Three (2016) User Reviews

Cool Concept With A Poorly Written And Melodramatic Execution

[TheFilmGuy1 · 5/10 · 28 June 2016]

A great and thrilling concept stuffed into a melodramatic package.

Johnnie To is a name that most people associate with great films, but I on the other hand can't quite 100% agree. I always find his films, while action packed, often poorly written and filled with melodrama. This film is no different.

A big gripe was the writing. There's this doctor character thrown whose storyline is quite prominent. It doesn't have much of a payoff, so it's strong presence seems odd. Then there's the silly moments. A paralyzed man falling down the stairs and being able to walk, a gun jamming not once but numerous times over and over just for the sake of drama. Even someone cocking a gun in the middle of emptying a clip. C'mon Johnnie, you make films with guns all the time! Learn how they work!

The main action set piece is a disappointment too. It's a long, one take (aided by trick editing and CGI) pf a gunfight. In theory it sounds amazing, and it does touch on greatness, but there's two big flaws in it. The musical choice is terrible. An unfitting song with unfitting lyrics. The 2nd flaw is that everyone looks like they're doing that "pretend slowmo run" that people do when they're fooling around. It's terribly laughable and sucks the drama out of the scene completely.

I wanted to be thrilled by this, but by the lackluster ending I was left disappointed.

Everybody looks pissed off

[toboer · 5/10 · 30 October 2019]

A very interesting concept of setting a cop thriller entirely within a hospital, with some very well choreographed sequences (except I don't think people fly up in the air when they get shot). Therefore it's a shame the characters are poorly written and acted.

Of the three main characters, the cop and the doctor look permanently pissed off and are one-dimensional. The doctor is obviously psychologically unstable and unfit to practice, so I don't know why she's working in a hospital. The criminal is actually the most interesting and likeable. The minor supporting characters are actually better done.

Slow, we in a hospital

[tenshi_ippikiookami · 6/10 · 20 December 2016]

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.

More Jonny To cop action.

[Mozjoukine · 28 June 2016]

Watching the new Johnny To films has become a duty. It looks like WHERE A GOOD MAN GOES and MAD DETECTIVE are going to be the best we get out of him but his new film THREE intrigues.

For a movie enthusiast it can be seen as the heir to the great Hong Kong kung fu films. It's a cop movie set in the emergency ward of Victoria Hospital. After some gory close ups of drilling into skulls in the operating room, we move into the plot with shot criminal Wallace Chung being wheeled into Emergency handcuffed to his gurney.

Dr. Vickie Wei Zhao (SHAOLIN SOCCER, RED CLIFF)is already under fire from a patient after her operation left him paralyzed. He spits on her and calls her "Rubbish Doctor" and her success rate doesn't improve. She's at odds with To regular, stony faced police officer Louis Koo, who she feels is treating Chung inhumanely. Doctor and cop get into conflict over Chung's demand for the 'phone call that he is entitled too, with the patient quoting The Hippocratic Oath to her (in English) - good scene.

While this is happening, the crazy in the next bed gets away from his restraints complaining about his treatment, cop Lam Suet is trying to find the conspirator-suit who whistles classical music and the key to his hand cuffs is missing.

Finale is a large scale shoot out in slow motion - impressive moment when the moving camera comes through the ward doors and the action switches to normal speed and the sound of gunfire and panic.

The ending strips away most of the undertaking's dignity but by then there's been enough kinetic action to more than satisfy the target audience.

Good thriller..!!

[kamalbeeee · 7/10 · 28 May 2021]

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..!!

The Sleek Bleak Clique

[ThurstonHunger · 6/10 · 3 September 2019]

People say going to the hospital is a risk in itself, perhaps in not quite the high style and carnage as on display here.

The film lightly pits the Hippocratic oath vs hypocritical cops, toss in a charismatic villain and a few cc's of humor to help temporarily release the tension, but you know what's coming in even if you are not an action film aficionado.

I am not one but this film killed time in a tick-tock fashion. Korea may outdo the US on violence and weird worship of homicidal psychopaths, that's okay by me.

The synopsis is wrong

[keithomusic · 4/10 · 2 January 2022]

If you have read any synopsis of this movie. You are led to believe that you will see the cops shoot the criminal, you don't. This is not really about a shootout in the hospital, when it is really about the female doctor who is made to look a bit incompetent, and from what I can tell is deemed to be incompetent because she is a woman. The cop in charge is shady and has set the criminal up, we have no idea whether the criminal deserves it or not because we never saw what happened before they brought him to the hospital. Then the criminal is constantly quoting western literature and philosophy and we have no idea why. Then there is the shootout which was filmed in slow motion from almost every angle. And the ending has no impact and is pointless. This movie is almost as boring as watching grass grow. Give it a pass even if you are a fan of Zhao Wei or. Louis Koo.

A trio with ulterior motives

[magnoliacream · 7/10 · 2 March 2022]

Cornered gang leader Shun (Wallace Chung) manages to get himself shot by the police so he can bide his time in a hospital until his cohorts are able to rescue him. Dr. Tong Qian (Zhao Wei) tries to convince him to have the bullet in his head removed. Chief Inspector Ken Chan (Louis Koo) tries to get information from him about his gang members, hoping to capture all of them.

Being squeamish about violence, I try to avoid movies like this; I just watched this for Wallace. But I found the interplay among the three protagonists interesting enough to hang on. It helped that the movie is well directed and acted.

Mishandled

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 19 January 2019]

THREE is another disappointment from Hong Kong director Johnnie To, an example of style over substance that offers a new kind of story but in a way which is implausible to most viewers. The setting is a hospital, but if you're hoping for a HARD-BOILED style action flick you'll be disappointed; there's only one shoot-out right at the climax and even that's mishandled, although admittedly shot in a novel format. For the most part this is a twisty-turny enterprise charting mixing sub-plots between a handful of lead characters: Lam Suit's cop on the hunt for a traitor; Louis Koo's handling of an injured patient and criminal; Zhao Wei's doctor and her Hippocratic oath. I'm a big fan of Wei and Koo in particular but they're underutilised here as the story feels dragged out and regrettable. The ending, which should have been exciting, becomes reliant on awful CGI with that high-rise stunt in particular looking ridiculously poor.

The logic of plot setting is too bad.

[yoggwork · 4/10 · 19 February 2019]

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 doctor, a cop, and a criminal interact with each other.

[csfarmer · 8/10 · 31 August 2017]

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.

Boring and non sense

[zrado · 2/10 · 23 December 2021]

This movie might be one of the worst Johnny To ''s movie. The main actor and actress just kept arguing. The last scene was completely non sense and unwatchable. Such a disappointment.