Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Triple Tap Blu-ray Movie Review

Gun control.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 5, 2011

Note: There’s no way to discuss an important element of Triple Tap’s plot arc without at least hinting at a point which might be a spoiler for some. Though this review will attempt not to state anything explicitly, those who can read between the lines may be able to figure out one of the twists of this film, and so for those people, it might be best to skip to the technical aspects of the review, at least if they don’t want to risk figuring out a primary element of the film.

Martin Scorsese finally won a Best Director Oscar for a film some at least thought wasn’t his best work, The Departed, a remake—really a reinvention—of a Hong Kong actioner that plopped the basic characters of the original Hong Kong film down in revised versions in Boston, adding a typical layer of Scorsese finesse and psychological underpinning. One has to wonder what Scorsese might make (or remake, as the case may be) of Triple Tap, a really interesting albeit at least partially unsuccessful psychological thriller in the guise of an action film that seems like it would be perfect fodder for a Scorsese tinkering project. Triple Tap blends two of director Derek Yee’s pet subjects, sharpshooting and the wild and wooly world of Chinese high finance, and mixes in a dangerous robbery of bearer bonds with a “did he or didn’t he?” subplot with regard to one of the two major characters and whether or not that character was an innocent bystander or actually involved in the robbery. Yee has made his reputation with a series of fairly blistering action films, but Triple Tap by and large eschews the rough and tumble world of Hong Kong actioners for a more subtle exploration of guilt and innocence, and that’s both the film’s crowning achievement as well as perhaps its eventual downfall.

Triple Tap does start out with a proto-action sequence that takes place at sharpshooting contest, where we see police detective Jerry (Daniel Wu) quickly set a course record. Before the champagne corks can pop, however, another guy, high finance high roller Ken (Louis Koo) comes along and does even better, managing to “triple tap” one of the targets with three bullet hits within each other. That sets up the competitive spirit between the two male leads which will recur throughout the film in various ways.

Almost immediately the film does a 180, however, as Ken drives home from the shooting match and seemingly by chance comes upon an armored car robbery in progress. He sees some violent thugs basically executing the armed guards and he kicks into an instinctual reaction, loading his gun and taking out all but one of the bad guys, but not before they also seriously wound a traffic cop who has also happened upon the scene. The one unharmed thug makes a quick getaway, and soon the cops show up to survey a scene with several dead people and one mortally wounded policeman. Ken is taken into custody for having violated Hong Kong’s strict firearms laws, though once he interacts with Jerry at the police station, Jerry has some nagging doubts that Ken’s involvement was all that innocent to begin with.

That sets up the second act of the film, where Ken’s involvement is first legally adjudicated, at least insofar as his shooting the subjects, but perhaps more importantly whether Ken was actually more involved in the theft than he’s letting on. And this is where Triple Tap makes a perhaps fatal error. The escaped thug is reintroduced into the story, first as a possible assailant against Ken, but that relationship almost immediately changes, which casts the second half of the film in an entirely new light. It also deprives the film of the suspense which up until then had been tantalizingly dangled without having been completely resolved.

Triple Tap repeatedly shoots itself in the foot (no pun intended) with a number of dramatic missteps like this. Ken is shown to be a financial wizard who has two gorgeous women in love with him, a nurse who (of course) is attending to the wounded policeman, and his ultra elegant boss at his high finance firm. The film spends a lot of time having Ken ping pong back and forth between these two women, trying to decide which one to make a commitment to. It’s a pointless exercise, especially when the main gist of the film’s raison d’être is whether or not Ken was involved in a major crime.

Despite these issues, Triple Tap is often quite interesting, sometimes in spite of itself. But this is a film which really could have been a total mind-blower, had the central conceit been more artfully handled and the revelation which comes around halfway through the film placed closer to the end for maximum shock value. The film spends too much time on extraneous elements like the two abortive love interests, or psycho-babble Ken and Jerry throw at each other, or (in one really weird element) Jerry’s quasi-Zen master ex-cop (and of course ex-sharpshooter) who seems to be possessed at one point in the film, replete with a weird static hissing noise on the soundtrack and digital manipulation of the image making it look like electric currents are altering his face. Elements like this work completely against the realistic psychological ambience that Yee tries to establish throughout the bulk of the film. If nothing else Triple Tap offers a really intriguing basic foundation for what might become an international or American remake, one that can take the basic idea behind the film and revise its execution to more artfully exploit what is at its core an inventive and compelling conceit. But as it stands, Triple Tap only occasionally hits the target.

Triple Tap Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Triple Tap is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Aside from a couple of grainy stock establishing shots, this is a really sharp and well detailed looking high definition presentation, one which boasts incredible detail and shows what Super 35 is really capable of in the right hands. The digital intermediate has been slightly tweaked at times and so some of the film is filtered ever so slightly to gray-blue or yellow, but overall the film offers suitably rich and robust colors that are lifelike and accurate looking. It's in the fine detail that Triple Tap really shines, though, and everything from one of the thug's pockmarked faces to the light blonde hair on another man's arm are clearly visible even in midrange shots. Depth of field in the great scene on the freeway overpass where the robbery takes place is also astounding. Contrast though occasionally slightly pushed is generally very strong and stable and black levels are excellent. There were no egregious compression artifacts of any kind in this presentation.

Triple Tap Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Triple Tap on Blu-ray offers the listener two versions of the original Cantonese track as well as an English dub. Both are presented in either lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or standard Dolby Digital 2.0. The mix on the Cantonese and English DTS tracks is virtually identical, though once again the English voicework is oddly dissimilar to the original voices of the actors and most will probably opt for the original language track. The first thing most will probably notice is that despite bookending segments that deliver some high voltage sonic activity, the bulk of this film is really surprisingly quiet, consisting of dialogue scenes that more often than not only feature two performers. For that reason, the surround activity is limited to ambient environmental noises, which are handled quite well as far as they go. The opening and closing segments on the other hand offer some really fantastic immersion, with gunshots zinging through the soundfield and some really robust LFE. There are a couple of nice panning effects, too, when Ken drives his souped up sportscar around town. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is very good as well.

Triple Tap Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (HD; 6:51). Despite being presented in 1080p, these are actually window boxed in a 4:3 frame. A lot of these scenes give more background on the financial wheeling and dealing that is a central part of the plot. Several of the sequences are silent.
• Interviews (HD; 57:00). These, too, are windowboxed in a 4:3 frame. Interviews with actors include Louis Koo, Daniel Wu, Charlene Choi, Bingbing Li and Chapman To. A brief segment featuring director Derek Yee rounds out the interviews.
• Original Trailer (HD; 1:02)
• Trailer (HD; 00:50)

Triple Tap Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In the iconic words of super secret agent Maxwell Smart, Derek Yee "missed it by that much" with Triple Tap. The concept here is solid, it's the execution that falls short. The big twist is delivered too explicitly too soon, making the rest of the film feel like an afterthought, and both male leads are so stoic anyway that there's no reason to really feel anything for either of them. The bizarre elements that also populate this film are just plain weird and really add nothing to the film's point or dramatic narrative. The film still looks and sounds magnificent and if you're not too demanding it certainly makes for a worthwhile couple of hours. But this is one where I say "wait for the remake," and hope it's done by someone of Scorsese's caliber.