A group of pickpockets (Gordon Lam, Law Wing-Cheong and Kenneth Cheung) led by Kei (Simon Yam) gets their daily, successful routines broken when mysterious woman Chung Chun Lei (Kelly Lin) enters their lives. Soon almost the whole group are seduced but the whole group is also attacked by gangsters who seem to hold a grip on Chung's destiny...

With its very straight forward plot, absurdity and nonsense galore, one can almost see an image of Johnnie To in the sandbox amongst other directors sitting right smack in the middle and carving out a sand castle in a way that is fun for him. In other people's eyes, it may seem without purpose and can be shattered at any moment but little/big Johnnie To won't and shouldn't care. He's happy to be here, no matter how much darkness he's had to vent in the Election-movies for instance. Hong Kong is his home and his love for cinema is everywhere. That's pretty much what happens in Sparrow, which is akin to very little to almost nothing depending on how you look at it.

Will there be substance, subtext and depth in a downward spiral for the group of pickpockets where Gordon Lam's Bo seem more anxious to lead? Will Kei's newly found pet sparrow really symbolize their downfall and what is the mystery behind the more often than not stressed out Chung Chun Lei and her affiliation with the gangster world? Is the above part of any purpose of Johnnie To's? On a pure basic story level, sure... he does touch upon these things now and again but remember, To is treating matters like his playtime and it's the better CINEMA experience because of it.

While not lingering on it, To is mostly in love with the tool of letting music speak without it being accompanied by vocals. Sparrow could've even dabbled in pure silence (which it does to quite a large degree once you examine it). As To hits the street with ace cinematographer Cheng Siu-Keung, you smell the French vibe as much as the genuine Hong Kong one. Its portrayal oozes elegance once you insert a happy Simon Yam into it and it oozes love for the multi-coloured city that does AS well when photographed old timey style in black and white. It's really the occupation Kei would rather have in combination with a problem free pickpocket life. Women and gangsters are purely in the way but oh well, got to do a per human definition a good deed sometime. Especially since the only pure human in this cinematic world is Kelly Lin's character.

It's important to note this break from reality, which makes Sparrow take on the delightful fever it has. 99% of the characters act according to director To's cinematic reality which sets the stage for all matter of deadpan and quirky excursions with little danger to go with it. If To wishes for a balloon to act as the concept of a "erotic" scene in an elevator between Law Wing-Cheong (1*) and Kelly Lin, he will make it so. If he wishes to indulge in extended takes of driving, smoking (matters that are amped to wonderfully silly levels in terms of style), he will but speaking specifically of the smoking-scene, it's wonderful how he makes characters break their perfect motion and really acknowledge it too. All for one purpose, to make Johnnie giggle. Johnnie's got a cinema-gun. Throw in some cross dressing too and he's more than willingly "sinking" to a comedy level perhaps present in his directorial work for the first time in decades. If one were to look clearly, character designs act as setup and "depth" with Yam being leadership, the loner by choice. Gordon is the impulsive, the gambler, the rookie. Law Wing-Cheong Mr. Ugly and Kenneth Cheung kind of a cool dude. Yep, I'm stretching here because the above has no purpose in the final message brought forth. Which in itself is scribbled in almost indecipherable child hieroglyphs on small piece of paper.

There's again little to nothing going on except the barely scripted conflict but why there's nothing to complain about is due to spot on atmosphere with dose upon dose of injected delight that screams surreal as much as it is a cinematic postcard or love letter to matters close to Johnnie To's heart. With the slow motion pick pocketing finale registering creepiness as much as joy, we come back to the point that nothing is truly lost without the knowledge of what Johnnie To is acknowledging. In fact, it might even be the utmost advantage. An homage to new wave French cinema I'm sure Sparrow nails splendidly but as the Hong Kong cinema experience, the other percentage of the audience could take Sparrow to heart. It's proper self indulging and another example of why Johnnie To can afford to not make a whole host of new fans when doing it HIS way.

(1) In house editor and assistant director for many years at Milkyway but is now a director of note, especially his Hooked On You from 2007.

Lei tries to convince Kei and his team that revenge is best served by stealing a key that Fu wears around his neck that opens a safe, which holds Lei's passport, and thus keeps her from her real love in the Mainland. Kei rejects the offer at first, but after his crew is humilated again, he takes Lei up on her offer. This leads to a climatic duel between Kei and Fu's teams, as they try to steal the passport from each other.

So this doesn't sound like the usual Milkyway/Johnnie To crime movie, and it really isn't. Sparrow is much more about style over substance and the journey being more important than the destination. At the end of the film, none of the characters really feel like they've progressed or changed in any way, which may lead some people to think the proceeding ninety minutes were pointless. But when a film looks and sounds this great, one can give it a lot of leeway.

Taking care to shoot in the older parts of Hong Kong (the few that still exist) and making a conscious effort to dress his characters in clothes that could have very well have stepped off the set of a Godard picture, Johnnie To brings back a different time and different feeling in this film, where the mise-en-scene itself was paramount.

Bolstered by an excellent jazz/lounge soundtrack, Sparrow has a very unique emotion to it, especially compared to many recent Hong Kong movies, which tend to lack any sort of real warmth or humanity to them, where the film-makers hope that if they throw enough CGI or cheesy love ballads sung by the latest pop star at the audience they'll respond by actually paying for a ticket, rather than getting a bootleg.

One particular scene where Kei and Lei simply share a cigarette while driving could be dismissed as throwaway, but if you look deeper, there's a lot to it, most notably how the simplest connections can make a huge difference. Like the films of Wong Kar-Wai. Sparrow is a much an exploration of the unique loneliness of Hong Kong, where one can feel bitterly alone, even while being surrounded by millions of people.

Viewed overall, Sparrow does come off as a bit haphazard and incomplete, probably due to the way it was produced, mostly during down times in Johnnie To's busy schedule. This sort of feeling Sparrow gives the viewer keeps it from reaching the upper echelon of To's best works like The Mission or Exiled.

However, the things the film does right are done well enough that Sparrow becomes a worthy viewing not just for fans of Johnnie To, but for cinephiles from all over the world. Sparrow isn't necessarily going slam you with its' brilliance or make you run to your friends to rave about, but it is a damn fine movie that reminds the viewer that there are at least a few solid film-makers left in Hong Kong.