This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Fractured Family, Funky Furlough
Plot Overview
After
Taiwanese fishwife Joey (Lun-mei Gwei) stumbles upon an
illegal drug consignment she must keep a low profile
out of the village spotlight. She serves as its auto mechanic
and gets good at driving. In a drag race with the Kwang Company,
their driver is killed and she is forced to be their new driver.
She and a competitor's driver John Lawlor (Luke Evans) hit it off
until he reveals he's an undercover DEA agent and warns her of an
impending bust necessitating she disappear
forthwith. Having discovered she's in the family way she
marries drug kingpin Kwang (Sung Kang) for his protection and
provision. Years later when Lawlor is forced to take a leave of
absence, he spends his “long weekend” in Taipei where
former matters come to the fore.
Ideology
(Prov.
30:15-16) “The horseleach hath two daughters, crying,
Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea,
four things say not, It is enough: The grave; and the barren womb;
the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith
not, It is enough.” There are two kinds of definitively
dependent folk (“crying, Give, give”): the very
young—out from the womb, and they keep coming—and the
very old—heading for the grave, and they keep leaving. When Joey's
home pregnancy test lights up (“Congratulations!”) she
knows she's on the hook. Likewise, when a doddering old couple in a
movie house shows a rather tenuous grip on reality, we know someone's
got to care for them.
When the ancient worldwide flood
drained away, the earth was able to establish a productive ecology.
As authoress Donna Howell with Dr. Thomas Horn puts it (from Job 38:8, Job 38:26-27):
Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? [Shutting the “doors” to the sea denotes God's majestic ability to limit Earth's waters so the planet will not fall prey to perpetual flooding. “When it brake forth” is considered by many to refer to a time Earth was flooded, and of course, most assume this to be Noah's Flood. To Gap theorists, this entire speech is a reference to an epoch more ancient than Noah; it glances back to the “deep” of Genesis 1:2.] To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man; To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth? (113)
In WIT there's a scene in which a kitchen altercation crashes into a large decorative aquarium spilling all the fish and creatures onto the floor. The water drains away. John retrieves one goldfish into a cup. From the dried-out world we must obtain our sustenance as the big fish eat the little and so forth.
Gangster Kwang floats a fishing fleet
as cover for his drug smuggling operation. As a side venture they
chop up snagged dolphins for bait rather than release them as the
law requires. He's being indicted (“Who's the snitch?”)
for a fishing violation as the movie opens. He wasn't a very smart
crook. As author David Dressler writes:
the criminal wants a just return for his labor and skill. He feels he is entitled to recompense for his arduous preparation. He doesn't think he ought to work for peanuts. (78)
The penalty for a professional's crime is usually less than that for an amateur's, because of the kinds of crime undertaken by the former, to the exclusion of certain other offenses that are almost always the work of amateurs. A robber who [in 1951] steals fifty dollars may get a maximum sentence of ten or twenty years in some states. The confidence man rarely draws over two or three years. (84)
“Whatcha in for?”
“Stealin' a car.”
The older boy chuckled. “You'll learn! You're a punk! Know what that is?”
“No. But I don't like it!”
“Don't blow your top, kid!” said the seasoned informant, grinning. “A punk is a small potato. Don't be one. When you steal, steal big!” (90)
The Kwang gang relied on muscle rather than brains, which makes this movie more action oriented as it targets action demand.
The village prepared their catch for trade and distribution.
The grandmothers cooked the fish fed to villagers and company.
John was an undercover chef making a wicked crème
boule. Joey had a restaurant breakfast before going to the
Ferrari dealership for a test drive. The engine revs like mad.
“The fire that saith not, It is enough” is human
metabolism that runs day and night and must be fed. Even
thirteen-year-old Raymond (Wyatt Yang) must keep his drawing pencil
sharp for his homework assignment preparing himself
for future career, his part to keep society running.
Production Values
“” (2024) was directed by George Huang. It was written by Luc Besson and George Huang. It stars Luke Evans, Sung Kang and Lun-Mei Gwei. Evans did the policeman cum father bit quite well. Kang played the sleazy, oriental gangster to a tee. Lun-Mei Gwei filled out her part with a model's looks and a mother's heart.
MPA rated it R for violence. Makeup gave characters long hair for their flashbacks. Dialogue was rudimentary. Action was dominant. Runtime is 1 hour 40 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This one took my breath away as the fight or flight scenes got stretched out. Family values gave a nod to questioned parentage but left criminal charges up in the air—good lawyers—and marital issues unresolved. Both an undercover agent and a knocked-up broad faced difficult decisions.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Good Date Movie. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture taken from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software. Print.
Dressler, David. Parole Chief. Copyright 1951, 1950, 1948 by David Dressler. New York: Viking Press, 1951. Print.
Howell, Donna and Dr. Thomas Horn. Before Genesis. © 2023 Defender Publishing. Crane, MO: Defender Pub., 2023. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org