RUNNING OUT OF TIME (1999)

Running Out of Time (1999)
Directed by: Johnnie To
Written by: Johnnie To
Starring: Andy Lau, Ching Wan Lau, Waise Lee

Available now from Eureka Entertainment

Part One of Two – Running Out of Time 2 (2001) Review

Everyone loves a good ticking clock, after all it’s the rhythm of time… and life. Except of course those who are given a set number of days left to live after their blood tests come in. But as various movies of the past have explored, perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. Maybe having only four weeks left to live, at least in a fictional setting, could push someone to new extremes they never thought were possible. Johnnie To certainly thinks it could get a criminal genius and a master of disguise to put one last plan into action. But the director is also clearly a fan of adding buddy comedy elements and offbeat humour to the storyline. With the clock running down can he maintain a cool and slick tone as the cops try to solve a series of crimes? Or will he be unable to resist throwing in a few gags along the way?

The theme of not having enough time is very appropriate in a tale of bomb threats and narrow escapes. Which is a good place to start because for the most part this is a compelling cat and mouse affair. The film exudes a steely mood thanks to a lot of glass city buildings and cold machinations. Early on Cheung (Andy Lau) is given a terminal cancer diagnosis, and asks the doctor for pain killers that will last him until the end. He’s a difficult character to judge which makes him dangerous, sometimes appearing ruthless and sometimes considerate. His opposite number Inspector Ho (Ching Wan Lau) is an affable detective. He’s good with the pressure of hostage situations, but he’s also handy with clothing measurements and broken light bulbs. After watching Ho’s work (in one of many disguises) Cheung puts a jewellery scheme into action that will tie their fates together.

Of course the real villain of the piece can be spotted a mile away, when Waise Lee shows up sporting a striking bald head. His nickname? Baldy of course. Hong Kong naming traditions aside his million dollar jewel deal isn’t really that central to the story. At least for the most part. It’s simply a way of setting up a series of threads and introducing a MacGuffin. Once the moving parts of Cheung’s ’72 hour game’ are in place it’s more about the different set ups than the bad guy and his henchmen directly. Which is where the fun of the movie is to be had, as Ho and his team struggle to uncover the chameleon’s true motives. Early scenes involving an air shaft and a metal screw are mysterious at first, but the details become clearer once the Inspector has been lured into the chase.

The thriller set pieces that unfold are all well staged, even if I’m not certain that Coffee Mate can really be used to reveal the code on an electronic door lock. The opening robbery gone wrong is stark and brutal, setting up how poorly Ho and his irritating boss Chief Wong (Shiu Hung Hui) work as a team. Varying shutter speeds when characters appear emphasize Cheung’s lack of time, or how Ho is under his surveillance. It’s an interesting touch that also suggests their states of mind. The characteristics of the two leads become clear during a sequence in which Cheung takes a banker hostage, putting Ho’s nerves to the test. Both have strong personalities that lead to clashes during a major heist, with their own ideals about justice and trust coming to the surface.

It’s a Hong Kong drama post The Killer after all, so this kind of birds-of-a-feather camaraderie is to be expected. Beyond the nuts and bolts crime action the film is carried by these two actors, and they have the screen presence to pull it off. Their musings in a shady bar and during a final car journey add a lot of great melancholy to the proceedings. Although it could do without the tactless dialogue about unmarried men being gay. John Woo would have been more subtle, which seems odd to admit. Then again he probably wouldn’t include an ill-advised joke about cancer, which happens a few times after Wong finds Cheung’s medication in Ho’s possession. It’s never enough of a tonal shift to derail the story at all, but it does seem like a far cry from ultra-cool vibes found earlier in the narrative.

A convoluted final switcheroo at a bowling alley on the other hand comes across like something from another genre of film. There are times when you’ve just got to remember the director’s tastes, since this is less ‘Heroic Bloodshed’ and more The Heroic Trio. Cheung might pose as a woman, getting a cheeky kiss from Inspector Ho, but he’s also a tragic character… when the story needs him to be. A doomed romance with a girl he forced himself onto during a bus journey? Well it only lasts about two minutes but it adds as much character depth as any of other tangents presented here. I’m not sure how much of this truly works, but then it’s a film set to a lot of strange ethereal music that mixes in both voice samples and bagpipes. The pieces shouldn’t really fit together, but there’s a kind of irresistible energy to the whole thing.

The results are a fun and compelling thrill ride, despite a few peculiar pit stops along the way. It’s also interesting to see how this kind of thing would evolve when Andy Lau’s Infernal Affairs hit the mainstream a couple of years later. I guess time was also running out for goofball humour too in some ways. This by comparison isn’t ever as deadly serious and is often a breezy affair, without a huge amount of stakes or bleak villainy. Which is appropriate when the big bad at the centre is of course illness. It all gets by on the charm of a charismatic central pair, and while there are a lot of standard genre tropes it’s never totally predictable or trite. The action is brisk but well staged, and it’s fun to see how all the moving pieces come into play. Its all just a game, but its one that’s worth seeing to check out the final score.

Rating:

Further Reading – Running Out of Time 2 (2001) Review

SPECIAL FEATURES – RUNNING OUT OF TIME 1 & 2 BOX SET

• Limited Edition slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju) [2000 copies]
• High Definition Blu-Ray (1080p) presentations of both films, scanned and restored in 2K
• Original lossless Cantonese and Mandarin 5.1 audio options, plus lossless English mono (Running Out of Time) and lossless English 5.1 (Running Out of Time 2)
• Optional English subtitles, newly revised for this release
• Brand new audio commentary tracks on both films by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
• Audio Commentary on Running Out of Time by writers Laurent Cortiaud and Julien Carbon, moderated by Hong Kong Film expert Stefan Hammond
• Archival interviews with screenwriters Julien Carbon and Laurent Courtiaud from 2003 and 2005
• Archival interview with director Johnnie To
• Archival interview with Lau Ching Wan
• Archival interview with composer Raymond Wong
• The Directors’ Overview of Carbon and Courtiaud – archival featurette
• Hong Kong Stories – 52-minute documentary from 2003 by director Yves Montmayeur (Johnnie Got His Gun!) about Hong Kong cinema mythology via Julien Carbon and Laurent Courtiaud’s experience as screenwriters in the HK film industry, working for Wong Kar-wai, Tsui Hark, Daniel Lee and of course Johnnie To
• Making of Running Out of Time 2 – featurette
• Trailers
• Stills Galleries
• A collector’s booklet featuring new writing on both films