Released in 2000, this Tsui Hark-directed film won an award at the Venice Film Festival (Future Film Digital Award). Starring Nicholas Tse (Tyler) and Wu Bai (Jack...do you see the catch?).
The film focuses on Tyler who is trying his hand at becoming a bodyguard in order to score some money to support the lesbian cop that he impregnated on a drunken night. He meets Jack at a trinket store and becomes good friends with him when they meet again at a dinner party being held by Jack's father-in-law (where Tyler is on duty as a bodyguard). Tyler isn't aware that Jack is an ex-mercenary who left the group to start a new life with his pregnant wife.
This all comes crashing down on Tyler when he attempts to capture a fleeing assassin of the client that he was assigned to protect. This assassin turns out to be Jack, who it turns out had killed Tyler's client because the mark was the leader of his former group who was planning to set up shop in Hong Kong and bring harm to Jack's family.
Pretty soon, all hell breaks loose as the mercernary group sets out on a no-holds-barred hunt for Jack and his wife, with Tyler in the middle.
I saw this movie at the cinema on the weekend and it was really amazing. Tsui Hark has definitely staged a great comeback vehicle with this movie, after his major failures in Hollywood directing Jean-Claude Van Damme. The movie has plenty of fast-paced action scenes, with the best being the shootout outside between the two apartment buildings. It also marks the use of some great F/X and CGI in a Hong Kong film, which is rare since movies are usually done on the cheap without much in the way of bells and whistles.
The storyline is confusing, though, but so was The Matrix. Anyway, where else are you going to see a pregnant woman defend herself with a gun while giving birth?
The movie was released by Columbia Pictures in North America and you should be able to find the DVD at your local store by the time you read this.
Columbia Pictures Film Producton Asia Presents A Film Workshop Company Limited Production A Tsui Hark Film "Time and Tide" Nicholas Tse Wu Bai Anthony Wong Joventino Couto Remotigue Candy Lo Cathy Chui Music Tommy Wai Written By Koan Hui & Tsui Hark Produced And Directed By Tsui Hark | 
