Rate It
|
||||||||||||||||
Rating Averages
My Friends |
Not rated. () |
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
All Flixster |
(548) |
271 |
2390 |
Female |
(151) |
75 |
661 |
Male |
(397) |
196 |
1729 |
More Like This
If you liked this, then you'll also probably like...
Got another recommendation for someone who liked this movie? Add it to the list!
Got an opinion? Use the buttons to vote on all the suggestions people have added.
If lots of people vote, the best suggestions will rise to the top.
This list looks lonely.
Add a suggestion!
Plot:
Hong Kong, present day. A streetwise young man becomes a bodyguard to score quick cash. He soon befriends a once disillusioned mercenary determined to begin life anew with the woman he just married. A...( read more 
)
Meet Other Fans
Recent Reviews
-
MCT:September 2, 2008
Time and Tide works on two levels, as a dramatic film and as an action film, both benefiting from each other. The action becomes more intense because the audience cares for the film's characters, and at the same time the drama is more emotional because the audience wants the characters to succeed in their redemption. This movie occupies a unique place in the action-cinema genre. One of the best Hark Tsui's movie.
-
MCT:June 16, 2008Forgetable effort from Hark in the action genre. Could work a whole lot better if it didn't had such annoying editing and clumsy camera angles. The action is shown with the camera constantly zooming at full speed into the characters. Making the whole thing look like if Robert Rodriguez had took an overdose of cocaine while doing a movie with chinese actors.
Just another proof of how average and forgettable Hark is as a director. Somebody should get medical help to the few fanboys this guy has. -
MCT:April 12, 2008Hard plot for me to follow..but great cam work and nick does his usual best...enjoyed the action sequences..entertianing if a bit confusing...
-
MCT:April 11, 2008Yet another foreign film I knew absolutely nothing about, it turns out that screenwriter and director Tsui Hark in fact produced some of the most renowned Hong Kong action films (alas, I have seen none of them). I had seen a trailer for this one, though, on one of the other DVDs I've purchased, so I did at least know it was an action-oriented film. What I did not expect was the tightly bound mess of characters, plot lines and actions that came before me. It's also one of only three Cantonese-spoken films I own.
Tyler (Nicholas Tse) is a 21 year old bartender who takes a drinking bet with a jilted lesbian, Ah Jo (Cathy Tsui), and winds up in bed with her. She is angry the next morning and practically throws herself out of his apartment, then checks a calendar and slumps in the elevator as she's leaving--obviously she was ovulating. Nine months later, Tyler is attempting to help Ah Jo, who rejects all of his attempts, well-intentioned though they are. He eventually begins to take loans from "Uncle Ji" (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang), a local loan shark who has begun asking for payment on said loans by turning those who have taken them into a bodyguard service. In the process of guarding Hong, father of Ah Hui (Candy Lo), Tyler meets "Jack" (Wu Bai), the husband of the very pregnant Ah Hui and suggests the two start a bodyguard agency of their own, Tyler intending to make money to give to Ah Jo in place of his unwanted fatherhood, and suggesting that Jack will also need money for his coming child. In the meantime, the "Angels," led primarily by Miguel (Couto Remotigue, Jr.), are a team of South American mercenaries who have taken interest in Jack--who used to work with them--and want him back or dead, and have made their way to Hong Kong to achieve this goal. Jack wants nothing of this and makes this very clear, with Tyler attempting to survive and in some ways tag along, having been incriminated in an increasingly spiralling plot of interconnected lives and agendas.
Tse gives a great performance as the enthusiastic everyman kid who is in over his head, but who is skilled enough to still be respectable in our sympathy for his plight, while the slightly less photogenic Bai is unbelievably collected, professional and, frankly, badass, as the mercenary who has abandoned his past, but not his skills. And those skills--good grief! I thought I had seen enough stunts and wire work and so on to think little of anything to come, but the brilliance here comes from the fact that somehow it looks like these men were trained to do completely absurd things, like jumping into the air to land on someone's shoulders, or rappel down the side of an apartment building while firing an automatic rifle. Not as if they have been trained to enact it for this stunt, but as if they have practiced and learned how to respond to any physical environment, change or threat in ways that should be unbelievable yet somehow aren't. Married to this is a style that uses tricks that are not something we've never seen--such as travelling into the mechanics of a gun as the trigger is pulled, or POV shots--but that manage to feel both fresh and appropriate and smooth in their transition, with some added kicks adding something new anyway--like a woman taken for an unexpectedly rough car ride being seen from her own eyes, the camera wobbling with her unsteady steps until we pull back and turn to freeze frame on her nauseated face, just as she is about to vomit, thereby managing to convey the strength of this reaction without the viewer nausea of seeing the actual vomiting (though Hark happily does this after the drinking binge Tyler and Ah Jo take part in at the beginning).
I've intended to see the Hong Kong classics like Hard-Boiled for ages now, and have yet to do so, but I think this has a speedier, more kinetic approach, if my eyes are to be believed when compared to the progression of these styles into American film. Slow motion is rare, and this kind of rapid martial arts action, and especially environment-based stunts (flipping over banisters in stairways and so on, regardless of an opponent's direct, physical involvement)--something I understand is more a product of the last decade than those early Woo films, but this is purely conjecture on my part as I'd rather be surprised by those films as well. It's more reminiscent, though, of the intricate, elaborate scenes Jackie Chan achieved notoriety for stateside, but without any of the carefully planned and staged feel, the most important thing in this whole approach to action is that sense of believability despite the complete ridiculous insanity of them.
Bloody awesome action film, one I will have to push on the action fan(s?) I know. -
MCT:January 30, 2008Nothing out of the ordinary here, unless you haven't seen a Tsui Hark film before. Basically, this is your typical Hong Kong crime action movie with a Tsui Hark twist to it.
The first 5 minutes of the film is actually deceiving. The story actually feels like a romantic comedy of sorts. A few minutes later the film takes a turn and you now have the action adventure you should be expecting. The thing with Tsui Hark is that his cinematography and editing can make any type of film feel frantic. What would usually be a moderate to slow paced film actually feels like a thrilling roller coaster ride. While this is fine and dandy it can also confuse the viewer and throw off what should be a simple story. With that said, the first half of this film isn't anything spectacular and the action is somewhat limited. There is more of a focus on character buildup, which isn't too bad. The last 40-50 minutes of the film is all one big Tsui Hark stylized action sequence. Fairly entertaining.
Like other Hark pieces, the action is different from other films of this genre and the choreography is quite good. What really sucks here is the editing and camera shots. At times it is good, but at many other times, and not just in this film, the fights become degraded by this. If it wasn't for Hark's editing and camera work, the action sequences could be impressive.
The acting is pretty good for this type of film. Nicholas Tse is a good lead and most of the supporting cast is up to par. The only disappointments are the villains. They have a bunch of English lines and we all know how those turn out most of the time. It isn't as bad as other films though.
The only people I would recommend this film to are fans of Tsui Hark or people in need of a different style of action film.
-
MCT:January 14, 2008
Really beautifully shot action film, this one actually has a lot of heart as two soon to be fathers find themselves becoming friends only to end up on opposite sides of a climactic battle.
Recommended. -
MCT:January 10, 2008
Nicolas Tse does a great performance as a streetwise young man who becomes a bodyguard to score quick cash and befriends a former mercenary (Wu Bai) who determined to begin life anew with the woman he just married. Terrific hardcore action in the building of apartments and train station.
-
MCT:November 15, 2007
One of the best Asian action movies I've seen. The action scenes are subtle yet breathtaking. It's about gangsters, police chase, and retrieving stolen money. The movie is set in Hongkong and stars Nicholas Tse.
-
MCT:September 28, 2007
Not without its faults, but I fucking love this movie. It's a great flick to introduce people to asian cinema actually. It's stylish and fun.
-
MCT:September 22, 2007
Hot diggity damn the action scenes in this were freakin' cool! Good to see Tsui Hark doing some badass work. Amazed at how good it is for its time, too. Lotta goodness for the Hong Kong action film, with easily some of the most dynamic camera work in movie history.
-
MCT:May 1, 2007I love this movie! I like the main lead male and the story is so heart-warming and its action packed WOOHOO!
-
MCT:April 22, 2007
A fucking awesome movie. Mostly in Kines language with some spanish conversations and english "menings".
The movie is about a cute hongkong boy (Tyler) who gets a lesbian undercovercop pregnant; and in order to suport her and the baby Tyler gets a job as an lifegard to earn some fast money.
This is a very comlicaited movie I did'nt quite understand it because there are suden seen swithing from Tylers to some new or a flashback world, but I quiate understud it the second time I saw it.
I never thaught the Kines movie makers could make fight seans lock real; and it's the same thing in this movie. The fiev fight seans in the movie are quite unreal but it's not the fight seans the movie is about so I never got the hope to see some cool asskicking seans. There is some nice fighting with guns and mercenary killing tecknickes.
Time and Tide is a move I might buy home one day because of the cool languages (english as well), the grait story and the cute Asian actorrs:P -
MCT:March 15, 2007
THIS IS PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST FRESHLY COOL & EXOTIC OF THE HK FILMS I'VE SEEN AND IT MARKED A GREAT RETURN FOR DIRECTOR TSUI HARK. REALLY SHOWCASES HOW EVER CHANGING HK IS.
-
MCT:March 7, 2007
another gem from director Tsui Hark. The action comes fast and furious, action fans will love this thriller.
-
MCT:November 8, 2006
one movie where you probably wont understand what the hell is going on...but some really well done action scenes. i liked where this was going but they could have cleared things up a bit more at times.
-
MCT:June 9, 2006
My favorite Tsui Hark film. The story's about a kid who doesn't know what he's getting into, but compelled by the fact that he's becoming a father soon, he tries to get as much money as he can quick. A movie about hitmen, hong kong, and going with the flow.
Comments
This board looks lonely. Be the first to talk about "Time and Tide" !
