Saving Mr. Wu

The kidnapping of prominent TV star Wu Ruofu outside a bar in Beijing's Sanlitun district may not have made much headlines here in Singapore, but it was big news back in the Mainland, not least because his kidnappers had identified themselves as police officers prior to snatching him but also because it raised alarm about how safe the capital was and led to a consequent boom in the private security business. It isn't surprising therefore that the real-life story would become the subject of a movie in itself, one which writer-director Ding Sheng approaches with the utmost commitment to authenticity.

Yes, despite casting Andy Lau as Ruofu, Ding strips all vanity off the Hong Kong superstar by putting him in handcuffs and binding him up in heavy iron chains most of the time. To top it off, a pivotal moment at the end has Andy Lau strangled by his kidnappers using a thick red plastic-insulated wire around his neck. It is harrowing to watch all right, and you can trust us when we say that there is no doubt watching it unfold that it was re-enacted for real. Notwithstanding, the rest of Lau's restrained performance – and we mean this both physically as well as metaphorically – is just as compelling, especially how he balances humility, dignity, selflessness and raw fear in equal measure.

As tempting as it may be to call this Andy Lau's show, he is surprisingly upstaged by Mainland actor Wang Qianyuan, who plays the kidnapper Zhang Hua. Those familiar with the case itself will know that Zhang Hua was no less than the mastermind of Ruofu's kidnap, and it was he who had rounded up a crew in search of their latest victim barely two weeks after he had similarly held the younger brother of a gang boss for ransom and assassinated the former after collecting the money. How much of a resemblance to the actual criminal of the same name is anybody's guess, but Wang is mesmerising to watch as the cold- blooded criminal who had run rings around the detectives in charge of the case and who displays no sign of compunction up till the very end.

The actor-character transformation is even more remarkable considering how this is the first time that Wang is playing the villain, whose television personas are diametrically different from his role here. Wang more than holds his own with Lau, especially at the start where both are testing each other's limits while trying to achieve their own objectives – one to stay alive, and the other to keep the former alive just long enough to get his demands. Combining a keen cunning demeanour with disarming charm, Wang keeps his audience on edge guessing just what his unpredictable and increasingly unhinged character has up his sleeves. The way Ding structures his narrative also inevitably places the focus less on Lau than on Wang, which unfolds as a race against time to figure out where Ruofu is held before he is executed by Zhang Hua's henchmen.

Though Ruofu's kidnapping right after he leaves a nightclub at the end of a business meeting with a potential film investor kicks off the movie, Ding uses Zhang Hua's questioning by lead investigators Xing Feng (Liu Ye) and Cao Gang (Wu Ruofu) as a frame to fill in the events that follow immediately after Ruofu is taken. The framing does make for an interesting juxtaposition, such that Ruofu's physical predicament is mirrored against that of Zhang Hua's, who is strapped tightly into a chair with iron rails around his body and feet chained to the floor in the police's interrogation room. It is Zhang who fills in both the police – and us – with what went down in the 18 hours Ruofu is taken, and from whose point of view the story develops.

Adopting a non-linear narrative may be slightly disorientating at the start, but Ding's choice not to simply follow chronology actually proves an inspired one to lend the story greater heft. Indeed, while Ruofu's kidnap was more spontaneous than premeditated, what isn't coincidental is his kidnapper's felonious behavior, and Ding goes even further back than the night of Ruofu's kidnapping to shed light on just who both Ruofu and the police are up against. Assuming editorial control as well, Ding keeps the pacing tight and gripping even as he goes back and forth between different time periods to fill in the chronological gaps.

Speaking of tension, those looking for the sort of bombastic action from the typical Hong Kong contemporary action flick should be warned that there is hardly any here; instead, much of that tension comes from a careful calibration of the dynamic between Ruofu and his kidnappers as well as that between Zhang Hao and the police, and which Ding manages to sustain pretty much from start to finish. Ding also keeps the mood taut by filming the proceedings on hand-held cameras to bring his viewer up close with the actors, lending the whole picture a gritty and intimate feel especially since many of the scenes take place within closed quarters.

Coming off 'Police Story 2013', 'Saving Mr Wu' finds Ding Sheng at his creative best, fusing the instincts he had starting honing from his debut 'The Underdog Knight' with a fascinating real-life story to create a riveting crime thriller. We won't speak for those familiar with the subject matter, but those with little knowledge of the ins and outs of the case will find this as engrossing an introduction as any, brought to vivid life by an assured directorial hand and outstanding performances from Andy Lau and Wang Qianyuan. In fact, we dare say it is probably one of the best Mainland films you'll see this year, one that by both theme and genre also makes for a welcome change of pace from the usual crop of romance or war epics that we are frankly just exhausted of.

(2015) Saving Mr Wu/ Jie jiu Wu xian sheng (In Chinese with English subtitles) THRILLER

Co-written, edited, chief producer (whatever that means) and directed by Sheng Ding. Based on actual events involving a Chinese movie star Mr. Wu (Andy Lau), being kidnapped and then ransomed by four criminals posed as police officers for a sum of money, within a spawn of 20 hours. The person in charge of Mr. Wu's recovery is Chief Xing (Liu Ye) with viewers get to see how some of the police procedures work, but also the emotional turmoil as well. Despite the running time of an hour and 46 minutes, the movie drags.

I regard this film is somewhat a remake or tribute to Akira Kurosawa's Tengoku to Jigoku (Heaven and Hell) - a detective story of a kidnap that depicts the detectives, the kidnapper and the kidnapped (though for the former it is the father of the kidnapped that is the main character).

With both being shot in semi-documentary styles (the film is actually based on a true story in China) and focused on the investigation procedure, it is the kidnapper in both that steal the show. Ruthless, relentless and with hatred for the society, both are ready to do anything for money. Lau, who played the victim in the present film, even with good acting and a script tailored-made for him, actually overshadowed by the kidnapper.

With the case slowly reviewed, the evils of present-day 21st century China are also reviewed. The use of apple as the main source /key for solving the case is a nice human touch to a very depressing and inhumanistic story and make the key message more in line with the Chinese official (i.e. criminal listen you rip what you sow) or the cause and effect Buddhist philosophy.

All in all, despite its conventional tone, it is a good film with a good acting, good script and good cinematography all round and a positive message for the folks of a socialist society that turn more materialistic and capitalistic day by day.

In recent years, the movies produced from China have become more and more ridiculous and shallow, the screenplays were either ridiculous or stupid, the acting of all the characters were more pretentious and exaggerated. Lot of profiting Chinese on-line media companies also jumped on the money train to produce more and more superfluous and hollow films targeting the teenagers or low level TV viewers. Strong influence from Korea also polluted the self-respect and self-dignified of the younger generations in China, more young men looked more feminine and more look-alike the Korean young men, with forehead fully covered; young female actors(if we could tolerate their poor acting talent)look more and more like women in escort business. Pointless wedding scenes became the main course, love scenes, lovers' quarrels or misunderstanding scenes became the main scenarios and the plots. Shooting locations must be either Italy or France with lot of unrealistic story lines portrayed Chinese young men, especially young women living abroad. More and more scenes of passenger airplanes taking off or landing, so the airport terminal departure and arrival scenes also became part of these movies. Then night time party scenes also a must have, scenes of the Chinese young and old characters, male or female binged imported Italian or French wines also became must-have scene. Every female characters, heroines or supporting all looked like models, wearing expensive clothes, driving expensive imported foreign cars.....on and on, endless repeated again and again formulaic scenes, plots and scenarios, same crap, different titles. Then another genre mainly targeting the shallow Chinese viewers I.Q. and logic also polluted the Chinese copycatting movie industries: 99.999% pure ridiculous, clueless, pointless, stupid farce-like movies started to pest the Chinese screens. They completely misunderstood the definitions of "Comedy", they thought by throwing in all the ridiculous scenarios and plots, by allowing the actors doing the stupid exaggerated acting were the indispensable and must-have in their so-called "Comedy". And these above-mentioned stuff have become the total ingredients of the Chinese movie and TV industries.

Another part of the Chinese media industries also become the mouthpiece of the totalitarian Chinese Communist Party. They rewrote the historical record and document, invented so many unorthodox and untrue incidents to praise and kiss the Party, changed the Chinese history to brain wash their younger generations, injected falsified and blind patriotism, national hatred to the Japanese and dislike of the totaled Nationalist Party.

While these are the factual outcome of 95% of the Chinese movie and TV productions. There almost nothing worth watching enough, the tiny 5% portion of them are trying their best to do the good and doing their might to maintain the sanity of the Chinese. And "Saving Mr. Wu" is rightly among the small 5% rare species.

This movie at large is good and serious, but the randomly edited and patched time sequence of the story line, scenarios and the plots suffered huge set back. The formulaic but randomly linked and arranged time frames were like a drunken frog jumping around with no logical sequence.

The leader of the kidnappers also fell into the formulaic type of a farce-like comedian character. By acted and performed like that kind of criminal attitude, there was no way that he could become an Alpha dog but more like a typical American stand-up comedian with gifted and crafty wisecracking dialog. A criminal imprisoned for 10 years with teeth so clinically white was a terrible overlook by the actor and the production part.

Luckily, Andy Lau and those guys who played the police force have not been ruined by the partly unconvincing formula, they were serious, and Andy Lau was more serious in his sincere and complete believable performance as the victim of the kidnap case.

But the self-thought-to-be-correct and self-righteous directing and the editing had jeopardized this film to reach being a premium drama. The poorly assembled time sequence, the hourly patched scenes, the dragging stupid last rescue plan and the unbelievably ridiculous last seconds rescue were simply naively stupid and shallow.

Those overly dramatized scenes, the randomly poor patched jump-around hour this hour that sequences, and the unconvincingly exaggerated comedian-like acting and the overdone smart dialog of the criminal leader inevitably downgraded this film to a just OK thriller. And the curly hairdo of the criminal leader, then suddenly became regular straight prison shortcut hairstyle was another careless poof of this at least still quite watchable 90% serious Chinese film.

This is a 6.5 for me, A gang of kidnappers abduct a movie star for ransom. This isn't an unusual plot. It's not an awful film but it's missing something. I think that it might be a lack of character development. I never really got a feel for some of the characters and it kept me from investing much into what was going on. If I were to pick the best thing about this it would have to be the villain. The actor playing the villain did a great job playing the callus criminal. He totally had me hating him.

So, while I enjoyed the film, it was a bit flat. Glad I checked it out.