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Review
by Kozo: |
When
we last left director Law Chi-Leung, he had just finished
slumming with the EEG-funded Isabella Leong vehicle
Bug Me Not. The film's genre - candy-colored
kiddie fare - seemed a bit odd for Law, a director
previously known for edgy commercial cinema like the
entertaining Double Tap and the excellent,
if overwrought Koma. Previous to release, Bug
Me Not seemed to be an odd fit for Law, and after
release, the movie was revealed to be the cinema nightmare
that we all expected it to be. Luckily, Bug Me
Not star Isabella Leong has since become arguably
Hong Kong's most promising young actress, mostly due
to her excellent performance in last year's Isabella.
Law Chi-Leung has seemingly disappeared from the radar
- that is, until now, with the release of his new
thriller Kidnap. Is this Law's comeback, or
have singing animated bugs ruined him forever?
On paper, Kidnap is
a slam dunk: the film has Law Chi-Leung returning
to his best genre, with two excellent actresses, Karena
Lam and Rene Liu, in the leads. Those factors alone
should make Kidnap must-see Hong Kong Cinema
- and it pretty much is, though one must also factor
in 2007's disturbing lack of cinema quality. This
has been a bad year for Hong Kong movies, and Kidnap's
gripping pace, good performances, and commercial polish
make it a seeming oasis in a sea of unfortunate mediocrity.
Sadly, the film also possesses many missed opportunities,
including a screenplay that isn't fully developed,
some uninteresting subplots, and a CG-enhanced climax
that's more laughable than anything else. Add up all
the above and you have a watchable ride that pretty
much goes nowhere. Basically, there's good and there's
bad, and neither side really outweighs the other.
If you view a glass as half-full, then Kidnap could be just your thing.
Kidnap opens
quickly, in the midst of a tense kidnapping case presided
over by Inspector Ho Yuen-Chun (Rene Liu). The brother
of dance instructor Lam Hiu-Yeung (Karena Lam) has
been kidnapped, and the case goes spectacularly awry
despite the cops following the kidnapping playbook
to the letter. Cut to three years later, and Lam has
seemingly moved on from her personal loss, and has
even befriended one of the cops from the case, Chi
(Eddie Cheung). However, Lam's husband needs an expensive
operation, and Lam plots to get the money through,
fittingly enough, a kidnap ransom - only this time
Lam is the one doing the kidnapping. Her target is
the son of wealthy businessman Mr. Wang (Guo Tao of Crazy Stone), and she seems to be in complete
control, with every part of her plan precisely laid
out. Lam even seems to relish the fact that her opponent
will be Inspector Ho Yuen-Chun, who approaches the
case with her trademark professionalism. With the
pieces and players in place, the game of cat and mouse
beings. Will Lam be able to extract the ransom and
gain revenge on Ho Yuen-Chun for failing her three
years ago when she was the victim and not the perpetrator?
The acting from the two leads
is probably Kidnap's biggest immediate asset.
Karena Lam delivers a measured performance, giving
her character an assured confidence that starts to
crack as her crime begins to unravel. The first wrench
in the works in an obvious twist, but after that the
film takes on an air of unpredictability that proves
gripping. Not only are we not sure what will happen,
but we're not sure what Lam Hiu-Yeung is truly capable
of. The character could be just a kidnapper, or she
could be worse, and Lam's performance is canny enough
to raise doubt and fear in the audience. Matching
Lam is Rene Liu, who adds a similar layer of unpredictability
to her character, and is pitch-perfect in conveying
the character's growing desperation. As the case begins
to fall to pieces, Ho Yuen-Chun's stake in the kidnapping
grows personal, and the cat and mouse game that develops
proves exciting and even emotional. Law Chi-Leung
keeps the pace constant, such that the film continues
to hold the audience's attention for a good solid
hour.
However, after that
hour, the house of cards that Law has built begins
to grow shaky. The plot, initially solid in detail
and execution, starts to wear thin. Red herrings and
plot holes appear, and characters begin acting in
sometimes idiotic ways. Lam has the best material
to work with, as her character arc at least remains
consistent. Liu, however, is saddled with an unconvincing
subplot involving her ex-husband (Julian Cheung).
Their relationship is decently explained, but their
supposed reconciliation seems to happen offscreen,
and when we're stuck on the characters' personal lives,
the film noticeably sags. Liu also has the tougher
character arc, which the filmmakers develop in perhaps
too broad a manner. The key to Liu's character is
how far she'll go to settle the kidnap case, but her
flirtation with amorality isn't gradually developed.
As a result, she appears to become too unstable too
early, such that her later, more extreme actions don't
carry the weight that they should.
The themes of "how
far would you go" are the saving grace and the
ultimate undoing of Kidnap. Lam and Liu's characters
find themselves in tough positions, and their eventual
actions hint at themes much darker than one would
expect from a commercial film. It's just a hint, however,
and the film ultimately sidesteps the thematic complexity
that it proffers. Based on the themes present, there
should be a purpose or a symmetry to Kidnap that brings everything full circle. However, everything
simply ties up with a narrative resolution, meaning
that what we get is just the end of the story. On
one level, getting that much is just fine, but this
story is full of holes, and it ultimately doesn't
justify all the paces it puts its characters through.
What's left is a film that simply starts, continues
and ends, and doesn't answer its most pressing thematic
questions. This isn't really a story, it's a ride.
That said, the ride
really isn't that bad. In fact, it's a pretty entertaining
one, albeit not to the depth that one might hope for.
Law Chi-Leung keeps his eye on the ball most of the
time, and delivers a relatively tight thriller that
delivers on its superficial promises. The film keeps
a fairly high tension level, and the music from Tommy
Wai is effective - that is, when it's not bombastic
or ripping off Ennio Morricone's classic theme from
The Untouchables. Sadly, Wai's score does the
latter quite noticeably, which could hurt the experience
of anyone who recognizes the stolen riff. Further
hurting the cinema experience is the film's CG-assisted
climax, which not only looks terrible, but resolves
everything in too convenient and arbitrary a manner.
But, analyzing the film this much may be playing into
the "glass half empty" view of things. If
one considers everything, including the good performances,
solid tension, and the fact that 2007 Hong Kong movies
have largely been crap AND Law Chi-Leung's last film
was in a photo finish for "Worst Film of 2005",
then Kidnap is pretty okay. The glass is half-full
over here. (Kozo 2007) |
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