There should be more hostage films. It’s as simple as that. There’s automatic action. There’s automatic excitement. There’s automatic tension. Within 15 seconds of the deed, there’s an automatic rooting interest. Nobody sympathizes with kidnappers except kidnappees. You don’t even have to like the person kidnapped to root for them. You don’t have to hate the kidnappers to root against them. For people like me, there’s the added benefit of unfamiliar psychological battles being waged because of the intensity and vulnerability involved. I’m really surprised more hostage films aren’t made.
Today’s hostage film has a gamble – they’ve taken a celebrity. Did they mean to take a celebrity? They must have; you don’t accidentally take someone hostage. And yet I can’t imagine the percentage you get out of a celebrity kidnapping. Even the slimiest of celebrity lowlife pondscum slimeballs – like Don Jr., Bill Cosby, Alex Jones will attract a ton of unwanted attention and even a few irrational heroes. Heck, even when you talk accountability for the heroes of the RW — people who deserve to be held accountable, not hostage, accountable, as in “held to account for the things that they have done” and you get a freaking revolution from well-armed red state morons. How can you possible leverage celebrity?
While that question will go unanswered for now, today’s film takes a Hostage: Missing Celebrity all the same. The 
celebrity in question is Korean action film star Hwang Jung-min. He’s not BTS-level OMG, but he’s big enough that one wonders where his entourage got to … hey, who let’s this guy wander streets at night unaccompanied? This film is not unlike JCVD where a real life actor is playing himself in an alternate reality.
Now you might ask: “What does it take to kidnap a celebrity?” In most cases, I think it involves attaching a rope to some sort of award trophy and using it as a lure. In this case, it took an unstable jerk and a bit of violence. And before you know it, Hwang Jung-min is tied to a chair in basement who-knows-where. The realization sets in a little late that the publicist ain’t gonna cure this problem.
Hostage: Missing Celebrity has the benefit of not trying to do too much. It wasn’t bigger picture and it wasn’t about solving societal ills or anything foolish along those lines. It pretty much was – a celebrity gets taken by extremist group; how does he get out of it? I liked the dilemma and I liked the twist and I enjoyed hating the bad guy. This isn’t a world-beater of a film, but for it is, it’s enjoyable.
That guy they stole is on the A list
Surely his presence will be missed
I’m no expert on people
But I know my sheeple
There are groupies who are gonna be pissed
Not-Rated, 94 Minutes
Director: Pil Gam-Sung
Writer: Pil Gam-Sung
Genre: The compelling world of simple plots
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: The compelling world of simple plot fans
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Actual celebrities
