Breaking News (大事件). 2004. Directed by Johnnie To

Film

No upcoming events

Breaking News《大事件》 2004. Hong Kong. Directed by Johnnie To. Courtesy of Media Asia Film Distribution (HK) Limited

Breaking News (大事件). 2004. Hong Kong. Directed by Johnnie To. With Richie Jen, Kelly Chen, Nick Cheung. Digital. Courtesy of Media Asia Film Distribution (HK) Limited. In Cantonese; English subtitles. 90 min.

Johnnie To’s prescient media satire masquerading as an action thriller opens with a bravura seven-minute single take, setting the stage for a film that’s as much about image-making as law enforcement. When a botched police operation becomes a public relations disaster, an ambitious officer (Kelly Chen) turns the manhunt for a gang of robbers into a round-the-clock media spectacle. To’s signature visual flair is on full display, using split screens and surveillance footage to underscore themes of perception and reality in the digital age. Breaking News deftly balances kinetic action sequences with biting commentary on the symbiotic relationship between crime, law enforcement, and the media.

This film accompanies Chaos and Order: The Way of Johnnie To.

Past events

Thu, Oct 3, 7:00 p.m.

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2
Thu, Sep 26, 4:30 p.m.

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 1

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1

Licensing

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit https://www.moma.org/research/circulating-film.

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].