arts films Milkyway Image films 2000s Hong Kong films