[yasr_overall_rating]
Mr. Wu, a Hong Kong movie star, is kidnapped by four unpredictable criminals disguised as police officers. Will he get rescued?
I hate when a film is marketed as something it is not. “Saving Mr. Wu” is being touted as crackling, and explosive, when in reality, it is actually a psychological thriller. This is very misleading because when a movie is being advertised to the public, it will obviously appeal to a certain demographic, but when those very people see said film, their disappointment will be heard loud and clear. While “Saving Mr. Wu” has the occasional chase, both on foot and by car, it is by no means an action extravaganza, and that is my first critique.
I have a great love for Asian cinema, action in particular, because the stuntmen and women associated with those productions, work differently from the stunt people here in the U.S. In China and Korea, many stunt people perform dangerous and at times, life-threatening feats that would not be executed anywhere else (see any of Jackie Chan’s earlier movies) and it is quite obvious that they pour everything into making the scene work perfectly. This is what I thought I was going to see, based on the film’s marketing and especially since it stars Andy Lau, a Hong Kong action star since the mid-1980s, who has appeared in such classics as “Infernal Affairs,” “Infernal Affairs 3” and “House of Flying Daggers.” Unfortunately, Mr. Lau gets to do nothing more except sit on a bed for the majority of the movie, while waxing poetically to his kidnappers about doing the right thing.
Playing a famous Hong Kong movie star known only as Mr. Wu, while on vacation in Beijing, he is kidnapped by ruthless crime lord Zhang Hua (Wang Qianyuan) and his men and taken to a safe house in the country where they demand a ransom. When Zhang becomes careless while visiting the city, the police apprehend him and when he informs them that if his men don’t hear from him by a certain time they will kill Mr. Wu, the police must try and track down Zhang’s earlier movements and locate the safe house, before it is too late.
“Saving Mr. Wu” tries to get psychological about the differences between good and bad and while Mr. Lau certainly delivers an earnest performance as a kidnapped film star, used to playing police officers in his movies, his concerted efforts to try and understand the criminals who are holding him hostage, not just from a personal standpoint, but also from the actor inside him, while a very intriguing premise, falls flat as every time he starts up a conversation with them, the film cuts back to the police officers, severing what semblance of a good idea was initially put in place. Some of the secondary police officers, who serve no other purpose in the movie than to look busy, are given backstories than go absolutely nowhere and for some, are never revisited again.
The idea of an action film star being kidnapped and then him trying to understand and reason with the kidnappers, interjecting some of his movie personas as he goes along, is a terrific idea and one I would love to see executed flawlessly, and while it is usually the Americans who remake Asian films, in this instance, watching an aging movie star like Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Sylvester Stallone play that part, would make for a far more interesting movie-going experience.
Available on Blu-ray & DVD today
