Throw Down (柔道龍虎榜). 2004. Directed by Johnnie To

Film

No upcoming events

Throw Down《柔道龍虎榜》 2004. Hong Kong. Directed by Johnnie To. Courtesy Alamy

Throw Down (柔道龍虎榜). 2004. Hong Kong. Directed by Johnnie To. With Louis Koo, Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Cherrie Ying. Digital. Courtesy Janus Films. In Cantonese; English subtitles. 95 min.

In this oblique homage to Akira Kurosawa, Johnnie To trades his usual gunplay for judo matches, crafting a poetic meditation on competition, redemption, and the warrior spirit. Louis Koo stars as a former judo champion turned alcoholic, whose chance encounters with an aspiring singer (Cherrie Ying) and a determined challenger (Aaron Kwok) set him on a path to reclaim his honor. Throw Down stands apart in To’s oeuvre for its gentle humor and lyrical approach to storytelling, while still showcasing his trademark visual inventiveness. This deeply personal work, infused with the director’s love for cinema and martial arts, reaffirms To’s versatility—and is said to be the director’s personal favorite among his films.

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

Past events

Sun, Oct 13, 2024, 1:30 p.m.

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2
Tue, Oct 1, 2024, 7:00 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].