Time and Tide

Director: Tsui Hark
Year Released: 2000
Rating: 0.0

Like Woo and the other HK auteurs, Hark relies more on interesting camera moves and hammy symbolism than on plot plausibility or character. Time and Tide, which I'm comfortable calling worthless and incoherent, contains all of the following: pigeons flying in slow motion, statues of Mary falling over in slow motion, cigarettes being lit in the most dramatic way possible, flashy, exaggerated gunplay, cameras in places you wouldn't expect or normally set them up, ridiculous social behavior (throwing up on passing cars), Matrix-inspired 360 degree panoramas, Wong-esque voice-overs about the meaning of life. In fact, the only person I feel that can nix substance for style and have it work is Wong Kar-Wai, who is freely ripped off (er, borrowed from) here. I would have made a list of the Chungking Express and Fallen Angels 'references' but there's only so much paper in the house.