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SYNOPSIS:
Life has not been kind to Sam (Simon Yam), Fai (Louis Koo)
and Mok (Sun Hong Lei). One evening, a mysterious old man
appears before them, revealing that an ancient treasure is
buried under the Legislative Building. Series of bad incidents
begin to occur after they discovered the treasure as everyone?
eyes begin to set on it. However, the 3 men are willing to
take the risk, as the treasure is actually an ancient coffin
containing a ceremonial robe made of gold!
MOVIE REVIEW
The
main attraction of Triangle would most likely be the gimmicky
concept of three renowned Hong Kong directors working in a
relay manner to deliver a movie together. There were a couple
of things that one might look out for. Will they be able to
produce one cohesive piece of work that make sense and entertain?
Will the three half hour segment be distinctive enough to
bear the director’s trademark?
Initially
after viewing the movie, the first complaint was that Director
Tsui Hark brought too much elements into the first arc that
it was practically impossible for the next two directors to
wrap up all the various plots in a satisfying manner.
It felt
that almost every subplot that he brought in could possibly
be explored as a whole movie by itself. Such as the treasure
hunt at the most unlikely of places (think National Treasure),
the mental condition of cheating spouse (think He loves me,
He loves me not) and constant harassing of the triads/robbers
(plenty of Hong Kong triads movies to think of).
But
with so much elements chunk up in the first arc, it was impossible
to resolve all of them in a satisfaction manner. Director
Ringo Lam and Director Johnnie To had to choose certain events
to expand on and relegate certain characters / plots to the
sidelines.
In
the second arc, Director Ringo Lam decided to focus on the
psychotic relationship between Simon Yam and his cheating
wife and basically place Louis Koo and Song Hong Lei to the
backseats. Although he had his fair shares of characters with
mania persona, it’s always a delight to see Simon Yam
revert to his demented roles. Then there was the breathtaking
car race scene that showcases an excellent way to turn a vehicle
into a weapon. It’s been a long time since there such
an exciting moment in Hong Kong film although it was a relative
short action sequence.
In
the final arc, Director Johnnie To wrapped it up in his usual
trademark (PTU, Exiled) and that to wrap all the various different
elements into one big bang finale. As though there wasn’t
enough, he even added his regular actor Lam Suet and a police
officer into the mix. Pending on personal preference, this
type of wrap up could be considered as a genius one or a lazy
one.
Technically,
the amazing bit of Triangle was that even with the three different
styles, the flow from one segment to another was seamless
and one actually needs to check the running time to get a
rough idea if it’s time for a different arc. However,
from a story point of view, it felt that there wasn’t
a single solid story but three whimsical storytellers trying
to tell one. In this case, Triangle doesn’t really have
any genuine gold in this movie beyond it’s publicity
stunt that will enthrall most Hong Kong films fans to watch
it.
SPECIAL
FEATURES :
There’s a 6-minute “The Making
of” , where the directors spoke rather shortly
of their motivation for making this film. This is followed
by each of the three main cast spoke of the different segments
and how the working methods of each directors. A rather short
making of that wasn’t really insightful at all. This
making of comes in both Mandarin and Cantonese versions, but
only Chinese subtitles. Also featured is “Trailer”
that emphasizes the gimmicky concept of this film.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The
disc’s visual transfer is crisp and clean, and the audio
soundtrack is presented in Mandarin version with both 5.1
and 2 Dolby Digital options. This disc also comes with English
and Chinese subtitles.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Richard Lim Jr
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