"Triple Tap" Review Written by Scott Sawitz

One of the interesting things about Hong Kong crime films is that occasionally an action film can turn into a drama and it’s perfectly ok. That’s what Triple Tap winds up becoming: a drama masquerading as an action film.

Ken (Louis Koo) has just won a competitive shooting competition over highly talented police officer Jerry(Daniel Wu) when he stumbles upon an armed robbery about to go wrong. Using his shooting skills to kill all the robbers but one, Ken winds up behind bars as he fights for his freedom. All the while he’s being investigated by Jerry as Ken’s personal life as a high profile investment banker isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either. It leads to a drastic and violent showdown between the two as Ken’s world falls apart in front of him as Jerry’s investigation leads to some secrets being revealed that he wishes shouldn’t.

And while Triple Tap looks like it ought to be a violent shoot ‘em up, Derek Yee opts to make this more of a character drama than a violent shoot out like many other Hong Kong crime films. This is a film with a slow build and Yee is more intent on crafting characters than he is about violence. It’s refreshing but there’s one main problem to it: he doesn’t know quite the pace to strike. It leads to problems with finding the right tone, which is sporadic throughout the film.

Early on, during the film’s opening action sequence, Yee and Triple Tap are moving at a fast and relentless pace. And he tries to maintain this sort of pace throughout the film and give it a sense of urgency; as Ken and Jerry move through their lives there’s a fast pace to it that belies the film’s two hour run time. Yee seems to be going for a 90 minute run time and as such at two hours the film feels bloated; there’s plenty of excess fat to cut to make the film fit more effectively.

The film’s excess length also affects its tone as well. Yee is going for a film that is about the walls closing in around Ken that Jerry is erecting. It’s about a detective trying to find out the remnants of a story that
just doesn’t make as much sense as it ought to; there’s a sense of urgency to both men’s story. But the problem is that trying to sustain this with 30 minutes plus of filler leaves for some awkward pacing issues as well as an inability to maintain that tone for consistent periods of time.

Triple Tap ends in a strong way, as well, which really leaves it bloated it the middle. This is a film with a strong beginning and a strong ending; unfortunately there’s too much blubber in the middle to make the finale as effective as it could’ve been.