If there is an award for most muddled screenplay, Time and Tide is a prime candidate. Tsui Hark, one of the most influential Hong Kong filmmakers of the past 20 years, is a passionate cineaste whose Achilles heel is plot construction. When a balance between "action" and "story" is achieved, as in Once Upon a Time in China II, the results are brilliant. With Time and Tide, the balance is totally out of kilter. Beginning in reel one, viewers find themselves in a state of confusion, a bewilderment that still exists during the end-roller credits nearly two hours later.

The script, co-authored by Tsui and longtime collaborator Koan Hui, is a far-fetched affair involving Hong Kong bodyguards, Latin American terrorists, huge sums of cash, love, hate, betrayal, and murder. The various characters’ interactions and motivations, the events that bring them together and tear them apart, are dealt with in a puerile comic book fashion. They act like little kids masquerading as grown-ups, so that despite the sophisticated trappings, the level of repartee and interplay is no more engaging than a very violent children’s birthday party.

Tsui displays his usual good sense of casting, so that the acting is certainly not part of the problem. Nicholas Tse is excellent as Tyler, a bodyguard who finds himself in many life-and-death situations, though even he has trouble making credible his delivery of a baby in the Hunghom Train Station basement. Tyler’s major adversary/ally is a mysterious mercenary, Jack (Taiwanese rock star Wu Bai, who does very well in his first starring role), who has returned from Brazil and married a Hong Kong girl, Ah Hui (Candy Lo, who leaves a good impression in her film debut). In one of those coincidences that can only happen on screen, her father is a triad leader, a target of a Latino hit squad comprised of Jack’s former colleagues headed by Miguel (musician Joventino Couto Remotigue).

A subplot involving Tyler’s romance with a lesbian police officer, Ah Jo (Cathy Chui), is irritating in the extreme. From her first appearance, Jo’s behaviour is so obnoxious as to elicit little audience sympathy, and though she may serve a symbolic role, one wishes the filmmakers had not felt it necessary to write her into Time and Tide.

The action scenes, dazzling choreographed and edited, are lengthy and violent. But because they lack the context of a convincing story, ultimately prove unexciting and disoriented. Time and tide may wait for no man, but even action films should wait for a polished scenario before the director shouts "Action!"

2 stars

This review is copyright (c) 2000 by Paul Fonoroff. All rights reserved. No part of the review may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.