THREE
China/Hong Kong, 2016, 88 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Johnny To.
Audiences who have been following Hong Kong films over several decades would be very familiar with the name of Johnny To. He has specialised in a wide variety of gangster films, efficiently made, complex stories about police and interaction with Hong Kong’s criminal gangs, from Hong Kong itself to Macau and to the mainland.
While this particular film – giving the audience some difficulty in deciding who are the three – does have a gangster, the crime recounted is off-camera. And all the action takes place in a hospital, surgery in the operating theatre, recovery, main ward, the stairwell, all interiors except from some moments of looking out of the windows and part of a finale hanging from sheets from an upper window.
There is quite a deal of surgery in the film, in close-up. We see the medical staff, the doctor making decisions, tensions, cutting, blood spurting, haemorrhaging, threads for sewing up wounds… And these recur throughout the film with several operations.
After operations, in between operations, the screenplay returns to the ward, concentrating on several patients: a large man, jovial, with mental problems, which does not interfere at all with his capacity for eating, getting out of bed, wandering down to the canteen, stealing keys and other mischief; a young man who is angry about the failure of his operation, paralysed, spitting at the doctor, attempting to slit his wrists; and someone new in the ward, and gangster brought from the scene of a robbery with a wound to his head and the need to extract a bullet.
Along with the gangster is the police force, a stern officer and his team, keeping guard, surveillance, but with a vested interest as regards the gun used for the wounding of the gangster. And then there is the doctor, a middle-aged woman with ambitions which have been generally achieved, yet somewhat on the edge, especially in connection with the extraction of the bullet.
This then provides an atmosphere for police alert, medical action, cynical barbs from the gangster who is rather literate quoting Greek philosophers as well as a story from Bertrand Russell, and the arrival of assassins to control the situation.
It does build to a rather grim climax, bombs in various wastepaper receptacles throughout the hospital, the entry of assassins with guns firing, mayhem on the ward, and the attempted escape of the gangster with the doctor and police chief in pursuit.
And all under 90 minutes, a different Johnny To story.
1. The films of Johnny To, Hong Kong-based, the extension to China? His police stories? Gangster stories? The addition of the medical story here?
2. Everything happening in the hospital, the theatre, surgery? The ward? Staircases? Looking outside, hanging outside? The mood of the score?
3. The impact of the details of the operations, the doctor, her skills, the medical staff, the place of each during surgery, cutting, blood, threading, haemorrhage? Successes and failures? Decisions about life and death? The challenges, fatigue, anxiety? The impact of Three as a hospital film?
4. The ward, the different patients, the fat man with mental problems, his continued eating, his escape, in the canteen, taking all the keys, jovial? The young man, his paralysis, anger, wanting to sue, spitting at the doctor, slitting his wrists, falling down the steps, able to walk? Husband, dying, tensions with his wife moving, the surgery, his quiet death? The details of life in the ward, the nurses, aides, the caterers?
5. Dr Tong, the background story and success, ambitions, skills, in surgery? The doctor confronting her, wanting her to rest? A feeling of failure, going, returning?
6. Her attempts to retrieve the bullet? The issue of the gun? His waiting for a phone call? His contacts, criminals, robberies? The phone call and the ordering of deaths? The assassins, well dressed, coming to the hospital, whistling the melody?
7. The prisoner’s behaviour, the police, their supervision, the doctor ringing the phone number, Chan’s being upset with her? Chan, his presence? The patient quoting Hippocratic oaths, Bertrand Russell stories, his fluency, smart? The situation with the police? The gun, accusations, cover?
8. Chan, serious, working with his staff, supervision, the conspiracy about the situation, the plan? His angers, confronting the doctor, slapping her, her slapping him later? The fat officer, lunch, his whistling the tune? Phone calls to the superiors and apologies?
9. The doctor, switching the medication, the patient shrewd and not injecting, his pretences?
10. The climax scenario, the assassins and their arrival, the bombs in the bins, guns and shooting, wounding, mayhem? The patient, escape, the sheets, hanging from the window, the doctor and Chan and their pulling him up, the fall?
11. The story as a crime episode, leaving the follow-up to after the film? The importance for the audience just being there and experiencing this?
