THREE (Johnnie To). 87 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (June 24). See listing. Rating: NNN
Revered action director Johnnie To (Election, Drug War, Office) changes things up a little with Three, a tightly contained thriller set entirely within the walls of a Hong Kong hospital.
The title refers to a trio of characters whose lives intersect on one especially busy evening: an exhausted neurosurgeon (Zhao Wei), a Triad gangster (Wallace Chung) who’s declining her care despite a bullet freshly fired into his brain during a robbery and a cop (Louis Koo) bent on getting the gangster to roll over on his associates before they strike again.
Director To establishes these conflicts with merciless efficiency, then lets his cinematic pot simmer for far too long, following the antics of secondary characters until it’s time for the blowout finale.
If you’re not looking for anything more than a mild diversion, Three should do just fine. Or you could seek out To’s superior Drug War, which also features Koo and Chung.
