"Weekend in Taipei" is a B-movie straight out of the 1990s: a trashy, splashy, knowingly over-the-top action picture in the tradition of Luc Besson, which is fitting, given that Besson himself co-wrote the script with director George Huang.
It features flimsy characters engaging in solid fight scenes and dialogue that's so hilariously stupid that it must have been an intentional choice. Case in point, when Taiwanese teenager Raymond (Wyatt Yang) finally meets the father he never knew (Luke Evans): "All this time I've been taking cooking lessons to get close to my dead pastry chef dad, and he's not even dead!" The fact that Yang delivers this line in the middle of one of the movie's many car chases adds to the absurdity.
The pop culture references here are scattered and varied – an instrumental cover of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black," an homage to the iconic opening scene of "Breakfast at Tiffany's," a reverence for flashy sports cars that recalls the "Fast and Furious" franchise (although maybe that connection is more meaningful, given that two of the film's stars, Evans and Sung Kang, have been key players in that series). It works, and it doesn't work. It's mostly empty and forgettable but occasionally entertaining and inspired. If you like this kind of thing, you will like this kind of thing.
Evans stars as undercover DEA agent John Lawlor, who is indeed working as a pastry chef at the film's start, placing the final, fiery touches on a tray full of crème brûlée. His assignment has been to take down drug kingpin Kwang (Kang), whose seafood business is a front for his illegal operation. Kwang is currently married to the slinky and sly Joey (Gwei Lun-Mei) and is raising Joey's son, Raymond, as his own in high-rise luxury. But Joey used to be involved with John, whom she hasn't seen in 15 years, and who is actually Raymond's biological father.
All of these details come out during ... a weekend in Taipei, a place John's exasperated supervisor (Pernell Walker) had admonished him not to visit. But like Axel Foley in "Beverly Hills Cop," he can't help himself, so he makes the journey anyway from Minneapolis to Taiwan to take the law into his own hands.
The Welsh-born Evans is doing an iffy New York accent, but he's likable enough to keep us engaged as the roguishly no-nonsense John, and he has a light touch with the cheesy comedy. Gwei's Joey is tougher than she initially looks from her refined exterior, as we see from flashbacks to how she and John first met. (Everyone's hair is so ridiculously terrible in these earlier scenes; it also must have been a choice.) The retelling of these significant events from different perspectives over dumplings with the inquisitive Raymond is sort of cute. Meanwhile, Kang has presence and panache as always but is stuck playing a one-note bad guy.
You don't see a movie like "Weekend in Taipei" for the character development, though. You see it for the action sequences. An early fight scene in the kitchen where John works is inspired for its complex choreography within a confined space and its amusing use of woks. A climactic showdown between John and Kwang takes place in front of a movie theater screen, with the projector casting a haunting glow. (Cinematographer Colin Wandersman lights many of these scenes with a slick sheen). And the use of Taipei locations, from alleyways to claw machine arcades, gives the movie a vibrant sense of place.
Ultimately, though, after all the stunts and chases and bloodshed, "Weekend in Taipei" is all about a wholesome sense of #family. Then again, you might forget what the movie was about as soon as it ends.
