Time and Tide

Starring:
Nicholas Tse as Tyler
Wu Bai as Jack
Anthony Wong as Uncle Ji
Cathy Tsui as Jo
Candy Lo as Hui (Josephine)

The movie is set in Hong Kong present days. Tyler, an ordinary young man working in a bar, always has the dream of escaping to some isolated peaceful beach in South America. However, he met a lesbian named Jo who just had an argument with her girlfriend one night at the bar. Tyler and Jo challenged each other to drink into oblivion and Tyler ended up spending the night with Jo. In the morning, as Jo woke up, she finally realized what they had done while Tyler discovered that Jo was actually a police officer. Jo beat him up before leaving.

Jo's girlfriend accused Tyler of stealing Jo from her and being irresponsible to Jo's pregnancy. Tyler swore to himself that he would find lots of money to support Jo. He joined an unlicensed bodyguard company owned by Uncle Ji who used to be a loan-shark but ended up broke because no one paid him. Tyler met and became friend with a supposedly Taiwanese butcher named Jack. Jack's wife, Josephine, was a daughter of a tycoon but her father refused to acknowledge her relationship with her husband. Jack was not as simple as he appeared to be, he was in fact a mercenary who used to be employed by a South American gang. Tyler and Jack quickly formed a friendship as they had something in common, as they were both father-to-be.

Things were going along nicely for Jack and Tyler until the South American gang came to Hong Kong and employed Uncle Ji's company as bodyguard for their boss. Tyler soon found himself caught up in a bloody fight with Jack on the opposite side.

The movie starred inexperienced actors/actresses but they carried the movie along quite well. Nicholas Tse portrayed the essence of Tyler effectively. Tyler tried to be cool by carrying a fake gun around with him but in reality, he was just only a young guy who did not want to be involved in any trouble. However, I just really want to say something here. I REALLY hate Nicholas Tse’s hair. There you go, I said it. For more than half of the movie, I could not see his face clearly and it was annoying. Cathy Tsui broke away from her demure and gentle image to play the role of a lesbian. Her character was almost believable, if not for the fact that there is probably no police officer looking as young as Cathy Tsui. However, she managed this challenging role very well and showed her talent in coping with a dynamic role. Wu Bai’s role did not require much acting except in fighting scenes. Anthony Wong’s talent was totally wasted in this movie. He played an insignificant supporting role.

Tsui Hark's trademark clearly shone through violent scenes with bullets piercing bloody bodies. Dove must be a favourite bird of Hong Kong directors because watching this movie reminded me of few scenes in John Woo's movie such as “Mission Impossible” and “The Killer”. Doves flying off, frightened by gunshot, wings flapping at sign of danger, is very much a trademark of John Woo. The plot was quite engaging with events happening in parallel in Hong Kong and some remote South American place.

The acting was average with non-stop action and a detailed plot. The pictures and colour were crisp. Fighting choreography created some spectacular scenes. These factors should have made watching the movie an enjoyable experience but instead, it was too heavily packed with action, that to continue watching became unbearable after the first half. If you remember those Rambo-type movies, you would know what I am talking about. One guy is against a heavily armed and trained troop of professional killers. Well in here, we have Tyler, someone who has no idea how to use a gun, and Jack, a professional killer. Jack is good but he is still only ONE individual. Even though the movie made Jack into this extremely intelligent and powerful fighter, it was still unbelievable to see him eliminating these big macho guys. I could not care less who won half way through the movie because the ending of course is predictable. I had to switch off the TV and take a break. Overall, it was an average movie with some memorable effort from both the director and the cast. It might be a favourite with someone who is into action movies.