Hostage: Missing Celebrity is asking us to believe a buttload of improbabilities. Like that kidnapped movie star Hwang Jung-min (played by Hwang Jung-min) is going to give his murderous abductor (Kim Jae-bum) access to his apartment but not the pin for his bank account. Or that a cop who gets hit by a cab is the one who's going to drive the police car as opposed to his uninjured partner (Baek Joo-hee). Or that the gang-leading villain would think a different hair part — without so much as a hat — would be enough of a disguise to go back out in public after an APB. Or that a crazy old man who lives in the woods would have the cell phone number of the Chief of Police. But let's say a viewer is willing to accept any and all unlikelihoods. How does writer-director Pil Gam-sung's 2021 thriller fare?
Well the kidnapped actor is definitely a narcissist with entitlement issues, the kind of guy who starts talking about how many times he had to audition while chained to a post with a young woman (Lee Yoo-mi) who's face is bruised, battered, and bloody. As for the rest of the cast, this movie has too many cops, too many crooks, and too many reporters with too few lines. Bodies are piling up at the end. But some will also rise again. You never know who's actually dead in this movie as people survive hand grenades and homemade bombs. The determining showdown? A mudfight in the rain! The big question: Who's gonna get the final chokehold? (And will the loser rise again?)
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