Review | Breaking and Re-entering movie review: Taiwanese heist comedy on Netflix is a delight
- Chen Bo-lin and Cecilia Choi head a gang of crooks who must return cash they stole to a bank. Comedy and a rekindled romance ensue
3.5/5 stars
A gang of thieves is charged with pulling off a “reverse heist” in emerging Taiwanese director Leo Wang Ding-lin’s comedy crime caper Breaking and Re-Entering.
Chen Bo-lin and Cecilia Choi Si-wan star as a pair of crooks who must return NT$1 billion (US$30 million) in stolen cash to the bank vault they took it from. Kent Tsai Fan-hsi, Frederick Lee Ming-zhong and JC Lin round out the gang of thieves, while Wu Kang-ren makes a special appearance as the bank’s scheming owner.
The bank heist has been a tried and tested movie trope for as long as the medium has been around, and Wang plunders many of the genre’s finest examples to colour his polished, playful thriller.
Steven Soderbergh’s Oceans Eleven and its sequels are an obvious influence on the film, which is just as invested in the comedic and romantic interplay between its characters as in the robbery itself.
Wu plays Chen Hai-jui, the spoiled young boss of Wanxi Bank, whose overseas education and cocky swagger make him roundly disliked by everyone around him, from his underlings to his own mother.
