Remakes are tricky business, even when they are of features that were only moderately successful. In such cases, the makers on the new project have to figure out exactly what worked and what didn't in the original and find a balance that keeps the essence of the original and also builds upon it to make it a better work. This is exactly the task first-time director Pil Kam-sung finds at his hands, who adapts Hong Kong production “Saving Mr. Wu”, which was itself loosely based on the real-life kidnapping of a Chinese TV actor. To make his narrative stand out, Pil came up with an innovative quirk: casting superstar Hwang Jung-min to play himself in the feature.
“Hostage: Missing Celebrity” is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival
After a premiere party for his latest movie one night and with a few drinks inside him, Hwang Jung-min parks his car outside a convenience store he frequents when he meets a group of delinquents who he antagonizes. As it turns out, these men are responsible for the recent kidnapping of a cafe owner and his assistant and soon after, as he walks back home, they pull up to Hwang and kidnap him, take him to where they have the cafe assistant Bang So-yeon held captive, and demand a heavy ransom. While Hwang sends the criminals, including the leader Choi Ki-wan, to his home to get the money, he must find a way for himself and Bang So-yeon to escape from the clutches of the gang members left behind. In Seoul, meanwhile, the police find out about the kidnapping of the superstar and must track his whereabouts and rescue him before the public finds out.
Pil Kam-sung has one clear goal with his debut feature, which is to entertain his audience. To that end, he keeps the narrative focused on Hwang Jung-min for the majority of the runtime. Where “Saving Mr. Wu” used a substantial duration to also highlight the efforts to free the celebrity, Pil's approach helps keep the hostage and his situation front and center. Of course, we do get the police involved too and it is refreshing to see both sides of the police here, the bumbling and the efficient. It is also a welcome to see a female police officer being the capable one for a change. But the narrative never forgets that it is first and foremost the story of the hostages and their kidnappers.
Casting Hwang Jung-min to play himself doesn't end up being merely a gimmick and has its benefits, giving the feature an almost real-life tension to it. How a celebrity, known for his larger-than-life characters on screen, would react in a situation one of his characters might find himself in is an interesting vantage point. There must come a time when an actor must become a hero and this journey proves to be the narrative's driving point. Additionally, having the superstar play himself also provides for some wonderful meta moments that callback some of Hwang's most famous roles and past interviews.
Playing your own self in a fictional situation must surely be a daunting task for many actors, but not when you're Hwang Jung-min. The 100 Million Viewers Club member makes the fictional circumstances he finds himself in very believable, giving an almost scary reality show-like viewing experience. The wide range of emotional scale that he is known may not be present here but his performance still remains very watchable. Having a co-star from one of his most famous works cameo here ends up being a masterstroke and among the feature's most memorable aspects.
The group playing the kidnappers too are mostly well-cast, with Ryu Kyung-soo as the unhinged Yeom Dong-hoon and Jung Jae-won as the mentally immature Yong-tae being particularly impressive. In a year that she stole hearts as Player 240 in “Squid Game”, Lee Yoo-mi has arguably her best work here, playing the other hostage Bang So-yeon. The biggest disappointment comes in the form of Kim Jae-bum as the Choi Ki-wan, the leader of the kidnappers, whose expressionless performance does little to help create the menace that his character needs to be.
That menace instead is brought to the situations through Choi Young-hwan's cinematography. The dingy warehouse Hwang and Bang are held in is lit with dark greens and oranges to create a daunting area. Shot mostly in the darkness, there are moments when the events move to the bright outside, with the chase in the woods being a standout. The action sequences read like a checklist being ticked off, with foot chases, car chases and fights all making appearances, with the latter interesting in its approach. Here you get to see how Hwang Jung-min, an actor who has been in some very stylish action features and fight sequences, would fight in real life in a very well shot uncut sequence near the end. The music too goes above and beyond the call of the genre to help elevate the urgency of the matter.
Pil Kam-sung never aims to set the genre on fire with his first feature, but proves to be a deft hand at accomplishing what he sets out to do. “Hostage: Missing Celebrity” may not have many fresh ideas when its comes to its storytelling, yet proves to be a feature that is sure to delight fans of action cinema, kidnapping thrillers and most certainly of Hwang Jung-min.
