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鐵三角 (2007)
Triangle


Reviewed by: j.crawford
Date: 05/15/2012
Summary: Triangle goes in a Circle

This movie called Triangle was spawned from an excellent concept. Bring together three of the top directors in the local industry to each direct a third of the film while working independently to develop the narrative. [not explaining that so good.] Nicely produced, technically well made film ends up providing viewer with unsatisfying experience.

Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: ewaffle
Date: 06/01/2010
Summary: Too clever by two-thirds

A successful heist is difficult. Whether stealing the jewels from the Topkapi Palace, tunneling into the Société Générale in Nice or robbing the Glasgow to London mail train, a heist takes a dedicated crew, meticulous planning and impeccable execution. Making a movie about a heist is much a much less complex and dangerous prospect: it is legal, aboveboard and an accepted part of commerce. But there are still rules to be followed. “Triangle” breaks a number of them fails as an exciting account of a crime, as a human drama propelled by conflicting needs and desires or as a dark comedy. There were too many talented people trying to work in the same filmic space and the result was an intermittently entertaining mess.

None of the characters were developed in the time allotted to each director but worst of all, there was almost no depiction of the planning for and carrying out the crime itself. The three criminals simply dug into the Legislative Assembly building, found the priceless treasure and wheeled it away. Which was one of the most ridiculous scenes in the movie--they didn’t have a plan to move the treasure from where it had been hidden and so walked through the streets of Hong Kong pushing a cart carrying a casket with rotted bodies and intact gold. This all too obvious lacuna made continued suspension of disbelief impossible.

There were some excellent performances, a couple of good chase scenes including one that went in circles in a wilderness area that featured some very large alligators. “Triangle” ended as it had to with the main characters waving goodbye and walking away--it would have been impossible to have an ending that made sense because the movie until that point hadn’t.

Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: Masterofoneinchpunch
Date: 02/08/2010
Summary: 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 either a bit too much to be either ignored and some angles barely gone over that a tighter script would have just ignored. In fact it took me a few tries to get past the beginning.

Simon Yam (PTU, Election) is Lee Bo Sam a former race driver who is friends with Fai (Louis Koo: Throwdown) and antique shop owner Mok Chung-yuan (Sun Hong Lei: Seven Swords). Fai is trying to get him to acquiesce to a driving job for a jewelry heist. If he does not Fai will receive harm from some local triad members. All three need money though. In the middle of the meeting between Fai and Lee a strange man gives those three a small gold piece and states where they can find the rest of this treasure. His motives for doing this are a mystery to the bunch. Meanwhile Lee's wife Lin (Kelly Lin: Sparrow) is having an affair with policeman Wen (Gordon Lam), states that her husband is trying to have her killed off and wants Lam to get rid of Sam first.

When Ringo Lam takes over in the first film he has directed since leaving the production of Wake of Death (2004), he ups the psychological attitude of the film and enriches the characterization. The most effective change is how the love-triangle relationship between Lam, Lin and Sam no longer appears to be the stereotypical triangle in the beginning and takes on a new bizarre dimension. Ringo Lam does a homage to Reservoir Dogs which was based on his film City on Fire so you see a homage to an homage) by using a record player, a handcuffed cop and a few other scenarios in this middle segment of the film.

The last segment belongs to Johnnie To and from the beginning where we see Lam Suet (Lam is in a lot of Johnnie To movies) we know who is directing this. Suet plays a drug addicted epileptic who causes flats in both automobiles and bikes and offers to fix them. The area where he is in has no cellular reception and a conveniently located eatery where they can wait while their vehicle is being fixed. However, Wen is there as well as the triad members who are there to purchase firearms. This is another use of the triangle in this film. To offers his normal use of "Team Spirit" themes and Mexican standoff action in this conflict triangle to make the last half hour quite interesting.

While this film never fully jells together, some plot changes are just a bit bizarre like Lin's character change (or really non-use) in the third segment, I still ended up really liking this film. There are quite enough brilliant moments that make this movie a recommendation for fans of not only Hong Kong cinema and Johnnie To, but movie fanatics as well. You just have to get past the first 15 minutes.

I have the Magnolia pictures R1 release that has two extra features: a "Making of" and a Behind the Scenes. The "Making of" is solely focused on Johnnie To's segment and ultimately not that interesting. It is mostly standing around, saying a few lines and more waiting. Behind the Scenes actually has the most information with interviews from several of the cast and crew. The region 3 release of this by Mega Star has deleted scenes, TV spots and trailers in addition to what the R1 has. I was most disappointed that the R1 does not have the deleted scenes, but it is still a worthwhile release.

Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: mrblue
Date: 09/06/2009

Bringing together three of Hong Kong's top directors -- Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark, and Johnnie To -- Triangle frankly could have been a huge boondoggle, delving quickly into a convoluted mess. But even though neither of the trio worked directly with each other, and the film's story is full of twists and turns, somehow everything falls together into one of the more entertaining heist pictures to come out in the last couple of years.

Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: Beat TG
Date: 02/16/2009
Summary: Good concept

Crime, adventure, mystery and drama combined into a concept is something fresh I'd say. And it's better when three great directors of Hong Kong Cinema, Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Johnnie To (three great directors of modern HK cinema), are realizing it. What's more fascinating is that they came onboard not knowing what they were going to shoot and how they would bring each of their work together as a movie, with instructions to avoid visiting each of their own sets, follow the pattern where one director starts off his segment, and then another watches the footage and follows it up with a entirely new segment, and come up with something different but just as long as they stick to the a relevant story as effect as they can. Not a bad effort but does that do justice overall?

Unfortunately, no. The concept was just fine and the meshing of each director's (Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Johnnie To; in chronological order) segment wasn't bothersome, only that I think some scenes could've been made alot clearer cause they don't make much sense, considering the validity of events when the movie starts off. To's segment was easily the most illogical, followed by Lam (where the nonsense kicks in) and leaving Hark the one who carried the movie the logical way. Despite this, the result isn't bad at all (not great though) because there's alot going on which was interesting enough for me to sit through the watching. So overall, TRIANGLE is far from perfect but in the end, the directing trio achieved what they wanted with good results which deserves praise.

Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: Libretio
Date: 11/05/2008
Summary: Twisty crime thriller, worth a look

TRIANGLE (2007)

Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (Technovision)
Soundtrack: Dolby Digital

Veteran actor Simon Yam Tat-wah headlines this ultra-twisty crime caper as a harassed businessman whose world begins to crumble around his ears, not least because his faithless wife (Kelly Lin Hsi-lei) is having an affair with a corrupt cop (Gordon Lam Ka-tung). Worse still, Yam becomes enmeshed in the theft of a priceless relic by two luckless friends (Louis Koo Tin-lok and Sun Hong-lei), both of whom drag their personal baggage into play, landing them all in serious trouble with Lam and a bunch of gangsters who covet the relic for themselves. Things do NOT go smoothly for any of them...

Co-directed by three of Hong Kong's finest auteurs (Johnnie To Kei-fung, Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam Ling-tung), the film builds relentlessly toward a final showdown between the various protagonists, all of whom are painted in various shades of grey by a multi-authored screenplay which juggles the disparate elements with snap-shot precision. Yam gives the showiest performance as a man at the end of his tether, while Lin plays the unfaithful wife as a psychotic harridan whose allegiances shift on the breeze, escalating the various conflicts beyond the point of no return. Technical credits are similarly robust, with notable cinematography by Cheng Siu-keung and To Hung-mo.

Minor drawback: The closing sequence seems to negate everything that went before it, but the movie survives on the strength of its ingenuity and daring. A minor trifle, perhaps, but more than worth your time and money.

Reviewer Score: 4

Reviewed by: MrBooth
Date: 04/22/2008
Summary: As messy as you'd expect

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 Kong's (once) top directors (they should have swapped Johnnie To for John Woo and called it "The Victims of Jean-Claude Van-Damme Rehabilitation Project"). The result is, sadly, almost as incoherent as a nay-sayer might expect it to be.

The first third of the film (Tsui) is kind of scattershot, 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 can't decide which ones are really important.

Ringo 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 eery and oblique, a little surreal at times but much more focused.

Then Johnnie To comes in for the final act, and decides that the film should really be... a farce! Perhaps it's his way of commenting on the baby he has been left holding. Every character that'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. It's a bit Shakespearean, but falls short of The Bard's wit.

The shifting of tones, and the diverting focus of the narrative, is exactly the sort of problem you'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 that'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.

I did enjoy Ringo Lam's section though - hopefully it's a sign he's going to be doing more work in Hong Kong again!

Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: dandan
Date: 04/01/2008
Summary: three coins in a fountain...

three friends; sam (simon yam), fai (louis koo) and mok (sun hong-lei) are down on their luck and looking to make some money. when a mysterious stranger gives them a gold coin, they begin to investigate and discover that treasures may be waiting for them in the basement of the legislative council building. meanwhile, fai has gotten himself involved with some triads who need a driver for a heist, he's suggested sam, but sam isn't keen on the idea. still, a cop called wen (lam ka tung) is, along with the triads, pushing fai to persuade sam to be their driver, although this probably has something to do with the fact that he's sleeping with sam's wife, ling (kelly lin). whatever happens, things may just get a little messy...

'triangle' represents a collaboration between tsui hark, ringo lam and johnnie to; three of hong kong's most lauded directors. here, hark kicks off the narrative and establishes the characters in the first thirty minutes, lam then get's to expand the narrative in the next thirty, leaving to to wrap things up in the final thirty. it sounds like a recipe for glory or disaster.

well, after a rather disastrous response from the initial cannes screening, the film was tightened up and re-edited, with eight minutes getting snipped out. the result is neither a disaster, nor glorious. it is, in a strange way, quite good fun to watch, though...

after a rather full on introductory chapter, where hark seems to be giving those that follow the opportunity to take the film pretty much anywhere they want, lam settles things down, a little, and then to comes in with a relatively light-hearted finale, which, at times, veers between farce and absurdist. sure, it is a bit of a mess, but it's a rather enjoyable mess which doesn't take itself too seriously.

and why not...