Taipei. American Inspector John travels to the city on his vacation to try to secure evidence against the drug smuggler Kwang, who feigns to be a respectful businessman. Unexpectedly, he gets all the evidence he needs when Kwang's 12-year old son Raymond who sends Kwang's accounting ledger book to John's hotel room, in the form of his protest against Kwang's fishing of dolphins. Raymond and his mother Joey team up with John, and Joey reveals Raymond is actually John's child, since John had a relationship with her when he was the last time in Taipei. Kwang's criminals chase after the trio, trying to erase any evidence, but in the end, John is able to beat up and arrest Kwang. He then renews his relationship with Joey.
Even though many expected just a routine action flick, George Huang's "Weekend in Taipei" turned out to be a pleasant surprise: fast and dynamic pace with a lot of chase sequences were to be predicted, but humor, likeable characters and numerous original ideas were a welcomed bonus that enriched the movie. Co-written by Luc Besson, "Weekend in Taipei" has two outstanding, delicious moments in the opening act that ignite the interest: 1) dressed in the style of "Breakfast at Tiffany's", Joey goes to a car salesman and demands to drive a Ferrari, takes her high heels and gloves off, and then uses that opportunity to drive so fast through the streets that the salesman is left traumatized. 2) fighting with criminals in a kitchen, undercover agent John suddenly tells them to stop for a minute because he needs a break (!), so he goes to the fridge to drink a bottle of water. In the middle of the great choreography of this fight, one henchman is pourred with cooking oil and set on fire, so he runs off and climbs into the nearby fish aquarium to jump into the water and extinguish the fire. This causes a great creative lift-off, but the rest of the film is rather standard and routine, never managing to reach that playful opening act. The comical moments help expand the character interactions, as Joey, Raymond and John form a new family while they fight and unite against the bad guy. Joey is played by the excellent actress Gwei Lun-mei who delivers a brilliant performance, whereas Taipei is a really photogenic city, especially in this gorgeous cinematography. The storyline tends to become stale in the final third, and the ending feels incomplete, yet the movie is overall a really good fun.
Grade:++
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