Three 2016

Decidedly minor stuff for such a major filmmaker, but there's something remarkable about watching a master like Johnnie To reverse-engineer an entire thriller from one idea he just had to try - in this case, a shootout unlike any you've seen before.

Director To fills in the messy back story neatly as he introduces the supporting players, who provide comedy or menace (and sometimes both).

To trusts his actors, and uses them so well that you often forget that we don't know much about them beyond the worried look in their eyes, the smirk on their lips and the arch of their brows.

It's not a career highlight for the director. But a relatively ordinary film from Mr. To packs more genuine entertainment value than what passes for above-average Hollywood action fare these days.

A rollickingly entertaining movie.

70 odd minutes of medical tragedy and cops matching wits with criminals devolves into incongruously balletic gunplay accentuated with CGI blood effects so terrible Sam Peckinpah is doing cocaine in his grave.

The clash of compromised heroes and a cocky, cool-headed criminal mastermind, is clever without being dramatically resonant and more engineered than written. But the direction is a master class in action movie filmmaking.

It's an interesting entry in the catalogue of films through which To is aiming to explore deeper themes, and as such, may come to have historical value. It is, as they say, better than a hole in the head.

A dark tragicomedy set almost entirely in the context of a hospital. [Full review in Spanish]

...reliably entertaining and, as you would expect with a To movie, beautifully shot.

A minor work by a master craftsman, Johnnie To's Three tells a haphazardly scripted and weirdly paced story with intermittent flashes of technical brilliance.

The character arcs at the core of Three are fresh, hinting at insights into the dichotomy of insecurity versus arrogance, and reliance on self versus leaving things up to chance.