Three (2016)

Three (2016)
Chinese Title: 三人行 Translation: Threesome (or “Three Pedestrian Walks”)

Starring: Vicki Zhao Wei, Louis Koo, Wallace Chung Hon-Leung, Lo Hoi-Pang, Eddie Cheung Siu-Fai, Lam Suet, Mimi Kung Chi-Yan, Timmy Hung Tin-Ming, Michael Tse Tin-Wah, Raymond Wong Ho-Yin

Director: Johnnie To

Action Director(s): Johnnie To, Jack Wong, Paco Yick

Three is an interesting mix of police procedural, hospital drama and action thriller. The film is set entirely in a hospital, principally in the recovery ward for neurosurgery patients. One of the leading surgeons is Doctor Tong (Vicki Zhao, of Shaolin Soccer and 14 Blades), who is brilliant at what she does, but is currently suffering from “overwork affects quality.” For example, one of her patients has recently undergone surgery to remove a tumor from his spinal cord, but now may be paralyzed in several of his limbs.

Things change (for the worse) with the arrival of an armed robbery suspect, Shun (Wallace Chung, of Drug War and Monster Hunt). Shun has a bullet lodged in his brain, courtesy of Inspector Ken (Louis Koo, of every Hong Kong film produced in the last decade). Ken would like for nothing more than to remove Shun and his yet-unseen cronies from the gene pool, even though Dr. Tong wants to save him…y’know, the Hippocratic Oath and all that. Ken is willing to stoop to corrupt cop-level trickery in order to get his way, although the alternative is that he himself will be a target for murder in the near future.

Thanks to Dr. Tong calling the number given to her by Shun for his “one phone call,” his partners in crime (including Timmy Hung) find out what hospital he is at. And although Shun is slowly dying of a brain hemorrhage, he still knows how to manipulate the situation until he finds a way to free himself, ending in a huge shootout in the ICU.

Three is a surprisingly short film, running about 87 minutes (including the end credits). The action is reserved for the last ten minutes or so, with the rest of the film alternating between the drama of Dr. Tong dealing with her various brain surgery patients and Inspector Ken trying to out-maneuver Shun (even though the latter is handcuffed to his hospital bed). I don’t know what the correct analogy would be, maybe a extra-long episode of “The Good Doctor” getting hijacked by an episode of ‘24’ in the final reel? In any case, the film derives its suspense from the audience knowing that Shun’s cohorts will come to spring him out—or at least assassinate Ken—but we’re not quite sure when or how.

When it does happen, there is the lingering question of: can it all have been avoided? To an extent, the answer is “yes.” One of the cops, the doofy klutz named Fatty (Lam Suet, of P.T.U. and The Legendary Assassin), does come across suspicious activities which will prove to be part of the villains’ plans, but instead of radioing it in and having the plethora of cops who are stationed at the hospital investigate, he tries to play hero and utterly fails at doing so. And we’re still not quite sure why Dr. Tong calls the number that ultimately alerts Shun’s buddies as to his whereabouts, although I think she thought that Inspector Ken was being a fascist by denying him his one phone call…or thought that she might get his friends’ permission to operate on him if she let him talk to them. 

The film’s calling card is a five-minute gunfight in the ICU, staged by Jack Wong (Warriors of Future), former Jackie Chan stunt team member Paco Yick, and Johnnie To himself. It is a fascinating sequence, filmed almost entirely in near-Matrix slow motion with the camera moving from one side of the ICU to the other in long, generous takes. We see people getting shot, flying through the air, firing their weapons, ducking for cover, etc. as the cops and robbers trade shots. Innocent bystanders erupt in clouds of red powder (a Johnnie To favorite) as they take bullets from both sides. The entire sequence is less about the people firing the weapons and more about the chaos that the gunfight itself creates. More than the upside-down gun fight in the Matrix Revolutions, this is a true successor to the infamous lobby shootout in the original Matrix film. 

The above shootout is such a neat scene that the concluding “showdown” between Ken and Shun is definitely a letdown, from the drama to the scene length to the bad green screen work. I think director To wanted to prove a point about Ken’s change of heart and the Hippocratic Oath winning in the end. However, after seeing so many innocent people get blown away, I’m sure the audience will mainly want to see the bastard go down in a hail of bullets, too.