TRIANGLE

Hong Kong, 2007, 93 minutes, Colour.
Louis Koo, Simon Yam, Sun Hong Lei.
Directed by Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, Johnny To.

Six screenwriters and three directors for this Hong Kong crime drama that any of the directors could have made with little effort. But, they seem to have decided to go for broke.

During the first hour one is wondering whether to simply say that characters and treatment are bordering on the absurd. However, the final thirty minutes go over the border and one is left, open-mouthed at what is going on, debating whether ridiculous or ludicrous are words to describe the ‘beyond-absurd’.

Even Tarantino who admires their work might pause for assessment – but, then again, he probably wouldn’t after the Kill Bill spectacles and Grindhouse.

There is a crime. There are three men in need of money who carry out a crime. There is a policeman who is having an affair with the wife of one of them – and she is beyond crackers! There are triad types. There is a policeman on a pushbike. There is a mentally retarded tyre repairer. And, somehow or other, they finish up all trying to kill each other or to get possession of some antique treasures in a plastic bag, of which there are several mistakenly flying about.

It’s time for them all to get back to the normal crime thrillers they do so well.

1.The popularity of these directors? Their manay films? Genres and conventions? Crime films? Their collaboration?

2.The plausibility of the plot, the crime, the police, the background of the criminals? Their behaviour? The affair? The robbery itself? The aftermath? The group all confronting each other outside the restaurant, in the woods? The musical score?

3.The film based on computer games? Characters and styles, action? Confrontations and decisions?

4.The three men, the early indications of their background, their need for money? Ah Fai and his mother, the restaurant? Bo Sam, the death of his first wife and the insurance, his second wife and her behaviour? Mok and his antiques business? The proposition? The legislative assembly, the antiques? The background of Wen and his police work, his affair with Bo Sam’s wife?

5.The personalities, their interactions, persuasion? The carrying out of the crime, the coffin, in the tunnel, the warehouse, opening it, the mythic reading on the tomb? The wife who died for her husband? The gold, the cloak?

6.Wen, police work, the affair with Ling? Ling and her erratic behaviour? Her pregnancy? Her alienation from her husband? Wen and his coping? Their being seen in the cyber café? Wen and the betrayal? His following the group?

7.Ling, her relationship with her husband, obsessive, angry, the three-year relationship with Wen? Her hysterics, the pregnancy? The interactions with her husband? Denunciations?

8.The background of the triad types, their contact with Ah Fai?

9.Betrayals, each and his behaviour? Suspicions of the others? The final gathering? The police pursuit?

10.The car, the auto mechanic, his behaviour, the tyres needing replacement? The bicycle policeman and his eventual following, his tyres?

11.Everybody gathered around the diner, the old lady and her cooking? The tension? The behaviour of each, the plastic bags? Observing, shooting, the absurdity of the action, involvement and behaviour?

12.The ultimate confrontation and the four getting away, the absurdity of the plot and characterisation? The ludicrous touches? How entertaining?