Weekend in Taipei (2024) Review: Luc Besson-Produced Action Film Starts Well But Quickly Runs Out of Steam

Weekend in Taipei marks the first time George Huang directed an action movie and his third feature in twenty-seven years since the under-the-radar romantic comedy Trojan War. Looking back, it has been 30 years since Huang made his promising debut in Swimming with Sharks, a little gem of a black comedy worth checking out if you haven’t done so.

Fast-forward to today, his latest directorial effort feels more like he’s ghost-directed a Luc Besson movie, given the latter’s involvement as a co-writer and producer. Besson’s distinct stamp is evident with the movie’s trashy B-movie vibe of an action genre and frankly, there’s nothing wrong with that as long as it’s entertaining enough to keep me occupied. Too bad this isn’t the case here since Weekend in Taipei reeks of a generic story straight out of the assembly line. The action, often the hallmark of Besson’s speciality, is mostly mediocre and above all, lacks the much-needed propulsive flair.

It’s not like the movie is devoid of excitement since it does opens promisingly with Joey (Gwei Lun-Mei in her first English-language debut, looking alluring as always) test-driving a splashy red Ferrari as she casually zooms in and out of the traffic in the city of Taipei. Later, there’s a Minneapolis-set scene where DEA agent John Lawlor (Luke Evans) goes undercover as a chef at a Chinese restaurant and long story short, resulting in a thrillingly staged fight in the kitchen that effectively combines visceral action set-piece with elements of comedy. It was easily the best action scene in Weekend in Taipei, a feat that fails to equal, let alone top the earlier kitchen fight for the rest of the movie.

So, the story is basically about Lawlor being forced by his superior (Pernell Walker) to take a weekend break, which brings us to the titular Taipei destination. Except he’s not travelling there for leisure since he decides to go rogue by personally investigating the notorious drug kingpin Kwang (Sung Kang), whom he’s been tailing for a long while. When Joey’s son, Raymond (Wyatt Yang) steals Kwang’s ledger since he accused him of being environmentally irresponsible over the death of dolphins in his seafood operation.

Let’s just say the ledger is important and Kwang needs it back at all costs. As if it isn’t complicated enough, John and Joey used to be lovers a long time ago — 15 years, to be exact — and Raymond turns out to be his son all along. They reunite under the unpleasant circumstances and Kwang soon deploys his men to kill them, get the ledger and bring back his wife, Joey. The subsequent Taipei Marriott Hotel scene, where Kwang’s heavily armed men tracking them down features a tense shootout and a brief but entertainingly nimble fight set-piece as John’s agent-friend, Freddie (stunt coordinator Alain Figlarz) takes down some of Kwang’s men.

Too bad the rest of the movie grows increasingly tedious as the story progresses further. This is especially true with Huang’s penchant for extensive flashbacks recounting how John and Joey first met, complete with respectively different hairstyles that sadly feel more of an extended filler rather than a narrative necessity, even if it meant to flesh out their characters. The flashback-heavy story dominating the middle part of the movie simply drags, despite Evans and Lun-Mei’s charismatic pairing.

It doesn’t help either that the otherwise promising action scenes earlier in the movie gradually dwindle in the second half before the movie culminates in a limp one-on-one fight sequence between John and Kwang in a cinema hall while Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers is playing on the big screen. It’s a pity that Weekend in Taipei misses the opportunity big-time in what could have been a thoroughly fun B-action movie.