Tit sam gok (2007)

Tit sam gok (2007). 1h 33m | R

“A novel idea, originating in Tsui Hark I believe, to make a film based on the old game of incremental story-telling, passing the baton between 3 of Hong Kongu0026#39;s (once) top directors (they should have swapped Johnnie To for John Woo and called it u0026quot;The Victims of Jean-Claude Van-Damme Rehabilitation Projectu0026quot;). The result is, sadly, almost as incoherent as a nay-sayer might expect it to be.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe first third of the film (Tsui) is kind of scatter-shot, throwing ideas out there for the other directors to pick up on, centred around a heist movie setup with 3 main protagonists (Simon Yam, Louis Koo and Sun Hong-Lei) – setting up a triangle that clearly hints where he really wants the movie to go. This section does suffer from that amphetamine-high lack of focus that sometimes afflicts Tsui Hark when he has too many ideas for a movie, and canu0026#39;t decide which ones are really important.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRingo Lam takes over just before 30 minutes in, and the mood shifts – he evidently wants to create a psychological horror instead of a crime movie, and shifts the focus more to the characters played by Kelly Lin and Gordon Lam. This part is eerie and oblique, a little surreal at times but much more focused.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThen Johnnie To comes in for the final act, and decides that the film should really be… a farce! Perhaps itu0026#39;s his way of commenting on the baby he has been left holding. Every character thatu0026#39;s been introduced so far is brought back into play, along with a couple of new ones (notably Lam Suet), and the plot plays itself out in an elaborate comedy of errors hinged upon a series of entirely implausible coincidences. The finale is a gun battle vaguely reminiscent of those in THE MISSION or EXODUS, but with a more comical coating. Itu0026#39;s a bit Shakespearean, but falls short of The Bardu0026#39;s wit.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe shifting of tones, and the diverting focus of the narrative, is exactly the sort of problem youu0026#39;d expect a movie with three directors and three script-writing teams to have. Perhaps that was the point, and each director deliberately took the movie into their own favourite territory when they took the reins. I guess thatu0026#39;s how it usually happens when people play the game amongst themselves (I forget the name of it, never really saw the appeal), but they perhaps failed to factor in that the game is more fun for the people playing it than for somebody who simply gets handed the end result. The production process may be interesting to talk or think about, but probably makes for a less enjoyable film than a more conventional collaboration would have.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI did enjoy Ringo Lamu0026#39;s section though – hopefully itu0026#39;s a sign heu0026#39;s going to be doing more work in Hong Kong again!”