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Running out of Time - aka "Aau chin" (1999)
Dir: Johnnie To
Cheung (Andy Lau) is a dying man on a mission. Stricken with a cancer he has
been given a maximum of 4 weeks to live and aims to use what time he has left
to weave a complex revenge against crime lord 'Baldy' (Waise Lee, "A Bullet
in the Head"). But first he needs a partner.
Enter Inspector Ho (Ching Wan Lau, "Full Alert") a cool, no nonsense,
workaholic Police Negotiator who catches Cheung's eye after he handles a hostage
situation in a bank.
Satisfied he has found his pawn; Cheung proceeds to move Ho around Hong Kong,
via clever clues and set-ups, to get him closer to the ruthless 'Baldy'.
And as the game becomes more dangerous a close bond grows between Ho and Cheung
as Ho slowly discovers they have a mutual enemy. But is there enough time left
for Cheung to see his plan come to fruition?….
From the start "Running out of Time" comes with a unique credential
in the fact that it's screenplay (later adapted by Nai-Hoi Yau to get a more
Chinese flavour) comes from the pen of two French writers, Julien Carbon and
Laurent Courtiaud, a first for Hong Kong cinema.
Carbon and Courtiaud are longtime fans of Hong Kong movies and their grasp on
the bonding sensibilities of much male character led Asian action cinema is
spot on, as is their enjoyably light touch on the plot's twists and turns.
"Running out of Time", as with a good 95% of Hong Kong cinema where
a male bond is the film's main focus, has a vastly more melodramatic and sentimental
view of the relationship between Ho and Cheung and as such it grows to be an
amazingly strong, if often hurried and unlikely, partnership.
It's full blown male bonding with a romanticized edge that is often hard for
many Western viewers to embrace, but is an essential element to the unique feel
of many Hong Kong thrillers.
This romanticized view is also very much in evidence in a beautifully handled
sub-plot between Cheung and a young woman (the gorgeous Yoyo Mung) he met when
he used her as his cover to evade a police check of the bus he was riding on.
It has no real basis in reality (especially not in our far more careful and,
often sadly justified, cynical society) but it works perfectly for the narrative
and the style the movie has adopted and is the kind of deeply melodramatic ingredient
that we have come to love in Hong Kong films. Even when the coincidence of her
appearances is pushed to fantasy levels, it still works within the doomed romance
dynamic of their relationship. It's also wonderfully acted by Lau and the alluring
(but always accessible) Mung.
And these scenes are beautifully scored by Raymond Wong, who does a wonderful
job throughout, as his music and To's direction fit together perfectly.
Andy Lau is basically the height of sophistication and cool and he makes Cheung
a truly engaging enigma. He's a clever manipulator, a sharp mind, and a ruthless
operative and yet he's also a deeply honourable and even romantic man who may
be resigned to death but is never truly ready for it.
It has been a pleasure to follow Lau's career (from a Western viewpoint) from
the outstandingly popular Action/Comedy actor at the height of the glory days
of the Hong Kong 'Nu-Wave' (roughly '83-'92) in such genuine classics as "A
Moment of Romance" and "God of Gamblers" to his recent,
greater International recognition in critically lauded hits like "Infernal
Affairs" and "Running out of Time" itself, which garnered
him a Best Actor honour at the 2000 HK Film awards.
A wonderfully charismatic, cool, dramatic and likeable actor (with a pretty
damn good singing career on the side) Lau instantly catches the eye and raises
any film a few notches higher than it would otherwise have reached. We can only
be thankful that America has yet to fully latch on to him and wasted his enormous
talent on the often 3rd rate material given to his fellow giants Jet Li and
the legend that is Chow Yun Fat.
But despite the massive talent of Lau this is very much a many handed movie,
with some excellent performances all round. Not least of which is Lau's co-star
Ching Wan Lau who is an absolute joy to watch. Never making Ho anything but
a dedicated and serious Cop, he still manages to give him a deft comic edge
that makes Ho one of the most appealing characters in recent memory. It's a
very astute performance of a very enjoyable character.
There are some nicely comic moments with Ho having to contend with incompetent
colleagues and superiors (his strained relationship with Inspector Wong - a
nice turn by Shiu Hung Hui - is lots of fun) with a simple mess up over a lift
door being a delightfully unusual and yet suitably realistic occurrence that
can delay Ho in doing his job. Again, all these scenes are beautifully played
by Ching Wan Lau.
There are other funny, if broad, comic moments that help give the film it's charm and a scene with Ho in disguise at a bowling alley provides a genuine laugh out loud moment. Thankfully none of the humour is overly wild and never goes down the very 'local'/Chinese comedy that can stick out badly to Western eyes, like many of the very early Stephen Chow films.
Although very much a light hearted (though darker when it needs to be) drama,
the film also has a few strategically placed action scenes that propel the plot
along and add some generally well crafted thrills.
Ho's bank robbery introduction delivers some choice bloodshed (a rare case of
violence appearing in the film actually), Cheung's opening play to meet Ho is
a deftly edited bit of high tech fun and there is a very weird road block/shootout
scene involving both Ho and Cheung that is clever and fun at the same time as
being far fetched and confused. And the finale car crash scene to this sequence
is a masterful exercise in heightened reality that makes for a delightfully
unusual moment.
Johnnie To is greatly aided in his directorial style by the crisp Cinematography
of Siu-keung Cheng (they would team-up again to even greater visual heights
in To's excellent "Fulltime Killer",
again with Andy Lau) and the beauty and dynamic of Hong Kong at night is captured
perfectly by his astute eye.
As with many modern Hong Kong thrillers the film just oozes that high tech,
sophisticated style that makes them more acceptable to Western (certainly American)
audiences, more so than the sometimes more ragged (but just as dynamic and powerful),
and far more comic book look, of many of the early 80's 'Heroic Bloodshed' action
films.
Overall "Running out of Time" brings back some of those great memories
of that glorious 'Nu-Wave' period, especially where the characters are concerned,
and shows that in the last 4/5 years Hong Kong cinema has started to successfully
crawl back some of the ground lost during the stale (and sometimes downright
tragic, see "Return of the God of Gamblers" for a perfect example)
period between '93 and '99.
It's a wonderfully made, wonderfully acted piece of glossy, entertaining cinema
that happily retains that essential (and oh so welcome) Hong Kong romanticism.
Highly recommended.
'Tai Seng Entertainment UK' has picked up "Running out of Time"
for it's UK debut (release date 19th September 2005) and has done a great
job in presenting the movie.
A lovely, sharp and vivid anamorphic transfer captures the movie's excellent
Cinematography perfectly and the Cantonese 5:1 audio mix is nice and clean (if
rather lacking in surround elements).
Also included are a stereo Cantonese mix, a stereo Mandarin dub and an equally
best avoided mono English dub.
The subtitle options are Chinese and English, and generally the English subs
are very good, although some of the spelling is off ('Interpol' becomes Interlope
on two occasions!) and they stay on during a brief English language scene, though
don't translate accurately what's being said. But they are easy to read and
never intrusive.
The extras on offer (presented via some very slick menus) compliment the film
nicely.
First we have an audio commentary with Carbon and Courtiaud that offers up some
interesting thoughts on the film and their writing.
Next up is an extended Q&A with the two writers with that brings up some
interesting details on the early drafts of the screenplay.
A featurette on Carbon and Courtiaud (which would seem to be scenes taken from
the French 2003 documentary short "Hong Kong Stories") features thoughts
on the writers from Directors Daniel Lee ("Black Mask"), Kar
Wai Wong ("Days of Being Wild") and the legendary wellspring
of Hong Kong 'Nu-Wave' Tsui Hark ("Zu Warriors") as well as
action actress Michelle Yeoh.
Rounding off the extras are the usual bios, theatrical trailer and 'other release'
trailers.
All in all a solid presentation of an excellent movie.