life without principle movie review

Your browser is not supported

Sorry but it looks as if your browser is out of date. To get the best experience using our site we recommend that you upgrade or switch browsers.

Find a solution

• Skip to main content
• Skip to navigation

• Back to parent navigation item
• Digital Editions
• Screen Network
• Stars Of Tomorrow
• The Big Screen Awards
• FYC screenings
• World of Locations
• UK in focus
• Job vacancies
• Distribution
• Staff moves
• Territories
• UK & Ireland
• North America
• Asia Pacific
• Middle East & Africa
• Future Leaders
• My Screen Life
• Karlovy Vary
• San Sebastian
• Sheffield Doc/Fest
• Middle East
• Box Office Reports
• International
• Golden Globes
• European Film Awards
• Stars of Tomorrow
• Berlin jury grid

Subscribe to Screen International

• Monthly print editions
• Awards season weeklies
• Stars of Tomorrow and exclusive supplements
• Over 16 years of archived content
• More from navigation items

Life Without Principle

By Lee Marshall 2011-09-09T22:02:00+01:00

Dir: Johnnie To. Hong Kong. 2011. 106mins

There are some good ideas knocking around in Hong Kong genre auteur Johnnie To’s multi-strand financial crisis dramedy- but they’re swamped by an inept script that keeps getting bogged down in details and forgetting the big dramatic picture. The film does have the merit of rendering, with a certain ironic detachment, the human side of the profits and losses generated by stock-market meltdown in a money-oriented urban hothouse like Hong Kong. But that doesn’t make it any less of a frustrating viewing experience.

Johnnie To usually also serves up wok-fuls of visual style and a lush Hong Kong soundscape, but Life Without Principle disappoints on this front.

To’s output of two or three films a year (this is number two for 2011) generally pans out between local-consumption comedies (like Don’t Go Breaking My Heart , released in Hong Kong earlier this year) and festival-pleasing Triad actioners or police procedurals with out-of-Asia distribution potential. With its comedic thrust, artsy choral structure and (in part) gangland settings, Life Without Principle (Duo Ming Jin) looks like an attempt to bridge the gap between these two modes. But it’s a hybrid that is unlikely to translate into the sort of East-West box office crossover achieved by, say, Exiled or Mad Detective .

The three characters, and stories, that will intertwine in the course of the film each get such a leisurely run-up that we’re a third of the way in before we’ve even begun to tease out the dramatic thread that unites them. Plot strand one -easily the thinnest - focuses on serious, honourable detective Cheung (Jen), a chiselled heartthrob who is absorbed by his job, much to the frustration of his fiancée, Connie (Wu), who is trying to get him to commit to putting a down payment on a new apartment.

The second and most dramatically coherent story is that of Teresa (Ho), an under-pressure clerk in a bank where ‘financial products’ are the new mantra and each employee is judged by his or her performance in selling them - no matter if the recipients are effectively conned into gambling their savings on dodgy stock and bond bundles.

Strand number three focuses on Panther (Ching Wan), a low-grade gangland henchman with a comic range of facial tics, who is scrupulously honest and indelibly servile. This is the story that takes longest to get off the ground, as we see Panther involved in organising a dinner for his boss and raising the money to bail out a gang lieutenant: here the script takes an awfully long time to make the point that even underworld bosses can have cashflow problems.

It’s not until well over an hour in that Panther’s strand coalesces into something more incisive, when the search for bail money takes him to old friend Lung (Keung), who runs a backstreet business operation that helps people to play the futures market on the Internet.

Television news reports about the Greek debt crisis and graphs of the Hang Seng index’s rise and fall provide a sort of running audiovisual bass line, and there’s a nice, queasy see-saw motion established around these ups and down that will culminate in a decision Panther has to make near the end. And there are always a few cut-out-and-keep scenes in even the most rapidly dashed-off Johnnie To movie: leading candidates here are a botched robbery in an underground carpark and a priceless comedy stabbing.

To usually also serves up wok-fuls of visual style and a lush Hong Kong soundscape, but Life Without Principle disappoints on this front: everything here looks shot in a hurry, and although an a cappella musical theme with a Michel Legrand feel lends a certain jaunty je ne sais quoi, we yearn for the stylishness of Sparrow or The Mission .

Production companies: Media Asia Films presents a Milkway Image production International sales: Media Asia Distribution, www.mediaasia.com Producer: Johnnie To Executive producers: John Chong Screenplay: Au Kin Yee, Wong King Fai, Milkyway Creative Team Cinematography: Cheng Siu Keung Editor: David Richardson Production designe:r Sukie Yip Main cast: Lau Ching Wan, Rickie Jen, Denise Ho, Myolie Wu, Philip Keung, Terence Yin

• Reel-To-Reel
• Venice Competition

Related articles

Lou Ye’s Cannes title ‘An Unfinished Film’ heads to Coproduction Office, lands first sales (exclusive)

2024-04-23T08:19:00Z By Michael Rosser

The film will play in the Special Screenings section of the festival.

Gkids to distribute ‘Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence’

2024-04-17T17:52:00Z By Jeremy Kay

4k restoration to go on nationwide release in summer.

Lionsgate Television, Park Chan-wook developing ‘Oldboy’ series

2024-04-17T17:00:00Z By Jeremy Kay

South Korean auteur and producing partner Syd Lim attached to produce.

• Advertise with Screen
• A - Z of Subjects
• Connect with us on Facebook
• Connect with us on Twitter
• Connect with us on Linked in
• Connect with us on YouTube
• Connect with us on Instagram>

Screen International is the essential resource for the international film industry. Subscribe now for monthly editions, awards season weeklies, access to the Screen International archive and supplements including Stars of Tomorrow and World of Locations.

• Screen Awards
• Media Production & Technology Show
• Terms and conditions
• Privacy & Cookie Policy
• Copyright © 2023 Media Business Insight Limited
• Subscription FAQs

Site powered by Webvision Cloud

Life Without Principle

Auds who've come to expect pyrotechnic action will be disappointed in this almost perversely slow burning, sometimes slapdash criss-crosser.

By Leslie Felperin

Leslie Felperin

• Film Review: ‘Traitors’ 11 years ago
• Venice Film Review: ‘Little Brother’ 11 years ago
• Venice Film Review: ‘Ukraine Is Not a Brothel’ 11 years ago

Seizing on the ongoing world banking crisis to add a spin to an otherwise ho-hum crime story, Hong Kong helmer Johnnie To finds greed to be the root of all evil in his patchy “Life Without Principle.” Auds who’ve come to expect pyrotechnic action will be disappointed in this almost perversely slow-burning, sometimes slapdash criss-crosser that intersects the stories of a bank employee, a cop and a clutch of small-time triad gangsters all chasing a fast buck. Pic will find it challenging to leverage interest from international buyers, but should enjoy solid returns at home.

Teasingly, the pic’s opening shot features pools of blood in a shabby apartment building corridor in Kowloon, but thereafter it takes nearly an hour before any onscreen violence kicks in, and even then it’s more comic than gut-churning. That blood belonged to an elderly man (never seen) attacked by his neighbor, a fracas under investigation by inspector Cheung Jin-fong (Richie Jen, a regular To alum like so many of the cast members here). But Cheung is called away from business by his wife Connie (Myolie Wu) to view an apartment she’s desperate to buy as an investment, a purchase cautious Cheung isn’t quite ready to make.

Popular on Variety

Looking to raise coin, Connie will eventually end up at the desk of bank employee Teresa (Canto-pop thrush Denise Ho) who’s afraid she’s going to get fired unless she increases her sales of financial products to her wealthier clients. In an audaciously protracted sequence that will test auds’ appetites for the minutiae of investment banking, Teresa is seen talking a gullible older femme (So Hang-shuen) into putting her life’s savings into a high-risk fund. That turns out to be a bad idea, because the next day the Greek economy goes bankrupt, wiping out a large proportion of the fund’s value.

On the day of the crisis, another of Teresa’s clients, loan shark Yuen (Lo Hoi-pang), comes in to withdraw HK$10 million ($1.2 million) to lend to triad Panther (Lau Ching-wan, in fine comic form here) and his associate Lung (Philip Keung, also a hoot) who’s just lost a fortune of his boss’s money on the futures black market. For complex reasons, Yuen ends up leaving half the withdrawal behind in Teresa’s office, and is then killed in the bank’s garage, which leaves half the money floating around the streets of Hong Kong with Panther and Lung , while Teresa — aware that Yuen is dead and the money is untraceable — agonizes over whether to keep the other half.

While the pic may frustrate fans who like To’s pacey actioners, those who more appreciate the helmer for his ironic look at contempo mores will find much to relish in his ruthless portrait of avariciousness, seen as endemic in every walk of society, from hardened gangsters to seemingly nice little old ladies. Hardly a single character in the film is wholly sympathetic, and that even goes for Cheung, who in an underdeveloped subplot is seen, while his father dies of cancer, trying to avoid adopting his young half-sister, whose mother has run away to the mainland.

Given the number of other loose plot strands and stray characters who pop in and out of the action, the pic starts to look like it was assembled with more haste than usual by the ever-prolific To. There’s a zesty, manic energy about the perfs that carries things along, even in the abundant scenes where characters stare at computer screens trying to read the runes of stock market quotes. Still, the helmer’s fascination with systems and organizations is so upfront here that it nearly stifles the drama.

Subtle editing by regular To collaborator David Richardson enhances the different flavors of the pic’s main three story strands and helps to create a sense of closure when the whole whirligig comes to a halt. Subtitles will have to be refined on further prints to make what’s going on clearer for those who don’t speak Cantonese or understand investment banking.

• Production: A Media Asia Distribution release of a Media Asia Film presentation of a Milkyway Image production. (International sales: Media Asia Group, Hong Kong.) Produced by Johnnie To. Executive producers, John Chong. Directed by Johnnie To. Screenplay, Milkyway Creative Team, Au Kin-yee, Wong King-fai.
• Crew: Camera (color, widescreen), Cheng Siu-keung, To Hung-mo; editor, David Richardson; production designer/costume designer, Sukie Yip; sound (Dolby Digital), Mak Chi-on; sound designer, Benny Chi; line producer, Elaine Chu. Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (competing), Sept. 8, 2011. (Also in Toronto, San Sebastian, Pusan film festivals.) Running time: 107 MIN.
• With: With: Lau Ching-wan, Richie Jen, Denise Ho, Myolie Wu, Lo Hoi-pang, So Hang-shuen, Philip Keung, Tam Ping-man, Cheung Siu-fai, Felix Wong, Wong Chi-yin, J.J. Jia, Stephanie Che, Yoyo Chan, Anson Leung, Terence Yin. (Cantonese dialogue)

More From Our Brands

The ugly truth about the wild animals of instagram, david beckham is suing mark wahlberg and his f45 gym for more than $14 million, caitlin clark reportedly nearing $28m contract with nike, be tough on dirt but gentle on your body with the best soaps for sensitive skin, terry carter, mccloud and original battlestar galactica star, dead at 95, verify it's you, please log in.

• Movie-Reviews |
• Soundtrack-Reviews |
• TV Series |
• About the site |

Life Without Principle

Story: Inspector Cheung (Richie Ren) and his wife Connie (Myolie Wu) want to buy an apartment. For this reason Connie goes to the bank and wants to take up a loan. Bank clerk Teresa (Denise Ho) has to tell her, though, that it is impossible for her to afford the apartment because of the financial situation in Hong Kong. The Greek debt crisis has brought enormous loss to the Hong Kong stock exchange market. Triad member Panther (Lau Ching Wan) feels the impact of this crisis as well. Up until now he was always loyally standing at his boss' side and got his buddies out of jail. For latter he wants to borrow some money from his old friend Lung (Keung Ho Man). Lung then introduces Panther to speculation in shares. However, Lung finds himself on the losing end because of the sudden financial crisis. In order to get some of his money back he decides to rob a loan shark (Lo Hoi Pang) with Panther's help. Yet, something goes wrong, the loan shark dies and bank clerk Teresa still has half of the money from his recent withdrawal. No one knows that she has the money and since she had the worst quota in her team that quarter and must expect to be fired soon, she has to seriously think about simply keeping the money...

Review: This is by far the most socio-critical film of Johnnie To so far. A thriller with a message which is not really aiming at the fan base that couldn't get enough of "The Mission" or "Exiled" but instead goes into a new direction. There may still be a bit of occasional triads, brotherhood and betrayal but all in all the movie is about everyday life in Hong Kong. And this life, as we know since "Overheard" at the latest, revolves around stock trading which even grandmother with her scanty pension participates in. Everything revolves around money, winning or losing, the ultimate fight for survival in a world in which everyone loves himself rather than his neighbour. In "Life Without Principle" director To draws a dark and amusing picture of a money-centered society and takes three characters from different social background and through them sketches modern Hong Kong with the ironic eye so typical for him. The movie's narration is very varied since we get an insight into the lives of three different individuals which are connected through the big subject money and a mysterious murder. There are also some scenes that are depicted from different perspectives throughout the movie and which therefore stand as slight repetitions, but what's really fascinating is that the stories of the three protagonists are told in a parallel fashion without them having anything to do with one another at first sight, and still they are connected by a thread which only the viewer can see. This may be a bit problematic as it breaks common viewing habits but that's also what's making it so appealing. However, it is unfortunate that the story around cop Cheung gets too little time on screen. "Life Without Principle" is very dialogue-heavy. In the beginning we are introduced to Teresa as she pitches different kinds of blocks of stocks and investment packages to her clients. But she isn't aggressive enough for the job and so she is outrivalled by her colleagues. Johnnie To exposes the coldbloodedness of banks with this story in a very bitter way. Banks which are only interested in their processing fee and are willing to gamble away the money of their clients in return. This way the winners of the game remain the banks no matter what happens. When it comes to the rest of Hong Kong things look different. Stock trading has become a national sport and everyone wants to make big money even though there naturally need to be as many losers as there are winners. This sort of embittered competition corrupts people and makes money their new god. Of course tension is something that no Johnnie To movie should lack. This time it's the win or loss of money that decides the individuals' fate and not some serial killers in suits. Quick investments, fatal decisions, the struggle with your own conscience, just with that alone To manages to create some real tension without having to fire even one shot in his movie. This is thanks to his multilayered story in which a lot of important stuff happens, like we are used to see from him, when actually no one is talking. However, it needs to be criticized that the three characters in the movie would have deserved more color. Cheung remains very shallow as the upright and reflective cop, Panther on the other hand would have seems like a carricature on several occasions if it weren't for Lau Ching Wan who brings out the best of his character and thus makes him the movie's star, and this even though he just enters the stage after half an hour into the movie, but the most interesting and sadly also the most intransparent individual is Teresa, who we learn to like nonetheless. "Life Without Principles" constantly runs the risk of overstepping the border of becoming a comedy with its black humor and certain absurdities, but Johnnie To keeps his film on course with a steady hand and thus those scenes become proof of his keen and uncovering eye with which he strips bare a corrupt society. The screenplay is clever but the individual stories don't seem to be fully fledged out. They are more of a small excerpt. This doesn't mean that the film has problems with its ending, on the contrary, it is in fact very well achieved, but some more depth concerning the several individuals and the story would have been nice. Fate does take strange paths and with To it always becomes somewhat of a living and breathing being that changes the lives of the protagonists forever. This is what makes "Life Without Principle" a successful To-film. Apart from that his ironic sense for details manages to strike a profound and socio-critical tone as well. With that the director manages to remain true to himself and yet has grown further.

Life Without Principle (2011)

• User Reviews
• www.moviexclusive.com
• www.thehkneo.com

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews

• User Ratings
• External Reviews
• Metacritic Reviews
• Full Cast and Crew
• Release Dates
• Official Sites
• Company Credits
• Filming & Production
• Technical Specs
• Plot Summary
• Plot Keywords
• Parents Guide

Did You Know?

• Crazy Credits
• Alternate Versions
• Connections
• Soundtracks

Photo & Video

• Photo Gallery
• Trailers and Videos

Related Items

• External Sites

Related lists from IMDb users

Recently Viewed

Life Without Principle

Where to Watch

Ching Wan Lau (Panther) Richie Jen (Inspector Cheung) Denise Ho (Teresa) Myolie Wu (Connie) Hoi-Pang Lo (Yuen) Hang-Shuen So (Ms. Cheng) Philip Keung (Lung) Eddie Cheung (Wah) Felix Wong (Sum) Chi-Yin Wong (Officier Lee)

Three people - a criminal, a bank officer and a cop - end up in a catastrophic situation in the midst of a global economical crisis and are forced to betray any morals and principles to solve their financial problems.

Recommendations

Advertisement

BOSTON'S PREMIER ONLINE ARTS MAGAZINE

Film Review: Life Without Principle

Director Johnnie To has a playfulness found in much Hong Kong cinema. He has found a different way to unfold a story, making clear how money and greed can inform everything, but with plenty of room for humor and for good fortune.

Ching-wan Lau as the obliging gangster Panther

Life Without Principle . At Arts Emerson, March 16, 17, and 18.

By Tim Jackson

Have we no culture, no refinement,—but skill only to live coarsely and serve the Devil?—to acquire a little worldly wealth, or fame, or liberty, and make a false show with it, as if we were all husk and shell, with no tender and living kernel to us? Life Without Principle —Henry David Thoreau

This quote from Thoreau ironically applies to the conscience of each of the three characters at the center of Johnnie To’s new film, Life Without Principle , whose title is shared with Thoreau. Of course, the film’s title is a pun on money and morality, but beneath the desperate groveling for cash in this film lies something deeper that might have come from the Walden philosopher himself—a quest for love, freedom, and respect. How secure are our principles when survival and security are on the line, when fast profit stock trading, gambling, loan sharking, criminal and white-collar corruption, and the uncertainties of a global economy affect the chance for a secure future?

Denise Ho as Teresa, a Hong Kong loan officer

The Hong Kong director’s film, shot in Cantonese and set in the Kowloon area of Hong Kong, weaves together three stories set amidst the global economic downturn of 2009. Interest rates are soaring, and the markets are crashing. At the center is Teresa (Denise Ho), a loan officer pressured at work to secure more loans and investments knowing full well her customers may not be able to repay them or that the investments could go bust. Through her we set the stage for the complexities of finance and money that drive the story.

The focus shifts to Panther (Ching-wan Lau), an eager-to-please runner for a group of low-level gangsters. Panther is hysterically twitchy and simple-minded but wholly honorable, a flunky with a knack for having everybody get along. He is constantly tripping over new obstacles in order to secure cash for his boss and retain his own integrity.

In and out of these stories is a third thread, Inspector Cheung and his fianceé (Richie Jen and Myolie Wu). She is sneaking off to try to secure a loan for a condo she desperately wants for their family while Cheung investigates the various crimes underfoot. All these people will find themselves impacted by the brutal and mysterious murder of a loan shark (a deliciously slimy Lo Hoi-Pang) following his hasty withdrawal of 10 million Hong Kong dollars. He leaves much of it behind for later deposit. Teresa handles the transaction.

Woven into this maze of plots are a multitude of personalities—loan clients, rag vendors, restaurant owners, gangsters, businessmen, and illegal stock traders—who make up the high and low of this endless buzzing city. The interconnection of individuals, institutions, criminal underground, and police is To’s wry statement on the interconnections of the global economy.

Director To sets his scenes deliberately, though not in the usual 20 minutes of exposition expected in most Hollywood films. Life Without Principle seems to ramble as the plot unfolds and characters are introduced. The complications and ironies play out in cacophonous city spaces and noisy, cramped rooms. An array of colorful figures fret and fumble on crowded, unfamiliar streets swarming with activity. By the ironic conclusion, the film’s central characters may or may not get what they need, and that may or may not be about money.

Johnny To is a prolific producer and director of Hong Kong Cinema with dozens of films to his credit, often in the crime genre. There are similar films with multiple characters and stories— Crash and Amores Perros come to mind—but To has a playfulness found in much Hong Kong cinema. He has found a different way to unfold a story, making clear how money and greed can inform everything, but with plenty of room for humor and for good fortune.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Recent posts, visual arts review: si lewen’s “parade” resurrected — just in time for a new war, jazz album reviews: new sets of previously unreleased music — art tatum, yusef lateef, and others, concert review: the boston symphony orchestra performs thorvaldsdottir, brahms, and mozart, theater interview: gsc’s rebecca bradshaw on “water’s rising: festival of new climate action plays”, children’s book reviews: finding connections — three picture books for kids.

• COMING SOON
• OUT NOW - US
• COMING SOON - US

• COMPETITIONS

Eye For Film >> Movies >> Life Without Principle (2011) Film Review

Life Without Principle

Reviewed by: Amber Wilkinson

The prolific Johnnie To turns his attentions to the banking crisis for his latest comedy/crime drama.

"Greed is human nature," says one of his characters - and To is out to expose it and punish it in all of its forms.

A convoluted plot involving flashbacks, the Greek banking crisis, a potential gas explosion and a robbery gone bad are just some of the situations To uses to explore the tenets of Henry David Thoreau's essay Life Without Principle .

A triumvirate of stories are woven together. The first concerns a principled detective (To regular, Richie Ren), who outside of work, is in a stand-off about investing in an expensive flat with his fiancee (Myolie Wu). A second - and the backbone of the film - sees banker (Denise Ho), who is facing the axe if she doesn't sell more high-risk investment products to unsuspecting customers, get the opportunity to make some quick cash. The third and most enjoyable, sees the excellent Ching Wan Lau offering some high comedy as triad Panther, whose lack of greed and general naivety see him haplessly career through the movie, somehow always ending up on top.

There's too much going on for any of it to realise its full potential, and the script takes an age to come to the boil. Enjoyable to a point but frustratingly convoluted at times - and with ill-advised flashbacks in time - there is enough to make this worth a look but insufficient to elevate it to a place among To's best work.

Director: Johnnie To

Writer: Ka-kit Cheung, Nai-Hoi Yau, Tin-Shing Yip

Starring: Ching Wan Lau, Ken Lo, Richie Ren, Stephanie Che, Denise Ho, Myolie Wu, Patricia Tang, Hoi-Pang Lo, Hang Shuen So

Runtime: 106 minutes

Country: Hong Kong

Search database:

If you like this, try:

• News & Features

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Challengers Link to Challengers
• Abigail Link to Abigail
• Arcadian Link to Arcadian

New TV Tonight

• The Jinx: Season 2
• Knuckles: Season 1
• The Big Door Prize: Season 2
• THEM: The Scare: Season 2
• Velma: Season 2
• Secrets of the Octopus: Season 1
• Dead Boy Detectives: Season 1
• Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story: Season 1
• We're Here: Season 4

Most Popular TV on RT

• Baby Reindeer: Season 1
• Fallout: Season 1
• Shōgun: Season 1
• The Sympathizer: Season 1
• Ripley: Season 1
• 3 Body Problem: Season 1
• Under the Bridge: Season 1
• Sugar: Season 1
• A Gentleman in Moscow: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Under the Bridge Link to Under the Bridge
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

The Best TV Seasons Certified Fresh at 100%

Best TV Shows of 2024: Best New Series to Watch Now

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

Watch An Exclusive Pixar Studio Tour, Plus Inside Out 2 Secrets From The Set

Weekend Box Office Results: Civil War Earns Second Victory in a Row

• Trending on RT
• Rebel Moon: Part Two - The Scargiver
• The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
• Play Movie Trivia

Life Without Principle Reviews

[To] wants to get us thinking about morality, and our survival instinct, and what's really important in life - conversation starters with value the world over.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 15, 2012

You might be surprised at who bends, breaks, or in some cases upholds morals in this dramatic comedy of human greed.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 14, 2012

Asian movie news, views, and reviews

Life Without Principle

This is the kind of stripped down thriller that Hong Kong can still do so well and proof that, while output has become a mere trickle, the quality is still there.

Reviewed by Andrew Saroch   |  Apr 12, 2015

Bank employee Teresa (Ho) is under constant pressure from her superiors to hit sales targets and as her colleagues excel in switching customers onto high-risk investments, she struggles to avoid the scrutiny of her pushy manageress (Che). Teresa eventually clinches the big deal – appealing to the greed of one of her elderly customers who is desperate to make significant returns – but knows that it has still only just kept her head above water. An odd set of occurrences means one of her clients, a slimy loan shark Yuen who is making a killing from other people’s misfortune, leaves an envelope containing HK$5million behind and is then subsequently killed.

Meanwhile mid-ranking triad Panther (Lau Ching Wan) is under financial pressure from the obligations of his position, especially as he tries to raise the bail money for his ‘sworn brother’. His close friend and investment banker has lost a pile of mob money on black market deals and the two decide that cash-carrying Yuen might be a good target to get some easy money. Inspector Cheung (Ren) is investigating a homicide in the area and finds that he too is at the mercy of the vagaries of the financial market when his wife has her heart set on a dream flat that requires a cool HK$1million deposit.

That most topical of subjects – the global financial crisis – is used as a backdrop for yet another production, but as this one is from one of Asia’s great modern film-makers, something special is expected. ‘Life Without Principle’ is a part-thriller, part-drama that is liberally peppered with social commentary and bubbling with tension. Even more pertinently though, Johnnie To’s latest film is  a cracking ensemble piece that is a welcome new addition to his enviable canon.

Great film-makers and genuine storytellers, have the ability to balance character and narrative superlatively. ‘Life Without Principle’ is one such example of cinematic equilibrium made even more impressive by the fact that it uses  multiple viewpoints to tell its tale. Though it starts slowly, some might say ponderously, this is just the art of allowing the narrative to grow organically and the characters within to life and breathe within it. By the end of the hour, To has masterfully weaved together all of the strands into a well-arranged whole.

‘Life Without Principle’ is an overt statement of the world today from Johnnie To and, without resorting to simple polemics, unpicks the causes and lays them bare, using his beloved Hong Kong as the focal point. Director and writer combine to criticise the empty materialism of the S.A.R., the enslavement all feel to someone or something and the absolute madness of a worldwide financial system that can ascend and then crash spectacularly within minutes, leaving millions devastated.

Lau Ching Wan continues his return to the top of Asia’s acting strata with a nervy, twitching, slightly pathetic anti-hero who remains oddly sympathetic throughout while Denise Ho is excellent as the desperate bank employee going against her principles. This is the kind of stripped down thriller that Hong Kong can still do so well and proof that, while output has become a mere trickle, the quality is still there.

• Recent Posts

• Men On The Dragon - April 22, 2024
• A Guilty Conscience - February 26, 2024
• River - February 12, 2024

Related Posts

Despite its flaws, ‘The Goldfinger’ is an entertaining and well-acted piece of cinema with the highlights being the face-to-face meetings of Lau and Leung throughout the film.

A delightful adventure that has belly laughs weaved together with the odd moment of social commentary.

‘Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler’ is a unique and very entertaining film if you can get on board with its offbeat vibe and characters. Different but good.

However smartly presented this big budget hit is, it is the dry Korean eccentricity, Bong Joon-Ho’s confident orchestration and the actors at the forefront who make this so captivating.

Turn autoplay off

Turn autoplay on

Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off

• Jump to content [s]
• Jump to site navigation [0]
• Jump to search [4]
• Terms and conditions [8]
• Your activity
• Email subscriptions
• Account details
• Linked services
• Press office
• Guardian Print Centre
• Guardian readers' editor
• Observer readers' editor
• Terms of service
• Privacy policy
• Advertising guide
• Digital archive
• Digital edition
• Guardian Weekly
• Buy Guardian and Observer photos

Today's paper

• Main section
• G2 features
• Comment and debate
• Editorials, letters and corrections
• Other lives
• EducationGuardian
• Life & style
• Environment

Life Without Principle (Dyut Meng Gam)

Details: 2011, Rest of the world, 107 mins

Direction: Johnnie To

With: Ching Wan Lau ,  Felix Wong ,  Richie Ren ,  Siu-Fai Cheung and Terence Yin

User reviews

Today's best video, the week in tv, 'get your arse out, mate', spanish football player's stunning solo goal, whitewater kayaking: 'i wanted to spend every day on the river'.

• Most viewed

Last 24 hours

• 2. Star Wars Episode VII: what we know as shooting starts
• 3. The Goonies sequel confirmed by director Richard Donner
• 4. After Gremlins and The Goonies, what other 80s films need a remake?
• 5. 2 States and screen kisses: 'Bollywood is cranking it up a notch'
• More most viewed
• 2. Quiz: Can you match each of these Bond villains with their own evil plot?
• 3. Russian cinemas fined for showing The Wolf of Wall Street
• 4. 2 States and screen kisses: 'Bollywood is cranking it up a notch'
• 5. After Gremlins and The Goonies, what other 80s films need a remake?
• All today's stories

Film search

Latest reviews.

Noah review – 'a preposterous but endearingly unhinged epic'

Russell Crowe wrestles angels and demons in Darren Aronofsky's $125m mashup of the ancient story of Noah, writes Mark Kermode

Honour review – Shan Khan's 'conflicted' first feature

The Double review – Richard Ayoade's dark doppelganger drama

Divergent review – lacks lustre and grit

A Story of Children and Film review – Mark Cousins's 'spine-tingling' visual essay

Sponsored feature

• Across the site
• Film reviews
• Film trailers
• Video interviews
• License/buy our content
• Terms & conditions
• Accessibility
• Inside the Guardian blog
• Work for us
• Join our dating site today
• © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Forgotten username or password ?

• Start a new list…
• Add all films to a list…
• Add all films to watchlist

Add to your films…

Press Tab to complete, Enter to create

A moderator has locked this field.

Add to lists

Where to watch

Life without principle.

2011 ‘奪命金’ Directed by Johnnie To

FOR FIVE MILLION DOLLARS, HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO?

A criminal, a bank clerk and a police officer find their destinies entwined when a loan shark gets assaulted after having withdrawn $10 million from the bank in the midst of the world financial crisis.

Lau Ching-wan Richie Jen Myolie Wu Denise Ho Philip Keung Ho-Man Lo Hoi-pang Singh Hartihan Bitto Patricia Tang Tam Bing-Man Ronald Yan Mau-Keung Kenneth Cheung Moon-Yuen Chiu Chi-Shing Eddie Cheung Law Wing-Cheong Felix Wong Cheung Wing-Cheung Ben Wong Frankie Ng Chi-Hung Teresa Ha Ping Lee Siu-Kei Lo Fan So Hang-Suen

Director Director

Producer producer, writers writers.

Jeff Cheung Ka-Kit Yip Tin-Shing Yau Nai-hoi Au Kin-yee Ben Wong

Editors Editors

David M. Richardson Allen Leung

Cinematography Cinematography

Cheng Siu-keung

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Art direction art direction, costume design costume design.

Media Asia Films Milkyway Image

Releases by Date

20 oct 2011, 27 oct 2011, 03 feb 2012, 18 jul 2012, 30 oct 2012, 09 feb 2013, releases by country, new zealand.

107 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★½ 5

Action! - Johnnie/Ringo's Hong Kong Actions: In The Mood For King To's Sweeping Realism

The film's title and accompanying poster led me to anticipate something intense and highly dramatic; I was therefore pleasantly surprised by its comedic tone. Not that there aren't any tense moments; the film satirizes and comments on the financial crisis that was happening at the time, particularly in the European region after multiple crises like the one in Greece, which not only plays a large role in the film but is also what incites our three heroes to conduct the different deeds they commit in the film. This gives the film a sense of familiarity while also marking it as distinctly of its era.

Nevertheless, the…

Review by ALISTAIR LEACH ★★★★

Wow, To really isn't playing around, mixing the notion of Triangle (the story from three perspectives), with a sense of narrative jarring. As the film restarts it's position and it's time line, while telling this story set during the Chinese Stock Market crash of the late 00s, with the three central character and their interactions with a loan shark.

To made the film due to the 2008 Hong Kong market crash/Lehman Brothers bonds crisis, which then had the knock on issues with Greece's bankruptcy, and pulls no punches in the desperation and cruelty of those effected by the financial meltdown of when the credit bubble burst.

Put simply the film is about a loan shark who goes to a bank…

Review by comrade_yui ★★★★★

the best film i've seen about the 2008 financial crisis: it explains exactly how and why these speculative financial bubbles happen, it details why capitalism funnels wealth upwards into unsustainable profit margins, and how the naivete of desperate individuals can self-implode both their own economic well-being but also cascade into a domino-chain that causes inevitable recessions that negatively impact the lives of everyone on the planet, and how all of this is not irregular, it's the typical functioning of a capitalism system that fundamentally doesn't give a flying fuck about human lives.

all this is accomplished in a highly-efficient screenplay that alternates between two pitch-black comedic stories. by directly juxtaposing the lives of a struggling bank teller and a low-level…

Review by Diogo Serafim ★★★★ 1

'I'm into all kinds of gambling!'

To's most brutal film is also his most direct, the violence here is less physical and more structural - money has no principle, so neither its institutions nor the people who work in them are allowed to have it. And all these institutions are really close to one another given they all work for the same goal, and it doesn't really matter how they arrive there.

Review by Chris ★★★½

Cynicism flows through this caustic look at the corrupting ripple effect brought about by the 2008 financial crisis and it is appropriately accentuated by Johnnie To's direct approach which uses three interrelated narratives to explore the various ways that economic hardship adversely impacts everyone in society who lacks power. The discomfort can always be felt via the impassive conversations, agitated transactions and intentionally abstruse information imparted on pristine screens that dominate proceedings; self-preservation is the only thing that matters for the constrained individuals we follow given their desperate circumstances (whether it's potential unemployment, insurmountable debt or even the threat of death), all while corporations and governments scheme to imperceptibly manipulate the global economy for their own profits. It demonstrates exactly…

Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★ 3

Johnnie To's The Big Short

Life without principle? More like life without principal, without capital, without investment.

A cop and his wife want to buy a new flat, but it's outside their price range, especially with Chinese investors poking their noses in and jacking up prices; a gangster and his triad crew need money to afford their comrade's bail, but he gets re-arrested the moment they pay, and their subordinates are even more hard-up for cash than they are; a bank clerk is woefully behind on her sales quota and fears she might lose her job, but making sales depends on her ability to inflict predatory investment plans on the helpless and hopeless.

Everybody needs money, and the desperate survival…

Review by mmcc ★★★★

Cheung Ching-fong: "Your motive?" Ms. Ho: "New phone, new bag and new cosmetics. Everything needs money!"

The omnipresence of screens relaying information that no one understands but everyone knows determine their lives. Screens and information that breed war, setting each against all—it's all so palpably real .

Of the To films I have seen, Life Without Principle is probably the most uncomfortably true. It captures something deeply ingrained in our social lives. Something so deep that we know that the grace notes at the end of this movie are a ruse, because for these characters and for that world tomorrow is simply a repeat of today's insecurity.

Review by sydney ★★★ 3

This is a very good film, but I can't help wondering if everyone who called it 'exciting' or 'riveting' or 'thrilling' would say the same thing if they didn't know who directed it before watching it. It's beautiful, well written and well performed but even the most skilled director cannot breathe life into banking and typing on computers. He's taken a subject that was already dull and told a story from several different viewpoints, which did not make it less boring but more difficult to pay attention to. I struggled to keep up with the stories, and I didn't spend enough time with any one of them to care. Sparks of great interest and energy pop up here and there,…

Review by Jessica Yeung ★★★★★ 3

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Feel a bit spoilt to see this on the big screen. Watched it as part of the MCL cinematic chain 2023 Sean Lau retrospective.

I watched Johnnie To's instalment in Septet, "Bonanza" before this and this watched like an elaborated version of that. My pal @Tom Cunliffe also rightly points out that in the same year, To made Don't Go Breaking My Heart (2011), which is also about the neoliberal economy of HK, esp. the stock market and how desires for quick returns make people lose their minds. So these two films released in 2011 portray or critique the neoliberal society of HK from two sides of the same coin.

In a sense, the fatalistic element (hard to separate Johnnie…

Review by Arthur Tuoto ★★★★ 1

A ganância que supera a própria noção dos seus mecanismos. O filme transforma alguns gimmicks narrativos desgastados em liberdades bem inspiradoras, seja nas idas e vindas do tempo narrativo, seja no revezamento de personagens. Gosto muito como ele situa o banco e o gângster dentro de uma mesma presunção definidora do capital.

Review by Jaime Rebanal 🇵🇸 ★★★★

Another hit from the great Johnnie To. One can only trust a filmmaker like him to go on ahead to make a film about the financial crisis of 2008 anywhere near as exciting as it is, pointing all fingers at the capitalist system that puts people on edge. It's very unabashedly political, as expected from Johnnie To, but what caught me about Life Without Principle is the way in which the action is all staged for the screen - creating two vastly different worlds coming together, through their own financial woes.

To isn't only one who knows how to shoot action on camera, but one thing that certainly keeps him atop most other contemporary filmmakers just comes from how he's also one among the most socially conscious working today. We really don't deserve To.

Review by Sean Burdett ★★★½

Absolutely brutal. To's made plenty of deeply cynical films( Election + Election 2 , Drug War , and PTU are the first that come to mind), but none are quite as suffocating as this. What's so killer here is how it sits in To's filmography--surrounded by films where blood flows like water and bullets rain like a hurricane, here the violence(real violence, not merely the literal deaths that occur) is outside the purely tangible. It's the effects of a system that eats its characters alive, and the pain that's left in its wake. Everything seems insurmountable and hopeless because, in this case, it kinda is. As I always say, I don't tend to enjoy cynicism, but I do value it when it's earned, and here, it absolutely is. I've said it a dozen times already but I have to say it again: To does not miss. Impossibly great.

Mentioned by

Select your preferred poster

Upgrade to remove ads.

Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Please consider upgrading to a Pro account —for less than a couple bucks a month, you’ll get cool additional features like all-time and annual stats pages ( example ), the ability to select (and filter by) your favorite streaming services, and no ads!

Life Without Principle

Original title: 奪命金.

Streaming in:

We checked for updates on 247 streaming services on April 22, 2024 at 2:16:08 PM. Something wrong? Let us know!

Life Without Principle streaming: where to watch online?

Currently you are able to watch "Life Without Principle" streaming on Tubi TV for free with ads or buy it as download on Amazon Video, Vudu. It is also possible to rent "Life Without Principle" on Amazon Video, Vudu online

A criminal, a bank clerk and a police officer find their destinies entwined when a loan shark gets assaulted after having withdrawn $10 million from the bank in the midst of the world financial crisis.

Videos: Trailers, Teasers, Featurettes

Production country

People who liked life without principle also liked.

Popular movies coming soon

Upcoming Drama movies

Similar Movies you can watch for free

Sorry, Disney+ is not available in your region.