A DEA agent bent on busting an international heroin kingpin finds an old love and some new surprises in Taiwan in Weekend in Taipei, a diverting new action movie from the Luc Besson factory now playing in Prague cinemas. While the narrative in this one comes right out of the familiar mold, there’s a lot to like here for action fans—at least until a protracted climax that fizzles out under the weight of lengthy backstory and exposition.
That’s a real shame, because Weekend in Taipei has a lot going for it during its first two acts, including terrific location filming on the streets of Taipei, excellent extended action including multiple chases, shootouts, and hand-to-hand combat sequences, and a trio of engaging lead performances. But right when things really get going, the movie takes a 30-minute timeout to tell us about decades-old events in painstaking detail.
Weekend in Taipei stars Luke Evans as DEA Agent John Lawlor, who gets an earful from boss Charlotte Fields (Pernell Walker) after his six-month undercover operation as a chef in a Chicago Chinese restaurant goes belly-up in his introductory scene, a wild kitchen fight that erupts into the dining area and results in the whole place going down in flames.
This action scene, told in flashback by Lawlor as he sits with the lone fish he managed to save from the scene, is expertly choreographed and edited, and sets a high bar for the rest of the movie. Weekend in Taipei may not be a John Wick, but it’s a competent action movie from producer and co-writer Luc Besson, who has churned out multiple films in this mold over the past two decades from Taken to From Paris with Love and Brick Mansions.
Lawlor is told to take a weekend vacation, and where better to go than Taipei, to follow up on a tip that could lead to the arrest of the big baddie he’s long been after. Heroin kingpin Kwang (Sung Kang) lives a life of luxury with wife Joey (Lun-Mei Gwei) and her son Raymond (Wyatt Yang), but cracks are beginning to appear in the facade, which are only exacerbated by Lawlor’s arrival.
There’s a surprise in store for Lawlor, too: Joey just happens to be the girl he had a tryst with during his last trip to Taipei, 15 years prior. No prizes for guessing the identity of 15-year-old Raymond’s father. Luckily for John, both mom and son have had enough of Kwang, and are more than happy to join the cause in taking him down.
Weekend in Taipei follows up its dynamite opening action scene with a pair of chases that take advantage of a red Ferrari 488 Pista Spider and some terrific location photography through the streets of the Taiwanese capital. And an extended hotel shootout around the halfway point is the action highlight of the movie.
But a funny thing happens at the end of act two: right as tensions reach their peak, the film comes to a dead stop for multiple flashbacks as we’re treated to John and Joey’s unnecessarily prolonged backstory. It’s a perplexing decision at the height of what has otherwise been a solid action movie, and our interest slowly drains as the minutes tick away during the climax.
A final confrontation between John and Kwang is inventively set in a cinema hall, but fails to match the quality of the action scenes in the first half of the movie. Cinephiles will undoubtedly find their attention turned to Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers, unfolding on the cinema screen behind the action and reminding us of the type of movie we could be watching instead.
But while Weekend in Taipei can’t compare to that classic, it’s a perfectly serviceable action movie for most of the way; fans of the Fast & Furious franchise, who may be tuning in for series stars Evans and Kang, are especially catered for with a focus on vehicular mayhem.
Weekend in Taipei marks the first feature in 27 years for director George Huang, whose cult classic Hollywood satire Swimming with Sharks feels more relevant than ever following various real-world behind-the-scenes reports. It’s an inauspicious return, but proves that he can still put together a finely-tuned piece of entertainment.
