As the film begins, we are introduced to Tyler (Nicholas Tse), a twenty-something bartender. Through a chance encounter, he gets insanely drunk with Ah Jo (Cathy Tsui), a lesbian that had had a falling out with her companion earlier that night, and proceeds to impregnate her. Nine months later, her new lover has bashed him in the head, and he explains to her during an encounter in a grocery store. After being yet again bitterly rejected, he decides to make “a shitload of money and escape to a paradise.” To make this fortune, he goes to Uncle Ji (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang), who runs a body guard service of people who owe him money. On Tyler’s first mission, Uncle Ji is made a fool by his client, a heavy-set and terribly irritating woman. When she requests Tyler for a ride to the airport, he repays her attitude by driving backwards all the way. Tyler meets Jack (Wu bai) in a shop and works with him to outsmart a salesman. Their friendship continues when, at a high-profile birthday celebration, Jack points out a suspicious waiter. This interaction brings them together, but also indirectly serves for a catalyst that bring the both of them, Jack’s former mercenary partners, and his pregnant wife, into the middle of a bloody fray with the law.

Tsui Hark is a visual god. The first half of this film is film-noirish with an artsy feel (and a few brilliant action sequences thrown in), and the second half is pure adrenaline pumping action. The film is beautiful and amazing to watch, and Tsui Hark’s visuals are the highest sort of eye candy. And it isn’t pointless, mindless eye candy either—it is backed by a strong story and characters that, though we don’t know most of them very well, we can identify with.

As an actor, Nicholas Tse is gaining my respect constantly. His performance in this is more difficult and real than his in 2002, but he plays both of them brilliantly and thoroughly convincingly. Wu Bai has a character that requires little in the area of range, but is very physically demanding. He fits the needs perfectly and makes the character far more real than it could be. Cathy Tsui is gorgeous; and what’s more, she’s a good actress. Candy Lo likewise does an incredible job. Watch for her performance in the birth scene, near the end of the movie. All of the actors in the film truly become their characters, and one never doubts their legitimacy.

The film may be hard to follow, depending on the way a given viewer’s mind works. Without question, if you don’t pay attention to absolutely everything that happens, you will be lost almost immediately. Watch the film two or three times, and you may have picked up on enough details to begin to understand what Tsui Hark does with it. This is not for the mindless filmgoer; and that is one of the many reasons that it is as great as it is.

My only problems with this film are the same problems that I have with so many other Hong Kong films – the soundtrack. There were two or three pop songs integrated into the film, and all of them but one worked. One of them stuck out like mad to me, and just felt very wrong. Also, there are a few part of the film that could have been tightened up and a few areas that could have used more exploring and explanation. But overall, the final product is great. See this—the best Hong Kong action movie since The Killer. And luckily for us Americans, Columbia has released a DVD with an excellent print and audio transfer and even a director’s commentary. And, best of all, it is released uncut with its original Cantonese audio track and easy to read, well-translated subtitles. It should be available at your local Blockbuster.

REVIEW
Like a dangerous science experiment gone right, "Time and Tide" marks Tsui Hark's return to edgier filmmaking that sparkles with visual energy and creativity.

After two American bombs starring the Muscle from Brussels, Jean Claude Van Damme, Tsui Hark returned to Hong Kong to put together a much more potent action film. "Tide and Tide" appears as simply an extension of Tsui himself. If you know anything about the director, you've probably heard something about his endless amounts of energy and ideas, which have certainly served him well over the years. From "Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain" to the "Once Upon a Time in China" series, Tsui has established himself as a trend setter in the Hong Kong film industry, often incorporating Western film techniques into his own vigorous style.

"Time and Tide" shares the visual styles of French director, Luc Besson's "The Professional" (1994) and British director, Guy Ritchie who directed "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" (1998). The camera comes alive as it weaves and bobs through scenes as Tsui incorporates numerous techniques to draw in the viewer. The most fascinating trick involves a shot where actor Wu Bai leaps out of a hall window, hanging on to a fire hose. The camera simply follows him through the hall, out the window and down several floors in one seamless take. The sheer visceral thrill of this and many other shots is what gives the film it's propulsion. In other words, the plot in nothing spectacular although the dialogue and acting displays a wry humor that adds needed dimension to the characters.

One complaint may be that the very capable cast never shines in the film. Nicholas Tse gives an unremarkable performance as the inexperienced bodyguard who is in little control of the events surrounding him. Wu Bai displays more charisma as the seasoned mercenary but often becomes lost in the action, mostly due to a lack of close-ups that could have allowed viewers to connect emotionally. Anthony Wong is probably the best character actor on tap but his performance as Uncle Ji is disappointingly stale. Candy Lo has the best role as Jack's (Wu Bai) wife who clowns around on screen and gets to engage in a gun battle while giving birth. Couto Remotigue Jr. plays the main villain out to kill Jack. He does a fine job considering there is zero character development. The addition of Spanish and English dialogue adds a bit of international flair, no doubt a conscious effort by Tsui to reach out to markets outside of Hong Kong.

The real star of the film is the camera itself. How is it going to do the next shot? The film succeeds because you'll want to know the answer. The film rarely slows down and the production values are top notch by any standard. As an action movie offering thrills, "Tide and Tide" passes the test. Despite a so-so plot and little character development, Tsui's film manages to rank as one of the best action flicks to come out of Hong Kong so far this century and will likely influence other projects to come.

Tsui Hark is one of the most influential and successful filmmakers to ever come out of Hong Kong. Helming such movies as Zu and Once Upon a Time in China and working behind the scenes on films like A Better Tomorrow and the Swordsman trilogy have garnered Tsui a large body of work and the (sometimes misleading) nickname of "the Steven Spielberg of Hong Kong." Though he continues to have success as a producer (recently negotiating a major deal for US/HK co-production with the US studio Columbia) his last few films as director have failed to make a mark with both critics and audiences, reaching an all-time low with 1998's Jean-Claude Van Damme disaster Knock Off. The movie was a mess from beginning to end. It failed to deliver even some decent action, instead concentrating more of flashy camerawork rather than telling a story. Some critics have theorized that Tsui was actually using Columbia's money to expieriment with techniques instead of trying to make a movie. Now, if this is true, I applaud Tsui for having the balls to do so (especially with a big deal with Columbia looming), but it still doesn't excuse the fact that Knock Off was a bad movie. So when Time and Tide came out and was met right away with comparisons with Knock Off, I was a bit hesitant to check it out.

Thankfully, Time and Tide isn't as bad as Knock Off. Despite some problems, it's a good movie -- so let's get those out of the way first. The script, like too many action movies lately, tries to throw too many elements into the pot and the taste of the movie becomes a bit muddled as a result. Time and Tide can't seem who to follow in the story, Tyler or Jack, and as such both characters are a bit underdeveloped. The cinematography sometimes becomes a bit too much, almost going into Blair Witch territory as the camera whips and shakes about.

On the other side of the coin, at times the camerawork is stunning, really putting the viewer into the action. Speaking of action, there's some good stuff in Time and Tide, particularly a shootout/sniper standoff in a crowded apartment building that manages to deliver plenty of thrills without huge explosions or a huge body count (though the movie is plenty violent in parts -- Tsui definetly has not lost his touch in showing just enough gore to excite an audience but not so much as to disgust). The expository scenes are also handled well, as all the actors do a good job. Nic Tse is his usual amiable self, Anthony Wong puts in a rare stint (at least for him these days, as he seems to take any role for a paycheck) where he doesn't seem to be phoning in his lines, Cathy Tsui and Cathy Jo provide strong female leads (never turning into whiny, needy crybabies), and Wu Bai puts on a mesmerizing performance as the conflicted Jack.

Okay, it's not a masterpiece -- it's probably not even something you're likely to remember a few years down the road. But Time and Tide is a good film, delivering action, suspense and a little bit of romantic comedy and even a smidgen of social commentary as well. With the dearth of mindless and poorly done action movies hitting theatres recently, you could do a lot (and I mean a whole lot) worse than Time and Tide, unless looking at poorly animated CGI mummies is your idea of fun.

Jack, an ex- member of a South American commando team, has finally settled in Taiwan as a mere butcher to live a new life. He got married with Hui (Candy Lo) and got her pregnant.

A happy and peaceful future is awaiting the new family until his former team-mates arrive in Hong-Kong. Their mission is to kill Hui's father, a powerful Triad boss. Troubles arise when Uncle Ji and Tyler are hired to protect the Boss and when Jack is forced to kill him...

REVIEW:
Tsui Hark has always enjoyed playing with the 2 antagonists facets of the cinema industry: business and art. Unfortunately, this game doesn't come with drawbacks and Time and Tide is a good example. As an art object, this movie is probably the most exhilarating graphic material ever shot for the last five years, aside from Wong Kar Wai's features probably. On the commercial side of the project, however, Time and Tide didn't trash the box office in Hong-Kong or in Far East Asia as expected by the Co-production Company Columbia Tri-Star. The success was there, but still moderate. A good cast of stars (i.e. Taiwanese rock star Wu Bai, Hong-Kong pop star Nick Tse and Candy Lo) should have assured to break records. What went wrong? Probably tremendous fast action mixed with an apparently complex plot but delivering several different sub-textual issues didn't appeal enough to the audience.

Some stated that the holes in the plot of Time and Tide were eventually corked by ultra high-speed action, hyper-kinetic camerawork and editing. Tsui Hark never said that they were wrong, but he declared that Time and Tide is full of his favorite sub-textual themes, e.g. hope, romanticism, existentialism, post-hand-over doubts and struggle against fate. I should add that there are plenty of different atmospheres and a lot of attractive characters in this feature.

Frankly on paper, this plot seems easy to grasp. The way Tsui Hark tells his story has however disconcerted a lot of people and even some film critics. But Tsui Hark tried hard to make the story easy to follow with directors' tricks such as voice over technique and a relative linear plot. Lots of supporting roles make the movie rich in situations and confrontations, but can confuse an audience used to be spoon fed in theatres. Don't get me wrong, I am not blaming the audience's capability to understand plots. The simple fact that the American film industry has always flood the world with linear plot features or easy story telling shows that sometimes people go to the cinema not to be bothered by any plot intricacy. The Matrix scriptwriter, aware of this fact, developed his script in order to explain Keanu Reeves and the audience the complexity of the Matrix worlds, which takes nearly half of the film length.

However, Tsui Hark has always taken advantage from a new production to experiment as mush as possible the cinematic medium. He has used his audience to get ready to undergo an amazing experiment when going to theatres. For instance, flashy colors and bonkers editing will probably still affect your retina a few hours after watching Time and Tide.

Intensive editing from Marko Mak served the instantaneousness of speed action, but was also a mean for Tsui Hark to tell a story only giving what he wants (e.g. through jump cuts and ellipsis) to let the audience reassemble the puzzle and understand. Such brain process could appear daunting, especially when one is expecting to watch a modern action movie with his/her favorite pop stars.

Tsui experiments as well in order to show something never seen before, to create something new or to revive old practices in the local cinema. In Time and Tide, he revived tired heroic-bloodshed action sequences from recent Hong-Kong movies with wire works as well as he did for Kung-Fu movies, i.e. Once Upon A Time In China that launched Jet Li's career.

In addiction to that, Tsui managed to create different type of atmospheres and can even put naturally together abrupt changes in tone. In the beginning of the film the way a hand held camera follows Nick Tse through filters and fancy lighting and shows the exceptional tact he has with females and his ability to pull, refers to Wong Kar Wai's work, especially Chungking Express and Fallen Angels. But within this sequence, another atmosphere or strong feeling come into the equation. Nick Tse and Cathy Chui vomit after a drinking session from a bridge as taxis drive by. This type of trash and anarchic behavior refers to Tsui's third movie: Don't play with fire (aka Dangerous encounter of the first kind) describing a bunch of anarchic schoolboys in a rotten Hong-Kong.

So finally, Time and Tide is worth watching over and over again for its complexity and its fantastic action scenes that makes its richness and its appeal. It does deserve a second though. When asked about Time and Tide, Tsui Hark claimed to have made a new type of action film and even expect from the audience to adjust to it!

To convince people, Tsui made another brilliant feature that shows action and tells a story in the same particular way: Legend Of Zu. Better get used to it!

Tsui proves himself a master of such style in the opening sequence. Portraying Tyler's chaotic sexual encounter mixes montage, cross-editing, flashbacks, point of view and subtle hints to convey mounds of information in a short time. What happens is, Jo (Cathy Tsui) has a fight with her lesbian lover, a fellow police officer, so she embarks on a drug-induced fling with Tyler (Nicholas Tse). The morning after, he finds her badge and remembers seeing her argument with the other woman and she checks her datebook where the five days of her period are highlighted for each month. You see what's going on but the film never stops for exposition. The whole story is told in this kinetic visual fashion.

The story proceeds with Tyler taking a bodyguard job with a gangster to earn money to support the baby JO claims is not really his. He meets Jack (Wu Bai) and his pregnant wife, Ah Hui (Candy Lo). Their similar positions of trying to do right by their women under criminal circumstances parallel each other and intersect as Jack's gangster past comes back to haunt him.

The plot and characters are so complex that even after two screenings, I'm still putting the pieces together. (For the record, It took me three screenings to get The Matrix.) The themes of friendship and living life to the fullest are valid but not so overplayed to become pretentious. The action itself transcends language barriers with its visceral thrills, giving Time and Tide excellent repeat viewing quality as you pick up more and more of the plot while enjoying the action scenes.

Fight scenes incorporate a little Jackie Chan prop-play, some wirework acrobatics, hints of WWF and flat out brawling. Chases have guys sliding and gliding on slippery floors, bouncing around escalators and floating along the side of an apartment building. There's gunplay, which does include two guys raising guns at each other at the same time, but that traditional situation plays out differently than most John Woo movies or John Woo rip-offs. Speaking of Woo, there are plenty of white doves for the film theory crowd, and some of those doves blow up for those of you who hate bird symbolism.

The influence of other filmmakers include Scorsese freeze frames, Wachowski "bullet time", Aronofsky sound effects and even Blair Witch shakey-cam. Tsui controls everything with careful editing that creates a unique rhythm from the combined elements. The editing also combines eclectic performances from leads and supporting players with controlled manipulation of time and place.

Between the technical skill, philosophical story and stunning action, Time and Tide is the best movie I've seen this year. Come back to Action/Adventure Movies next week for our interview with director Tsui Hark.

For the first forty minutes or so I found it quite hard to follow as the film skips between scenes and seems a little incoherent. During this introduction we see Tyler build a strange relationship with a lesbian policewoman who he gets pregnant after a one night stand. While she wants nothing to do with him Tyler insists on sending her money that he earns from his bodyguard job. Whether this is useful character development or padding is debatable but personally I thought it took the film too long to get going. The main part of the story seems to be compressed into the last hour of the film. In a way it could be conceived as being clever in that the direction of the film is deliberately ambiguous and the main focus of the story is not clear until Wu Bai's character appears. Still it makes the first section of the film difficult to follow and from looking at other reviews on the internet I know I'm not alone in this view.

With this being a Tsui Hark film production values are, as you would expect, very high and the film features a competent cast who all handle their roles extremely well. Wu Bai, especially, looks the part of a hardened mercenary and Nicholas Tse's performance is an improvement on Gen-X Cops.

The style of the film throughout is extremely slick in a sort of MTV way and this is most prevalent in the impressive action scenes. One thing I will say about the action is that the quick editing and shaky camera angles at times made it quite difficult to follow what was going on. There are, however, two excellent set action pieces that match anything that Hong Kong has offered in recent years. The first is an extremely tense game of cat and mouse set in a block of highrise flats. While Jack engages in a sniper fight with the mercenaries, Tyler has to fight off seemingly invincible assassins and avoid being blown to smithereens. The second is the film's finale which fills the last half hour and culminates in a protracted gun battle set in a train station. This is one of the most intense and enjoyable climax's I've seen in an action film for quite a while.

Despite its faults 'Time and Tide' is still an enjoyable, above average, action movie. It's certainly a welcome return to form for Tsui Hark after the abysmal 'Knock Off'...

An interesting film. The first half is very arty and noir-ish, and positively dreadful to watch. But everything pulls together in the second half, and the action sequences are among Hong Kong's finest. The gun sequences are a careful blend of Ringo Lam's gritty ugliness, John Woo's poetic beauty, and Tsui Hark's visual flair. The action is completely over the top and exceedingly violent, which makes for a very entertaining and exciting ride. While minimalistic, the martial arts sequences are highly stylized and quite interesting. As you would expect from Tsui Hark, the cinematography is brilliant and the film glows with vibrant colors and inventive tracking. He also employs some Matrix-like effects that view time-frozen explosions from some very interesting perspectives. A very visually attractive film. Unfortunately, the story isn't all that interesting and neither are the characters (although Nicholas Tse is a hottie and Cathy Tsui is quite cute). Definitely worth checking out if you like Hong Kong gun movies.

Outstanding transfer (even though it was fullscreen) and the sound was amazing. Lots of heavy bass and great surround separation. The film itself starts out like it's going to be a bit more cerebral than it ends up... Tsui Hark makes excellent action films and this is no exception. Plenty of little camera tricks and going inside gun chambers and whatever else you can think of.

The plot was somewhat hard to follow at first, for me anyway... I caught on after awhile though. The trouble was that the film decided to dispose of any exposition or showing what type of people the characters are normally - the film doesn't spend much time explaining what's going on. I don't know - maybe it's just me. Even by the end, the characters are never fully explored, but just enough so that you can care what's going on.

The action is very tight and I only caught sight of the wires a few times and it didn't bother me. I think if the story and characters had been fleshed out just a little bit more, then I would feel comfortable calling this a masterpiece. But as it is - I have to say that it's merely "great". I did like it a bit more than Shiri which was also pretty good.