PTU

C

Directed by Johnnie To

Johnnie To, bless his heart, is one of the most wildly inconsistent directors working today. His output ranges from the phenomenal to the mediocre, often from one film to the next. Indeed, the extremely disappointing "PTU" was released in the same year as the vastly better "Running on Karma" and only a few years before "Election" and "Triad Election," two groundbreaking and superb To directed films. To's erratic output mystifies me but at least it keeps things interesting.

"PTU" starts promisingly enough as the ubiquitous Lam Suet loses his gun in the middle of a gangland hit. Embarrassed, Lam's character calls upon the help of Sergeant Mike Ho (the equally ubiquitous Simon Yam) of the Police Tactical Unit to help him retrieve his misplaced weapon. The rest of the night is spent searching for Lam Suet's character's piece, a search that intersects with some of the fallout from the aforementioned gangland dispute.

"PTU" suffers from a confusing plot and a complete lack of compelling drama despite the presence of To, many of his long time collaborators, and a number of top flight Hong Kong actors such as Yam, Lam, and Maggie Siu. The script appears to have been either put together at the last moment or perhaps even forgotten altogether and everyone involves appears to be in it for the paycheck. The penultimate intersection of the search for Lam Suet's gun and the simmering gangland violence is predictable and mostly uninteresting, the action lacking any of the visual flair that To is capable of. As I stated previously, To's output boggles my mind insofar as he is capable of making densely layered, dramatic, and complex films like "Election" and "Triad Election" yet is also capable of putting out films that appear slapped together at random, the product of improvisation from To and his buddies. Regardless, To's made enough good films, and a few truly excellent ones, that I'll forgive him even a lazily produced transgression such as "PTU." I'm sure he'll be thrilled to hear I've pardoned him.