Saving Mr. Wu is the second Chinese film that I took the time to watch in 2016. The first was The Mermaid which I made a post about a week or so ago. Wal-Mart always tends to get the newest films from Hong Kong especially if they have to do with fighting or gun violence. Saving Mr. Wu was no exception as the movie is a dead give away to a certain mindless American audience who only care about Chinese cinema when stereotypical gun violence or Martial Arts are the main focus. I'm not one of those people so Mr. Wu didn't sell to me right off the bat but I decided to buy it just because of the cast. I also had a glimmering hope that this film would end the trend of boring films that have been coming out of Hong Kong for the last few years.
The film all star cast includes Andy Lau, Liu Ye, Wu Ruofu, and Wang Qianyuan. Wu Ruofu was actually apart of the real live events that inspired this film and its amazing that he even took on such a role that might bring back those horrible memories. I know I wouldn't have but this film did very well in the box-office so he's not complaining. A top rate actor gets kidnapped by some thugs who use the actor to get a large sum of ransom isn't a mind bending plot but the the film itself can be very frustrating at times.
A lot could have been done with Saving Mr. Wu's plot but director Ding Shin decides to take this simple plot and add many layers that are like a puzzle that the viewer has to put together based on the time each event happened. As a result, you are taken bank and forth in time to be shown why a specific other event happened. The police also get their spotlight when the film is not showing you whats happening with Wu and his kidnappers. The plot presents itself like its a race against time but the overall products felt more like hide and seek turned into just come find me. The timer idea has been done in many other forms of cinema but its did make for an excitement enhancer for a good while until the usefulness began the run out. Mister Wu stopped seeming like he was endanger after awhile..... until the conclusion anyway.
The film is shot in an urgent in the moment type of style. I thought of the hit American show 24 when watching Saving Mr Wu as the angling and shooting are the same. One moment your focused on one thing then the next your watching the camera change focus quickly to show you something else. The camera is like a person who doesn't know what to do with him or herself in a life or death situation. Its just always moving in a vigorous way. Not a smooth clean sort of way but a SPONTANEOUS WILD sort of WAY! Then those shake camera shots will make you dizzy and make your head hurt all at the same time if you look too close. Don't make the same mistake I did. Be a leader not a follower. All of these features make Saving Mr. Wu look stylish and brings out the emotional turmoil of the situation at hand. I just wish that the camera wouldn't move so fast.
Tony Lau needs to stop acting out dead give away roles. He knows this role was not a challenge for him at all. The story needed to call for his character to be tied up and blindfolded because I could have done this role in his sleep. I'm sure he didn't even go to the casting call, or memorized his lines. He just showed up on set ready to film..... I'm only half way joking but he did an amazing job. He character went had several transitions during the film that really made everything exciting and fun. I didn't whether to feel sympathy for his character or be suspicious of him. He barely moved from one spot the whole film until the middle make but his acting made me feel like he was in control of what was happening more so than his kidnappers. The actors as thugs were just that, THUGS. Violent and aggressive however they had least showed some humanity during interactions with Wu. Liu Ye plays the lead cop on the Wu kidnapping case. He's straightforward and brutal in his performance creating fear in the hearts of all who get in his way. I loved his questioning scenes when he was across the table with a suspect. Those scenes as the most intense scenes of the film second to the scene involving Wu. Cold frozen face glares are not looks that I want to get from a police office at any given point and time. Much less in the confines of an investigation room. Lets keep our records clean people. Saving Mister Wu also has great visual action sequences that I didn't care too much about. I'm just not an action packed type of guy unless the plot is engrossing. Others might enjoy it though.
I'm going to put it like this honestly, I didn't like this film at all and I started losing interest as I watched and I hate when this happens. The film didn't bring anything new to the already drying out action genre in Hong Kong. The plot is a little confusing on top of that. I've been there and done that with these types of films so i'm not impressed. I was very happy once I saw the credits start to roll. Not to say that you and others reading this won't like this film. I really hope you do.
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