Kidnapper (绑匪) movie review
Wow, this is my second special screening for this week. Thanks to RAM Entertainment, I’m being treated to Kidnapper (绑匪) this time around. This is a Mandarin suspense thriller from Singapore. Now, let’s move along with the review.
The gist of the story centres around the father-son single parent family of Ah Huat (Christopher Lee) and his son Lim Wei Xiang (Jerald Tan), who share close knit ties. Being a cab driver, Ah Huat doesn’t make much to feed both himself and his son, but they’re happy with their lot and share a peculiar hobby of betting through the taxi meter.
Wei Xiang gets kidnapped one day due to the classic case of mistaken identity. Ah Huat has only 36 hours to raise $1 million dollars to save his son. Going to the cops is not an option as Ah Huat has a looming custody battle which will do him no favours if it’s known his son had disappeared while under his care.
Ah Hu (Jack Lim), a convict who has recently been set free, actually wanted to extort money from the rich Sng family, hence his single-minded plot to kidnap the Sng’s son, only to discover his botched attempt. Yet he is adamant in wanting to extort the same amount from a taxi driver. It’s unfortunate that Ah Hu lacks any depth of menacing factor that would have made his character a real villainous force to be reckoned with.
Anyhow, the story continues with a wild goose chase of a table-turning, one-upmanship between Ah Huat and Ah Hu. The climax is of course towards the end of the show, where a duel between both of them take place at the shipping port. Two people died in this movie. I will leave it at that so that you can find it out yourself.
The credit should goes towards Christopher Lee as Ah Huat. The goatee he keeps is able to bring out a more rugged demeanour of a man obsessed with his mission to save his son. He is willing to sacrifice everything to raise an impossible amount, and at the same time being looked down upon by institutions and driven to wits end.
With Kidnapper, director Kelvin Tong does point the way forward that we don’t always necessary need big bang explosions in order to do something smaller, yet packing quite the emotional punch. This movie is not destined to be a classic, but it was rather fun while it lasted. For that, it’s 3 out of 5 stars from me.
