| Benjamin Jarman |
Breaking News plays at the Trylon Cinema from Sunday, August 11th, through Tuesday, August 13th. Visit trylon.org for tickets and more information.
“Image matters most. We have to put on a great show. An eye for an eye. This is the age of the media. The media got us. Now we get back at them.”
These are the first lines of dialogue recited by actress Kelly Chen in Johnnie To’s 2004 crime film, Breaking News. Chen plays Rebecca, a no-nonsense police inspector calling the shots during a high stakes arrest of bank robbers. For most of the film, Rebecca sits behind a desk, monitoring and directing the police’s siege to make sure news coverage is in her favor. Watching Rebecca organize the operation in that dark room mirrors director To’s attention to his films. In To’s case, he uses many of the same techniques used by the news media to engage his own audience.
Like many Hong Kong action movies, Breaking News is a cops and robbers movie, but To adds another layer to it. The lines blur in terms of who is right and who is wrong. The local news catches wind of a botched police raid and reports on the less than pleasing safety in the city. The police department strikes back by using the media to shape a heroic story of officers pursuing the criminals. Unfortunately, there are too many moving pieces involved in the plan and the criminals catch on to expose the lies of the police. Since the media is the third factor in the film, director To from the start manipulates his audience just like the police manipulate the media.
The opening of the film contains a single, seven-minute take, free of editing. This is the police raid the media becomes aware of. Right away, To is bringing the audience into the film by avoiding one big cinematic trick: cutting. Without edits, the film instills more reality; as the camera pans into a random street in the middle of busy Kowloon, the audience becomes part of that space, working alongside people packing produce in a shipping truck or using a jackhammer to fix the road. The camera then moves to a window on the street showing the criminals ready to make an escape. Once the criminals appear, the camera moves back outside, without edits, showing undercover cops getting ready to perform the raid. Normally in the Hong Kong action genre, filmmakers use rapid cutting once the bullets start flying, engaging the audience like a fireworks display. In Breaking News, the guns don’t start firing until around four minutes into the continuous shot, at which point audiences wake, now in the middle of a shootout. This opening shot is indicative of much news coverage in that reality and believability are best generated with as little effect as possible.
News outlets need to stick to the facts, so visually, these outlets need to avoid adding to an image through editing. Many times news reports are live on the scene of the topic so audiences can watch what is happening in real time. In fact, a lot of news sites stream 24/7 coverage of a location without cuts just in case something happens. People can visit YouTube right now and watch live streams of everything from rare animals in zoos or cities in warzones. Even more, cameras are in the hands of everyone with a smartphone so even amateurs can capture actions like police abuse just by pressing the record button. Cuts in the footage, then, are a reminder of cameras and computers capturing images far away from the safety of a screen at home.
After the police raid fails, the media spins the story for ratings. The city will watch the news if the news makes it seem like the police cannot keep them safe. At this point, Inspector Rebecca and the police decide to work with the media to make the city look safe. The police plan to send all resources to the known location of the criminals and stage a heroic takedown, changing the narrative for the media and in turn, the city. At one point, Rebecca exclaims, “Every Brick IC officer will go into action with a pinhole camera attached to them.” With this, To has an excuse to capture first-person footage of assault teams searching for the criminals. In addition, another inspector reports on the images shared with the media, saying that “The coolest ones are being digitally retouched. I also got a movie director to edit the footage. Then we’ll add music and sound effects. It will deliver a punch.” To is thinking the same thing in his editing room. At times, he uses a split screen to show action in two places at the same time. Through public relation stunts, interviews with the media, and scenes capturing officers setting up assaults of the building the criminals hide in, ratings continue to boost for the media in general, and positively for the police.
The police and media in Breaking News seem to have the perfect set-up, but so do the criminals. They are watching the coverage in the apartment that is under assault so they can see what the police are doing and how they are manipulating the public. At one point, the leader of the gang pulls out his flip phone and starts recording in the room he is in with his colleagues and hostages. The images are sent to the media to use so the public can see things from the criminal’s perspective. To top it off, a rogue group of detectives decide to take matters into their own hands, putting innocent people in harm’s way. These actions are recorded on the flip phone camera the criminals use, painting a different picture than the one desired by the police department. Audiences seeing this footage are reminded of amateur video recordings of police brutality in the real world. Here again is To using tools of the media to comment on images in the news, images in cinema, and reality.
The need to evolve Hong Kong action films is on To’s mind here. While the genre captures the imagination of audiences with daring stunts and outlandish choreography, To acknowledges there are more complexities to this genre that can be examined. About Breaking News, To says, “The problem is that many Hong Kong police films, the people shooting them, are still living in the 1970s. They’re still making films from the era. They’re still making The French Connection. That’s why I’m trying to do things differently.” It is important for To to stop audiences with his films; to reflect on changes to not only the genre, but the media landscape in general. The cinematic tricks he uses, like the long take, are not always new, but To uses the tricks in new ways in genre films in which the techniques are not seen. He is also introducing footage, like flip phone images, unconventionally used in narrative film. To is conscious of all the tools available to him for letting the audience in on not only the narrative secret, but also the cinematic secret.
By the end of the film, it isn’t really clear who audiences should side with; the criminals commit murder, the police are not being honest about their actions, and the media will champion any side that will bring them more ratings and therefore, money. This is typical for many Hong Kong action films, like The Killer, in which the villain is more of an anti-hero. As a member of the audience entering the film from the opening long take, decisions can be made about the ethics of each character. Behind the scenes, the audience can see what the police are doing to manipulate the media while the criminals watch the news. Then, with the power of cameras on every phone every person has, the truth appears as seen through the criminal’s flip phone footage. As much as these images can change through post-production, these tools can capture damning images of public servants committing crimes themselves.
By the end of the film, one of the criminals engages Rebecca saying, “I’m the bad guy. How about you?” Rebecca responds saying, “I’m the showrunner.” Suddenly viewers can see how closely Rebbeca and her operation mimic To’s own behind the scenes production. To continually refines his craft, oftentimes commenting on the use of film techniques to alter the opinion of the audience. His film, Breaking News, is a thesis on media and state-run manipulation, all the while using his own magic tricks to manipulate moviegoers. Just like Lieutenant Rebecca, To develops his projects in a dark room of glowing monitors, orchestrating his actors and crew for the pleasure of the audience.
Edited by Olga Tchepikova-Treon