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5.9/10
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Shot and hospitalized, a cunning robber refuses surgery to avoid police custody. A detective sees through this but is resisted by a dedicated doctor. A tense battle of wills ensues, as the t... Read allShot and hospitalized, a cunning robber refuses surgery to avoid police custody. A detective sees through this but is resisted by a dedicated doctor. A tense battle of wills ensues, as the threat of a rescue by the robber's gang grows.Shot and hospitalized, a cunning robber refuses surgery to avoid police custody. A detective sees through this but is resisted by a dedicated doctor. A tense battle of wills ensues, as the threat of a rescue by the robber's gang grows.
- Awards
- 3 wins & 12 nominations total
Eddie Cheung
- Dr. Fok
- (as Siu-Fai Cheung)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
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Do you like your criminals intelligent? With a penchant for quoting Bertrand Russell and Hippocrates, a well-dressed jewelry thief is shot in the head and taken to hospital where he toys with a surgeon's feelings and plays with a cop's heart in this intricate thriller directed by filmmaker Johnnie To.
Don't be put off by the title. This thriller is strictly drama and exposition heavy. The "Three" in this case is the interplay between the surgeon, cop, and criminal, taking risks to get what they want out of themselves as well as life.
Even though it starts out tame and procedural, this film gives us an insight into each person's motivations and interactions on doing the "right thing." By the film's end you're left with some semblance of hope and humanity until the credits roll. Despite some tired clichés, you're also given another sub-set of three patients (which includes the criminal himself) with various problems that seek resolution. Some of it is funny, some a bit poignant, and even a climatic moment that will undoubtedly take your breath away when it comes to a fight inside the hospital itself by the criminal's henchmen.
Don't be put off by the title. This thriller is strictly drama and exposition heavy. The "Three" in this case is the interplay between the surgeon, cop, and criminal, taking risks to get what they want out of themselves as well as life.
Even though it starts out tame and procedural, this film gives us an insight into each person's motivations and interactions on doing the "right thing." By the film's end you're left with some semblance of hope and humanity until the credits roll. Despite some tired clichés, you're also given another sub-set of three patients (which includes the criminal himself) with various problems that seek resolution. Some of it is funny, some a bit poignant, and even a climatic moment that will undoubtedly take your breath away when it comes to a fight inside the hospital itself by the criminal's henchmen.
Surgeon Wei Zhao hasn't lost her patient, but the surgery has left him paralyzed. She tells him that recovery often takes more time, but he spits at her. Privately she feels it's all on her. Meanwhile, policeman Louis Koo brings in Wallace Chung, a robber who has a bullet lodged in his brain. Occasionally he has seizures. Occasionally, his nose bleeds. Koo has the hospital floor filled with undercover police officers, guarding against an attempt to break Chung out. But Chung keeps grinning. Who has control?
Johnny To's movie is about control, and people with the illusion that they have it. Like others of his movies, he deliberately chooses a confined space, a limited color palette, and large swaths of black to vary the size of his frame, while we wait for the chaos of a desperate fight to break out. Unlike others of his movies, his themes don't creep up on the audience gradually, they are revealed early, and the answers likewise.
Johnny To's movie is about control, and people with the illusion that they have it. Like others of his movies, he deliberately chooses a confined space, a limited color palette, and large swaths of black to vary the size of his frame, while we wait for the chaos of a desperate fight to break out. Unlike others of his movies, his themes don't creep up on the audience gradually, they are revealed early, and the answers likewise.
If there is a director that knows their way around action, is Johnnie To. He would be great to do an action movie out of a video game, with his choreography and dazzling camera work, his bravura shots and his willingness to challenge the viewer's expectations.
However, "Three" is not much more than a curio, a minor work that could have been much more and ends just being an interesting one hour and a half, with a plot flimsy as they come, and so much silliness the viewer will be forgiven if they start giggling in the action sequences.
The story is simple: a thief has been shot and the police takes him to the hospital to take the bullet from his head. It seems one of the police people shot him but they don't want that to come to light. The thief himself doesn't seem to want to be operated on, and believes his friends will save him. At the same time, the doctor that is taking care of him has a little bit of god-complex.
The movie centers on the thief, the police boss and the doctor, all played quite straight by known actors from Hong Kong, and how their relationship evolves while at the hospital. However the plot doesn't offer much and from the very beginning we have the feeling that a showdown will come sooner or later. The characters are paper thin and as simplistic as they come, and the acting, even if acceptable, doesn't elevate the product.
But what makes this movie something more than just your run-of-the- mill action movie is To. From the moment the thief gets to the hospital, the viewer will notice director To is up to his camera tricks. Long shots, lots of actors, amazing camera work, ridiculous slow-motion moments... To directs the movie as if it was the deepest and most amazing action movie ever and it elevates the movie up a couple of levels. It is just amazing. However, it is so flashy that sometimes falls into the silly and it seems more a class in directing action scenes than a proper movie (some of the excuses for an action moment are as lazy as they come, but To won't let anything pass by if it lets him put the camera at a weird angle).
Acceptable, with great action camera work, but with the same complexity as an empty canvas.
However, "Three" is not much more than a curio, a minor work that could have been much more and ends just being an interesting one hour and a half, with a plot flimsy as they come, and so much silliness the viewer will be forgiven if they start giggling in the action sequences.
The story is simple: a thief has been shot and the police takes him to the hospital to take the bullet from his head. It seems one of the police people shot him but they don't want that to come to light. The thief himself doesn't seem to want to be operated on, and believes his friends will save him. At the same time, the doctor that is taking care of him has a little bit of god-complex.
The movie centers on the thief, the police boss and the doctor, all played quite straight by known actors from Hong Kong, and how their relationship evolves while at the hospital. However the plot doesn't offer much and from the very beginning we have the feeling that a showdown will come sooner or later. The characters are paper thin and as simplistic as they come, and the acting, even if acceptable, doesn't elevate the product.
But what makes this movie something more than just your run-of-the- mill action movie is To. From the moment the thief gets to the hospital, the viewer will notice director To is up to his camera tricks. Long shots, lots of actors, amazing camera work, ridiculous slow-motion moments... To directs the movie as if it was the deepest and most amazing action movie ever and it elevates the movie up a couple of levels. It is just amazing. However, it is so flashy that sometimes falls into the silly and it seems more a class in directing action scenes than a proper movie (some of the excuses for an action moment are as lazy as they come, but To won't let anything pass by if it lets him put the camera at a weird angle).
Acceptable, with great action camera work, but with the same complexity as an empty canvas.
The logic of plot setting is too bad. Every character seems to explain clearly, but in fact it is a model play. For example: the bandits quote the classics in a large section, and the people who laugh at nothing assume who is drunk to come up with it. The whole plot is not clear, and the operation lens is a waste of Cass. The final slow-motion gun battle and the soundtrack destroyed the harsh feeling of the climax of the bandit film.
A prisoner is admitted in a hospital and then he plans to escape but one of the police man make fails his plan and one of the lady doctor help with him by mercy and she too get into a problem..
Good thriller but poorly executed..
Must watch thriller..!!
Did you know
- TriviaMarks the twelfth time director Johnnie To and actor Louis Koo collaborate in a director/actor relation.
- How long is Three?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $119,550
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $58,196
- Jun 26, 2016
- Gross worldwide
- $15,121,228
- Runtime
- 1h 28m(88 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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