45/18
The main scene of the whole film was shot in Taipei this summer (2023)
Tale
A former DEA agent and a former undercover operative revisit their romance during a fateful weekend in Taipei, unaware of the dangerous consequences of their past.. A building in Xinyi District, the Kelti International Building, represents the Kwang Headquarters but only in the opening scene.
The original decals marking the building's address are shown in a later shot
Weekend in Taipei is a new action thriller directed and partly written by George Huang. In the 90s he directed two previous films, but since then he has retreated more to TV film and series director.DEA agent John Lawlor (Luke Evans) is working on the case, to make the corrupt businessman Kwang (Sung Kang) more public about his wrongdoings, so that he can be arrested.When he goes away for a weekend, he comes into contact with Kwang and his corrupt business again through his former partner Joey (Lun-Mei Gwei).
He gets some help from Luc Besson, who worked on the story of the film and also partly produced it
It seems that everything was predestined by their previous contact so that they can try to end Kwang's wrongdoings together.With this film George Huang seems to be trying to make a comeback as a film director. George Huang's comeback might have been more successful if Luc Besson had helped him a bit more as co-director, because independently he ended up with a somewhat messy film.The story is messy and has some long-winded and repetitive moments .
Furthermore, it is also predictable and seems to lack some critical details
This slows down the pace of the films a bit and it seems as if you are watching a week in Taipei instead of a weekend. For example, a character is kicked out of a car, but in the next scene he suddenly disappears, because he is already fleeing from the other.George Huang knows how to beautifully film the film at times and to beautifully capture the location, but here he unfortunately also has some messy aspects.
Because he is trying to make a comeback as a director, George Huang seems to have lost some experience as a director, to direct his cast members properly
For example, it feels as if you are looking through holiday photos of someone's trip to Taipei, but he is trying to rush through them to show everything quickly. Because of this, some of them sometimes come across as a bit stiff, they seem to just read their lines or they still look into the camera lens.