Running Out of Time

A crime film set in Hong Kong. Cheung Wah is a negotiator. The man who talks in hostage situations, and he likes his work. He meets a man during a robbery. The man is professional, calm, and wants something from him: seventy-two hours. A game is set up. The man will carry out a series of jobs over three days and Cheung will try to catch him. The man has a terminal illness. The doctors have given him less than a month. From there the film is a cat-and-mouse story. But both sides run it like entertainment. The man's object is not money. He has an account to settle and it goes back years, to his father's business. Diamonds, a bank, a bus, a hospital; every step is planned and at every step Cheung is one scene late. A closeness forms between them. They ride a bus together, they talk, and neither gives the other away. What the narrative is interested in is not crime but play: its whole idea is a dying man choosing to spend what time he has left entertaining a policeman. The disguise scenes are the best sections and none of them is over-explained. The ending is entirely quiet. The narrative offers no grand resolution and does so deliberately. Johnnie To's sense of tempo is evident. Long silences, sudden movement, little music. Andy Lau was named best actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards for this part. Andy Lau, Lau Ching-Wan, Yoyo Mung and Hui Shiu-Hung are in the cast. Johnnie To directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes Hong Kong crime films and tension built on character. Who it is not for: anyone expecting action; the narrative leans on wit rather than gunfire and some of the schemes are weak as logic.