Week-end à Taipei

The visuals - Colour, Composition, Editing - Were beyond my expectations for a simple action movie. At times the scenes resemble paintings, and the respect for emphasis and symmetry is endearing to see on the big screen.

The audio work was similarly very thrilling, and the soundtrack, while not melodic or memorable, was very accurate and worked well with the tone of the visuals. The textures of certain parts are very lovingly rough and reminiscent of the sound of car engines and tires scraping the floor, which compliments the central theme of driving well.

If there were one thing that could be so repulsive that it shoots down the rating from a Nine or Ten star, it would wholly be the writing. The dialogue is dry and surface-level, almost child-like, and not for any aesthetic purpose. It is childlike because it struggles to enter the minds of the characters that push the story forward. The way events are structured are almost ridiculous, and the motivations for the antagonist are so flimsy I almost caught myself talking out loud, to the two other people in the cinema. As if a kind of Ironic "Divine Joke" from god itself, the only place where the Child-Like writing ability is appropriate is... The child actor himself. Frankly, the only saving grace for this film is if modern technology could remove the dialogue in it's entirety, perhaps it will even earn itself an extra star!

In summary: To enjoy the film in it's entirety requires an extensive lobotomy.