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Time and Tide
TIFF [2000]
(Hong Kong, China, 2000) 116 minutes
Cast: Nicholas Tse, Wu Bai, Anthony Wong
Written by: Koan Hui, Tsui Hark
Directed by Tsui Hark
The Story
After a one-night stand, streetwise Tyler finds himself a father and takes a job as a loan shark's bodyguard to support his new, unplanned "family". Through connections, he befriends a former mercenary, and the two soon find themselves involved in an assassination plot. Plans go awry, the two grow apart, but eventually come together in a bullet-ridden confrontation and--Er...your humble narrator has forgotten the rest...
ROBERT L'S REVIEW
"It's this year's The Full Monty!" Just kidding...
Maybe it was the end of a long, miserable work week, maybe it was the late hour, maybe it was the language barrier, but I left Tsui Hark 's world premiere Hong Kong action "comeback" feeling....well, nothing at all, really.
Far from the bullet ballet promised in the program notes (and from Hark's deserved reputation), "Time And Tide" reveals the apparent trauma of having to guide the Alpha-and-Omega combo of Jean Claude Van Damme and Dennis Rodman through "Double Team" has affected Hark for the worse. With this one, the usually-reliable action whiz has crafted a lurching, overlong-by-a-reel construct of parallel plots, near-doppleganger characters, murky social commentary, and "Flo Mo" gags that seem to exist for their own sake.
Hark's previous films like "Once Upon A Time In China" and "The Blade" were deftly handled juggling feats of muscular, hyperkinetic frenzy, but not at the expense of character and sweeping, mythic storytelling. I had no idea what this film was about, and clearly, neither did Hark, as evidenced in his rambling, videotaped introduction. After what seemed like a small eternity of incoherent blather, Hark looked ready to fall asleep at his editing bench and it was really more than the audience could bear. Amidst hoots and jeers, host Geddes gave in and shut him off in mid-sentence.
Talk Back
Everyone in "Time And Tide" sure looked cool, though. Cool hair, cool clothes, cool facial sneers, cool multiple reflections, cool poses struck in doorways. Hell, every last thing in this movie looked "cool", from the buffed metal finish of the ultra-sexy handguns, to the kaleidoscope of downtown neon, to the way the shot would freeze "Matrix" style, the camera would truck around, and the mayhem would start up again. Gunshots shook the seats and bullets ricocheted musically across the THX sound system. An explosion froze in mid-fireball, then finished to fill the screen with combusting gases. Cool.
Ever the diplomat, I can say that the film is not entirely without merit. "Time And Tide" offers viewers the unique spectacle of seeing a woman giving birth on the floor of an airport locker room, while emptying several rounds into her would-be assassin. Hmmm, maybe Hark's still got it after all...
Talk Back
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