Time and Tide (Review)

Time and tide

The poster doesn’t help me understand this movie either.

In advance I would like to put in the following disclaimer: I watch a lot of foreign language films, more than almost anyone I know, so I can honestly claim that subtitles and (gosh!) even dubbed films don’t bother me much.

In saying that I found Time and Tide very hard to follow at times, so rather than blame it on my ignorance I would like to point the film at the film-makers.

Time and tide tries sooooo hard to be supercool, and for about 15 minutes it actuallu is. It is directed by Tsui Hark, the poor man’s John Woo, who has made a great many films, and even though some are quite good none are as well known as The Killer or Hard Boiled.

The film opens with some guy named Tyler having a drunken hook up with an intoxicated woman named Ah Hui, the following morning when it comes time for the walk of shame they are both unsure if they actually got it on, such was the level of drunkenness. In any case the young woman is furious at being taken advantage of, given that she was a practising lesbian.

Cut to 9 months later, and Tyler finds out that they most definitely were “intimate” the evidence being carried around in front of her under a maternity dress when they run into each other, only Ah Hui wants nothing to do with him. Being a fine citizen Tyler tries to make some quick bucks to help raise the illegitimate spawn by taking a job as a dodgy bodyguard, running scams on unsuspecting innocents. Events transpire that Tyler must do a bolt or risk his shonky employer turning the other bodyguards on him.

Now cut to South America, we meet Jack, a mercenary of sorts doing what he does best, only he don’t like doing it anymore, deciding, as so many in film decide, that it is time to “go straight”.

There are a lot of confusing moments in the first hour, rather than rewatch it to get my head around it I decided it was quicker to blame the film-makers (see above) than to admit perhaps I am just stupid.

Long story short, Tyler and Jack befriend each other, Tyler is trying to provide for his unplanned progeny, and Jack has wasted no time in knocking up some chick too. So about an hour in Jack’s ex workmates from South Africa show up to get him back into the fold by trying to kill him? Tyler gets in the middle of things too and this is the best 15 minute shootout that I’ve seen in quite a while. The scene takes place in a dingy tenement in the slums of what must be Hong Kong, the camerawork is really inventive and there are some genuinely original moments in the scene. If the whole movie lived up to this scene it would have been an all time classic.

The finale incorporates Cops Vs Bad guys Vs Good guys in an all-in shootout at a train station. There is tear gas, machine guns, trains (duh), snipers, a SWAT team… oh and a chick trying to give birth. The bad guys get shot and die, the cops are largely faceless and also get shot and die, and the good guys get shot, grimace and move on with their lives, as is the norm in action films.

Turn off your brain and enjoy the ride.

Now comes the admission that purists might cringe at, I watched this with the dialogue dubbed into English, and it was probably the best example of a dubbed film I’ve seen in a decade or so, streets better than the crappy efforts made with Jackie Chan films in the early 90s. I don’t mind subtitles at all, but don’t subscribe to the theory that watching a dubbed film is somehow less authentic. It just seems to me that watching a film and not understanding a word of what is said is hardly more pure than hearing the actual scripted dialogue, only with the actor’s lips appearing a little out of sync.

Final rating – 7 / 10. Probably really a 6.5 or even a 6, but the cool shootout elevates the enjoyment factor up a notch. This is a prime example of action and glitz trumping substance.

About OGR

While I try to throw a joke or two into proceedings when I can all of the opinions presented in my reviews are genuine. I don't expect that all will agree with my thoughts at all times nor would it be any fun if you did, so don't be shy in telling me where you think I went wrong... and hopefully if you think I got it right for once. Don't be shy, half the fun is in the conversation after the movie.
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1 Response to Time and Tide (Review)

  1. I ve seen this movie too. Its really hard to follow eventhough I am a native… Never mind though. Its a good movie anyway, dont you think?

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