Saving Mr. Wu

Andy Lau's Mr. Wu gets kidnapped by some criminals and the police will try to find him before the bad guys kills him. Will they find the place where he is being kept at before time runs out? Will he be able to free himself?

The story of "Saving Mr. Wu" is simple enough. Rich guy gets kidnapped, and the police will try to save him, while the criminals try to get the money, and who knows, maybe get rid of him instead of releasing him. The plot is simple enough, but the movie keeps jumping back and forth in time, non-stop, to make things more interesting. It never becomes confusing, though, which is a point in favor of the direction and the plot. Everything that happens is pretty easy to follow and the tension is kept almost thorough the movie.

The look is dark and gritty (a little bit too much), the direction is good and never goes for flash and shocks, and the acting is good, with Lau being as good as ever. However, the movie lacks punch and grit, it goes for the safe, and lacks something to make it stand from the pack. It is easy to watch, and entertaining enough, but the story could have offered way much more.

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.

The bandits are brilliant, the others are ordinary. There are loopholes in the plot from the beginning. But the timeline and the plot are all right. It doesn't look messy and boring.

Saving Mr. Wu is a suspenseful drama inspired by real events. It tells the story of a movie star named Wu who gets kidnapped by criminals pretending to be police officers. The kidnappers then force him to ask a friend to pay a ransom for him or else he would die after twenty-four hours. In order to survive and give another kidnapped man some hope, Wu uses his wits to get to know more about his kidnappers, put himself in their shoes and find a way out. Meanwhile, the police is tracking down the leader of the gang as time is about to run out.

The most interesting element about the movie are the conversations between Wu, the victim, and Zhang, the leader of the kidnappers. The two empathize with each other to a certain degree and develop a certain type of code of honor, based upon honesty and respect. The film also has a quite sinister atmosphere as it mostly takes place at night and in small rooms. An interesting sidenote is that the man who was actually kidnapped in real life has a supporting role in this movie which makes this movie quite authentic.

On the other side, the movie fails to truly stand out and leave a mark despite the interesting characters. The film sometimes loses itself in lengthy and repetitive conversations instead of adding some pace and urgency. The way the story is told doesn't help either since the movie starts with a sequence that actually takes place towards the middle of the film, therefore spoiling half of it and making the whole plot quite predictable.

To keep it short, Saving Mr. Wu isn't a bad movie and worth your attention if you like tense dramas with profound antagonists and protagonists. The story is too predictable though and the filmmaking sometimes tedious. Watching this movie once is an overall entertaining experience but it simply isn't memorable and I wouldn't recommend purchasing it.

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.