96 Minutes Review: Austin Lin And Vivian Sung Turn Train Troubles Into A Full-Blown, Bomb-Ticking Melodrama

96 Minutes (NC16)

Starring Austin Lin, Vivian Sung, Wang Po-chieh, Lee Lee-zen

Directed by Hung Tzu-hsuan

This interesting, gripping whodunit-whydunit thriller about bombs planted onboard two speeding trains is one big guilt trip on top of the train trips.

Two trains seem bonkers. But not to the sin-and-atonement Taiwanese.

The unknown bomber blames a bomb squad for the death of his wife after it sacrificed a few people to save the majority in an earlier incident.

Bomb disposal ace, A-Ren (Austin Lin), traumatised, quits the force. “I didn’t save everyone,” he laments after his rescue of a cinema hall triggers instead many casualties in a huge explosion at a department store in a double-bomb attack.

Only Taiwan’s episodic drama experts can stuff so much emo, revenge, regret and redemption — due to a cover-up by the bomb unit being exposed — onto the passengers as the trains careen from Taipei to Kaoshiung.

Only Taiwan can make heroes feel bad about being heroes in brutally judgemental Asian society. Decency retreats as the mutinous passengers bicker about placing blame instead of banding together. Maybe director/co-writer Hung Tzu-hsuan is mocking our self-centred world.

As in Speed, the trains cannot stop or a bomb would explode in one. Making this scenario an instant no-go here since a signalling fault would stop our trains from moving. End of movie.

A-Ren, his cop wife, Huang Xin (Vivian Sung), and ex-captain, Li Jie (Lee Lee-zen), are onboard after a memorial service marking that said double bombing.

The vengeful madman unveils an over-elaborate scheme involving super-terrorist explosives, a stooge-accomplice, and more twists and turns than a bowl of noodles. Having two locomotives means an insane leap from zipping train to zipping train that'll scare even Tom Cruise.

Helping the good guys is a numbers dude calculating velocity while his wife is somehow part of the complicity.

Here can be argued in 96 Minutes about the definition of “good guys”. What’s unearthed about the bomb squad's previous dubious action appears to be no biggie in these me-first Trumpian times.

The real selfishness comes from the passengers. None lifts a finger to help extreme do-gooder A-Ren giving everything for everybody.

Guaranteed you’ll blow up at those damn ingrates far longer than 96 minutes. (3.5/5 stars) in cinemas now

Photo: KillerMud Films