Cast Member: Nicholas Tse

A bit of ‘Heat’ mixed with Chan’s own ‘Invisible Target’, ‘Raging Fire’ hits hard in both the action and drama, the much-missed director delivering one of his finest.

The dramatic framework is sturdy enough to make ‘Shaolin’ emotionally engaging, while the Yuen Kwai-orchestrated action is a delightful throwback to the Golden Age.

It will lose most of it’s audience by the 20 minute mark and even those that do manage to stay engaged past that point will likely be sleeping by the time our heroes ‘Fly away into the sunset’.

As the style inevitably overpowers the substance, the facade of a plot begins to break apart and the husk of a film is left.

Lam certainly throws a lot in and the tone does vary but thanks to the confident staging and the unrelenting momentum it all works for the most part.

Dizzying, dazzling, and no doubt divisive, ‘Time and Tide’ has lost none of its verve or kinetic creativity and shows a Hong Kong master at his most creative and impulsive.

It has a fairly optimistic aim of being a comedy ‘Detective Dee’ and while it might not quite achieve a happy union between its components this is an undemanding distraction.