Johnnie To and his frequent collaborator Ka-Fai Wai (Running on Karma, Mad Detective) send up the medical industry and hospitals in particular in a rather nasty black comedy on how its cheaper for a hospital not to help anyone. When an old man is brought into the hospital after being struck by lightning, no one will help him until they find out he's the guy paying the bills. Disgusted the old man decides to let the one person who cared for him to reform the hospital and with the help of two other doctors who care they try to help people. Mean while the highest management tries very hard to thwart their plans because it cuts into their profits.
For much of the first half this is a very funny, very biting satire of the battle between greed and caring. It's funny in all the wrong ways as the supposed helpful hospital staff goes out of their way not to help anyone ever. They also go out of their way to thwart the efforts of the three crusading doctors. The mayhem that ensues is the sort of thing that only a truly cynical satirist would come up with. Its wonderful. The problem is that as the film goes on the film kind of develops a heart and finds a direction that doesn't work as well as the earlier part of the film. Certainly the large scale car crash set piece in the second half kind of derails the film. Its well done but doesn't seem to belong in the film. The film remains watchable, and had the opening 40 minutes not been so funny the film would have been good across the board with no sense of let down. Actually the film trails off into oddness after the crash ending with a denouncement that made me go WTF even as it amused me. I have a feeling that the directors had half a movie and some points they wanted to make, but no way of getting off the stage (or filling the second act slot). Still the film is worth seeing, especially for those who have a black sense of humor and a cynical view of the medical profession.
For much of the first half this is a very funny, very biting satire of the battle between greed and caring. It's funny in all the wrong ways as the supposed helpful hospital staff goes out of their way not to help anyone ever. They also go out of their way to thwart the efforts of the three crusading doctors. The mayhem that ensues is the sort of thing that only a truly cynical satirist would come up with. Its wonderful. The problem is that as the film goes on the film kind of develops a heart and finds a direction that doesn't work as well as the earlier part of the film. Certainly the large scale car crash set piece in the second half kind of derails the film. Its well done but doesn't seem to belong in the film. The film remains watchable, and had the opening 40 minutes not been so funny the film would have been good across the board with no sense of let down. Actually the film trails off into oddness after the crash ending with a denouncement that made me go WTF even as it amused me. I have a feeling that the directors had half a movie and some points they wanted to make, but no way of getting off the stage (or filling the second act slot). Still the film is worth seeing, especially for those who have a black sense of humor and a cynical view of the medical profession.
