Tsui Hark's Time and Tide is hard to get a handle on at first, one assumes because he cut a good hour out of Nicholas Tse's half of the story, but the story's not that complicated. It just moves quickly and rewards staying laser focused on the screen so as not to miss the details. Tse plays a cocky bartender who beds a patron who turns out to be a cop who becomes pregnant and doesn't want his help. He still tries to give it by doing bodyguard work and that puts him at odds with a new friend (Wu Bai), whose wife is also pregnant, but who has left his life as a cool-as-balls mercenary behind. Except the "Angels" arrive in Hong Kong and try to draw him back in, and it leads to violence. What director Tsui lacks in storytelling clarity, he makes up for in sheer energy, always experimenting with rough CG, freeze frames, crane shots, and more to keep the frame alive. Even if it were an incomprehensible hash (which I'd argue it isn't), it would still be worthwhile for the mid-film action sequence where the camera literally jumps out the window. After that, it feels like the movie is back on track and not suffering from excisions, as we move from action beat to action beat. Time and Tide is glossy and modern, very cool whatever else we think of it, and rather more literate than a lot of gunplay fare. At its core, it asks, can I change for the better? And that's a good question to ask oneself.
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Siskoid
Tsui Hark's Time and Tide is hard to get a handle on at first, one assumes because he cut a good hour out of Nicholas Tse's half of the story, but the story's not that complicated. It just moves quickly and rewards staying laser focused on the screen so as not to miss the details. Tse plays a cocky bartender who beds a patron who turns out to be a cop who becomes pregnant and doesn't want his help. He still tries to give it by doing bodyguard work and that puts him at odds with a new friend (Wu Bai), whose wife is also pregnant, but who has left his life as a cool-as-balls mercenary behind. Except the "Angels" arrive in Hong Kong and try to draw him back in, and it leads to violence. What director Tsui lacks in storytelling clarity, he makes up for in sheer energy, always experimenting with rough CG, freeze frames, crane shots, and more to keep the frame alive. Even if it were an incomprehensible hash (which I'd argue it isn't), it would still be worthwhile for the mid-film action sequence where the camera literally jumps out the window. After that, it feels like the movie is back on track and not suffering from excisions, as we move from action beat to action beat. Time and Tide is glossy and modern, very cool whatever else we think of it, and rather more literate than a lot of gunplay fare. At its core, it asks, can I change for the better? And that's a good question to ask oneself.Armoreska
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKzEX_IJx4Q