On an undercover assignment, a DEA agent fell in love with Taipei’s top transporter. However, forces of crime and corruption tore them apart. Now, 15 years later, fate puts them on a collision course. A film by George Huang, starring Luke Evans, Gwei Lun Mei, Sung Kang, Wyatt Yang, and Pernell Walker.

Korean seafood tycoon Kwang Gim (Sung Kang), chairman of Kwang Industries, draws public attention as he faces charges ranging from selling counterfeit carbon offsets to violating bans on net fishing. In a public statement, Kwang apologizes to what he calls “the true victims of this trial” – the company’s 200,000 hard-working employees – and vows to prove his innocence in high court.

Meanwhile, Kwang’s beloved wife, Joey (Gwei Lun Mei), walks into a supercar showroom looking every bit like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, dressed to the nines and sipping from a paper coffee cup. (The scene is set to Henry Mancini’s iconic ‘Moon River,’ which initially suggests an action comedy, but that turns out to be a misread.) Joey takes a sleek red Ferrari 488 Pista Spider for a spin and decides to buy it on the spot.

At Kwang’s estate, he suspects Joey of being a snitch who informed the authorities, as officials now demand a full investigation and board members attempt to remove him from his position. However, Joey dismisses his concerns, asserting that a wife cannot testify against her husband in court. She then shows him the Ferrari she just bought as his birthday present. Kwang is visibly taken aback, ashamed for doubting his wife’s loyalty.

Later, Joey catches her son Raymond (Wyatt Yang) secretly packing his luggage to leave, declaring he is ashamed of Kwang’s destruction of marine ecosystems and doesn’t want to be present when the court sends him to jail. It’s revealed that Raymond isn’t Kwang’s biological son, and he harbors resentment toward Kwang despite being raised as his own since birth. Joey reminds her ungrateful son that Kwang was there when no one else was around and promises to take him to Paris next week. When Raymond asks why Joey never talks about his deceased father, a pastry chef, she remains secretive about the truth, only telling him that sometimes it’s easier to forget the past and what matters most is that his real father brought Raymond to her.

In Minneapolis, DEA agent John Lawlor (Luke Evans) blows his cover at a Chinese restaurant after a six-month deep-cover operation aimed at gathering evidence of drug trafficking by Kwang Industries, to save his colleague’s life. Initially, John’s supervisor Charlotte Fields (Pernell Walker) is displeased. However, John surprises her by revealing $300 million worth of heroin hidden in Kwang Industries’ canned fish.

John travels to Taipei using his own resources after receiving a tip sheet from a confidential informant who claims to have documents detailing internal misconduct within Kwang Industries, specifically regarding illegal net fishing and dolphin killing. John believes that Kwang’s ledger could be the key to taking Kwang down, unaware that the informant is his own son, Raymond.

Directed by American filmmaker George Huang in collaboration with French screenwriter Luc Besson, WEEKEND IN TAIPEI is a nostalgic action film that falls short of its potential. Despite its promising premise, the film fails to deliver either memorable action sequences or a gripping narrative, hampered by an unconvincing plot and flat characters.

The film’s attempts at humor feel forced, with jokes that consistently miss their mark. Adding to its shortcomings, the story unfolds with painful predictability, culminating in an anticlimactic bare-handed showdown between protagonist and antagonist that offers no surprises or dramatic tension.

WEEKEND IN TAIPEI premiered at Vieshow Cinemas Xinyi in Taiwan on 1 September 2024. The film was theatrically released in France and Taiwan on 25 September.