Time and Tide (2000 film)

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Time and Tide
DVD Cover
Directed by	Tsui Hark
Produced by	Tsui Hark Nansun Shi
Written by	Koan Hui Tsui Hark
Starring	Nicholas Tse Wu Bai Candy Lo Cathy Tsui Anthony Wong Chau-Sang Couto Remotigue Jr.
Music by	Tommy Wai
Cinematography	Chiu-Lam Ko Herman Yau
Editing by	Marco Mak
Release date(s)	2000
Running time	113 min
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Spanish
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Time and Tide (Simplified Chinese: 顺流逆流;Traditional Chinese: 顺流逆流; Jyutping: shun4liu2ni4liu2; pinyin: Shùnliú nìliú) is a 2000 Hong Kong action film directed by Tsui Hark that won the 2000 Venice Film Festival Future Film Festival Digital Award.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Tyler (Nicholas Tse), gets a lesbian cop, Ah Jo (Cathy Tsui), pregnant after a drunken night. He joins a unlicensed bodyguard service lead by Uncle Ji (Anthony Wong), to make money to give to Ah Jo who wants nothing to do with him. Nearly nine months later Tyler meets up with a butcher named Jack (Wu Bai) and his pregnant wife, Ah Hui (Candy Lo), who helps Tyler, at Ah Hui's father's birthday, prevent the father's assassination. Tyler tries to convince Jack to start a bodyguard service with him, but Jack turns him down.

A group of South American mercenaries, known as the Angels arrive and threaten Jack, who they call Juan, and their second in command Miguel (Couto Remotigue) offers him a chance to rejoin them if he kills his own father-in-law. Instead, Jack kills the leader of the Angels evades Uncle Ji's bodyguards, knocking Tyler out in the process, and then steals a case full of cash from under their noses and escapes from the Angels. Jack drops his wife off at her father's mansion, giving her a key to a train station locker telling her to go there when their child is born. Tyler is interrogated by the cops in connection with Jack, they accuse him of being connected to the killer because he saw him up close. Tyler tells them nothing.

An Hui tries to parole Tyler, but is unable to, though Uncle Ji manages. Tyler thanks An Hui, and Uncle Ji locks him up in a transportation crate for a night before letting him out and getting Tyler to tell him about Jack. Uncle Ji then give Tyler some more money, which Tyler turns around and tries to give to An Hui where he finds out that she has just gone into the hospital to give birth. Tyler heads off after Jack, and breaks into his apartment only to find the Angels and Jack have the place staked out.

A running gun battle ensues between Jack and the Angels as Tyler desperately tries to survive one of them in Jack's apartment. Tyler ends up trapped in the apartment with the gas leaking and only manages to survive the explosion by hiding in the refrigerator on Jack's advise. Jack's tricks and cunning out maneuver the Angels into killing one of their own and distracting them long enough so he and Tyler can escape the rest. Miguel admits defeat and tries to call a truce with Jack, but then calls it off when one of the other Angels spots Jack's wife who arrives on the scene to see her former apartment burning.

The Angels take off after An Hui, along with Tyler who sees this, and they all follow her to the train station. Along the way Tyler steals a taxi with his fake gun, giving his wallet to the driver, who promptly takes it to the cops. The police, still suspicious of Tyler from earlier, place him on the scene of the gun battle and explosion send a SWAT team after him to the station. At the station, Tyler confronts An Hui with his fake gun and takes the money Jack stole from the Angels. An Hui goes into labor and one of the Angels shoots a cop, and an innocent, while trying to shoot Tyler.

Panic ensues, Tyler drags An Hui off to safety and the SWAT team arrives to deal with the situation. As they send in a medic team to retrieve An Hui, the Angels open fire on them. Jack arrives on the scene just before the SWAT team, including Miguel and other disguised Angels, starts a full invasion with tear gas. A battle ensues between Jack and the Angels and the Angels with the SWAT team while Tyler escapes with An Hui. Jack saves the life of the SWAT team lieutenant and surrenders to him.

The remaining now uncovered Angels escape through a tunnel to a stadium full of concert goers. Tyler has to hunker down in the tunnels as An Hui starts to give birth, and Jack convinces the SWAT Lieutenant to let him go after Miguel in the stadium. Jack confronts Miguel in the catwalks above the concert goers and defeats him. Meanwhile, Tyler helps An Hui successfully give birth before the last of the Angels shows up beats Tyler up and threatens the child and gets shot repeatedly by An Hui.

Jack is given a heads start to escape the police and visits with his wife, and Tyler recovers the money before going off to the hospital to see his child.