For lovers of edgy Hong Kong cinema, Triangle is a treat. Not only does it involve three of today's most in-demand Chinese-speaking actors - Simon Yam Tat-wah, Louis Koo Tin-lok and Sun Hong-lei - the movie is also jointly directed by the city's three most successful filmmakers.
But if the star power of Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam Ling-tung and Johnnie To Kei-fung isn't enough, there's the odd touch that intrigued critics when the film premiered at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Triangle takes its cue from the 'exquisite corpse' creative method invented by surrealists in the 1920s. Without agreeing on a general framework, Tsui filmed his segment, passed it to Lam, who added his contribution before To completed the film.
The trio met two years ago and developed a vague idea for Triangle.
'At first I thought about expanding this idea into a television series,' says Tsui. But after a discussion, 'we decided that we might as well make a feature film out of that. I wanted to see what could be achieved if we were to work together with this 30-year friendship between us, and to see how different it would be to, say, if we did something similar back when we first knew each other.'
This fraternalism is reflected in one of the dominant themes of Triangle. The protagonists are three long-time friends: debt-laden salaryman Bo (Yam), cool and cynical antique dealer Mok (Sun), and the sly, voluble cabbie-cum-police informer Fai (Koo).
As the film begins, each is staring into an abyss. Bo's debt is compounded by his wife's affair, Mok's business is collapsing and Fai struggles between recruiting a getaway driver for some thieving friends while feeding information to his real paymaster, a brutal detective (Lam Ka-tung).
