Triangle is hard to explain -- you could call it the Hong Kong action equivalent of Grindhouse -- but it's three directors, not two, and it's all one story, not two separate ones. Directed by Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Johnny To, Triangle is about three friends -- antiques seller Mok (Sun Long Hei), young ne'er-do-well Fai (Louis Koo) and tightly-wound realtor Sam (Simon Yan) who, one night at their local bar, are offered a unique opportunity by a stranger who overhears their discussions of money problems. Help me, he says, and you won't have any problems anymore ... and then he gives them a single antique gold coin, with the implied promise of more. Triangle doesn't open quite that cleanly, though, and it doesn't stay simple; it's a snake's nest of debts, crimes, secrets and duplicity that moves like a rocket, and any fan of Hong Kong Action will adore it.

Hark, Lam and To have all made great Hong Kong action films -- movies that have more spirit than most Hollywood action flicks, and on a far lower budget. And Triangle may feel scattered -- there's a lot of plot points and ideas that fall by the wayside, and some of the characterization is a bit sketchy -- but it never feels schizophrenic. Hark, Lam and To each directed a separate third of the film, each working with a separate set of writers -- but while a connoisseur would probably point out sequences and moments that are very To or Lam-style or Hark-sian, the movie for the most part feels like a coherent whole.
Which is surprising, considering all the elements in the mix beyond our three friends and their possible heist, the movie also includes Fai's debt to some local mobsters, Sam's strained relationship with his wife Ling (Kelly Lin) and her affair with bent cop Wen (Lam Ka Tung), who soon gets a sense of the trio's plans and wants to wet his beak more than just a little. This isn't mentioning all of the character's individual arcs -- some of which are explored, and some of which are just for fun; the second you see the photos suggesting Sam's past as a rally car driver, you sit back in your seat smiling in anticipation of the chase scene to come.

Triangle isn't about pure action, though; Sam, Fai and Mok aren't kineticized supermen, just regular guys. As in most good heist films, Triangle focuses more on the crew and less on the score; When the great whatsit goes missing, Fai quizzes Mok about how well they really know Sam. Mok's matter-of-fact: He doesn't really know Sam. "I don't know you all that well, either; sometimes, I don't even know myself." There's a little bit of clumsy storytelling about the resolution of the love triangle between Sam, Ling and Wen -- apparently, getting bounced off the grill of a four-door sedan at high speed is a cure for marital discord -- but it's nothing like the muddled misogyny of many Hong Kong action films, where women are either set dressing or entirely irrelevant. The leads are for the most part terrific -- Koo's Fai is a bit too broad, but Lam and Lei get to put a few shades onto their characters. And there's more than a few laughs in Triangle, too - from a runaway score to an ecstasy-addled tire salesman with a unique business model. Triangle wouldn't be a good film to show an initiate to Hong Kong action -- To's 2006 Exiled, which also played Cannes, would be a good film for that, actually -- but any fan who can tell Anthony Wong from Andy Lau will find worth watching for more than just the three-directors approach.