TIME AND TIDE (Seunlau ngaklau)
Reviewed by Harvey Karten Columbia Pictures Director: Hark Tsui Writer: Koan Hui, Hark Tsui Cast: Nicholas Tse, Wu Bai, Candy Lo, Cathy Tsui, Anthony Wong, Cuoto Remotigue Jr.
If you're fortunate enough to live near a theater that features movies from the Far East, try this experiment. First sit through Shinji Aoyama's new film "Eureka." That one is three hours and thirty- seven minutes long, is in black-and-white with sepia overlay, has two major characters who barely talk at all, and the pace is glacial, about a swift as molasses climbing up a tree in January. Next, take in Hark Tsui's Hong Kong martial arts drama "Time and Tide," which is in color, is half the length of "Eureka," and features tumbling bodies, flying glass, machine gun blasts and almost nonstop action throughout. Which picture seems longer? Perhaps this depends on your age, but I'd not be surprised if an intelligent adult would look at his watch during the most energetic rat-tat-tats of "Time and Tide," mystified by the utter complexity of the story-- astonishing when you consider that action and not parable is the name of the game here. The same mature person would likely be awed by "Eureka." The reason? There are millions of stories out there and the public is forever hungering to hear them. "Eureka" has such a story, a gripping one, one for which director Aoyama respects the audience enough to let every aspect of the tale sink in through his shots of the landscape of southern Japan and the terrain of his characters' faces. "Time and Tide" for all its motion bears a yarn so convoluted you might reach for your James Joyce if you want to make more sense of the world. In short, Tsui Hark's venture is (literally) a crashing bore.
A kind of Cain and Abel motif seeps through in the saga of two good young men who become pals, Tyler (Hong Kong singing sensation Nicholas Tse) and Jack (Wu Bai)--who have a falling out only to get a chance a reconciliation and redemption in the final moments. Tyler is a 21-year-old kid who takes a job as a bodyguard to a shady loan shark known as Uncle Ji (Anthony Wong), whose band of watchmen use unlicensed guns and who are like indentured servants who work for Ji because they owe him money. Jack, on the other hand, is 14 years older and has just returned from a stint as a mercenary fighting rebels in a South American country which--contrary to Tyler's fantasies--is not paradise. When some of Jack's cohorts from Brazil (who, oddly enough, speak Spanish instead of Portuguese) return for the purpose of assassinating a honcho of a Hong Kong triad, Tyler finds himself on the opposite side seeking to protect Hong.
The story is further complicated by the plight of two women, one, Ah Hui (Candy Lo), who has been made pregnant by Jack; the other, Ah Jo (Cathy Tsui), a policewoman made pregnant by young Tyler. Though the men can be quite energetic in their warfare with one another, Jack and Tyler prove most chivalrous in their dealings with their respective primigravidas, but who's listening? "Seunlau ngaklau," as the film is titled in its original language (English and Mandarin subtitles provided throughout while characters speak some Spanish and English as well), looks every bit like the work of a director who grinds out one of two dramas annually--50 in his career so far. Where does the title come from? Maybe from the fact that the action is so dizzying that, from the viewpoint of the audience, time and tide wait for no man (or woman).
Not Rated. Running time: 113 minutes. (C)2001, Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com
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