Triangle

Three is the Magic Number
The idea behind this film was to get three of the best Hong Kong action/crime directors today working together. The result was each did one segment (around 30 minutes each) in chronological order with Tsui first, Lam second and To finishing it off. This would be done differently than a film like Four Rooms (1995) where each segment was basically a separate story. In this movie each director would continue after the other to move the story and characters along from what happened previously. Like many conceptual films this movie sometimes seems a bit forced, sometimes clunky, some plot angles hang, disappear and seem a bit confusing, but I still found the movie quite interesting and entertaining.

Triangle (the Chinese title is The Iron Triangle) starts off with Tsui Hark creating the foundation for the plot. It is both good and bad that Hark creates tons of plot angles for the movie to go. It gives the Ringo and later To plenty of room to move with, but also will leave...

(2.5 STARS) Directed by Tsui Hark / Ringo Lam / Johnny To: Strictly for Avid Hong Kong Film Fans
A 2007 Hong Kong movie "Triangle" ("Tie saam gok") is made in the so-called "exquisite corpse" fashion, a unique narrative or visual style, in which segments (of words or images) made by participating artists are assembled so as to create one piece of work. Sometimes you are allowed to see what other contributors (especially the one prior to you) did; sometimes you are not.

In "Triangle" Tsui Hark (who thought of the idea) starts the story, introducing three main characters (Louis Koo, Simon Yam and Sun Hong Lei) planning a heist. About thirty minutes in, the film is taken over by Ringo Lam, who seems more interested in the subplot about Kelly Lin's character. Then again thirty minutes later Johnny To steps in (with over-the-top Lam Suet, a familiar face for Johnny To fans), wrapping up the whole film with a stylish shoot-out.

But don't take this film too seriously. After all, "Triangle" offers exactly what you expect from the "three-directors-in-one" project...

A directorial relay race
A veritable Hong Kong directorial relay race, with Hong Kong directors Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Johnnie To each taking a half hour section of the picture before passing on the baton, Triangle never seems like a patchwork quilt but also rarely rises above the watchably average. Rather than the usual collection of short stories you get when multiple directors collaborate on a single film it's one continuous story, revolving around a trio of losers caught up in a caper that inevitably goes wrong. Simon Yam's a failing businessman who might just be poisoning his unfaithful wife for the insurance money (or she might just be setting him up), Louis Koo is a taxi driver with a trio of nasty gangsters on his tail when he fails to provide them with a getaway driver and Sun Hong Lei is an antiques dealer whose share dealings have failed disastrously. When a stranger puts them on the trail of a mysterious treasure buried under the legislative building, you know it's not so much the end of their...

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