Nina Wu is the film equivalent of a bunny slope. It starts out ok and then goes steadily downhill from there. By the end, you might wonder why you bothered going there at all. I certainly hit that point.
Acting jobs are just as difficult to obtain in Taiwan as they are here. Non-teenager Nina Wu (Ke-Xi Wu) knows it well; she’s spent may years battling unsupportive relatives and pesky reality for her big break. And it has finally come. Nina has the lead in a spy thriller picture, and this film works not unlike a “making the band” movie except that there is no band being made here, just an actress.
The film skips all over the place time-wise. Sometimes films do that to reassure us –like we see Nina the veteran actress first and then the movie shows us her mediocre past so that we can be assured she’s made it. But this film is a little different. Her present isn’t exactly wonderful, either. The film lets us in on the magic of directing, which is getting all the actors to hate you and use that energy on camera. The several annoying and unnecessary retakes of scenes are the kind of thing that reminds me why I never chose acting as a profession. The problem with a film like Nina Wu is the film-within-a-film makes the viewer conscious of the acting in every scene … and sometimes the acting doesn’t cut it.
Those are just minor quibbles. I’d like to say the hard stuff comes when we realize in a flashback what the director is going to ask Nina to do for her role on screen, but whatever humiliating act she has to perform in front of the camera, it pales compared to what Nina had to do to get this role. We sloooooooowly realize this while nothing-in-particular happens plotwise on screen. At one point, we meet Nina’s rival, a woman who is truly out-to-get Nina, but this is a secondary plot and a secondary character. The rival exists not to give us the SWF (or in this case, the SAF) treatment, but simply to hint at some sort of audition elimination ritual these two both attended. Gee, just how bad could that audition have been? Don’t ask.
Nina Wu takes forever to find a plot, and proves deliberately confusing in the interim with dream sequences, constant timeline leaps, saran wrap death matches, and, what’s that? Is that hotel room numbered “1408?” That can’t possibly be a mistake; did this film become a Stephen King horror all of a sudden? Well, horror was right, but almost as much for the viewer as the characters. When Nina Wu finally does get a plot, the film is depressing as Hell. I suppose it is important to know that film producers are slimy everywhere, not just in Hollywood. Unfortunately, that’s not only the major takeaway from Nina Wu; it’s just about the only takeaway. This is a depressing and unpleasant film and one I was only too happy to exit.
Contrasting a heroine in bloomy
Was a screenplay so sad and gloomy
With ending so gray
It’s needless to say
This Nina didn’t Wu me
Not Rated, 102 Minutes
Director: Midi Z
Writers: Ke-Xi Wu, Midi Z
Genre: Exposés that make you queasy
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Starlets
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Producers
