The reputation of Hong Kong director Johnnie To rests on such stylish gangster films as Election (2005), a dark study of the contest for the leadership of a long-established triad. Sparrow, which has taken three years to reach this country, is a beautifully made, deliberately puzzling thriller in which a team of Hong Kong pickpockets (led by the handsome Simon Yam) are taken for a painful ride by a beautiful femme fatale working for an ageing big-time criminal. It's a film of considerable style but little substance. A sparrow apparently is a harbinger of bad luck as well as Chinese underworld slang for pickpocket.