On Christmas Eve, pathologist Chen Jia Hao (Nick Cheung) and his intern Lynn (Yang Zi) are working late when a trio of masked men (Richie Jen, Carlos Chan and Jiayi Feng) invade the morgue.
Their demands are simple - they will let the staff live if they perform an autopsy on a specific corpse...
Renny Harlin is the kind of filmmaker they do not make any more - a journeyman moving between genres, making a movie every one-two years.
He may not command the respect or the budgets of other filmmakers of his generation, but he just keeps working.
In the late naughties, Harlin moved to China, where he made a trio of films: 2016's Skiptrace (starring Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville), 2018's Legend of the Sword and this, a 2019 thriller written by David Lesser that was originally intended for the US market.
It is fitting that a filmmaker like Renny Harlin is the director of a movie like Bodies at Rest. A small-scale variant of Die Hard, it shares DNA with The Desperate Hours, Wait Until Dark, Panic Room and a bunch of other Hollywood thrillers of the kind which used to be made in Hollywood about 20 years ago - especially by directors like Renny Harlin.
I used to dislike Harlin's work - I always thought he tended to over-cut his action sequences, and amp them cop with unnecessary slo-mo and OTT touches.
Recent re-watches of his early work have completely turned me around on him. He does use more coverage than I personally like, but you can always follow what is going on. He may not be that subtle, but he has a showman's touch for genre and spectacle. It is an underrated skillset which a lot of younger filmmakers in the Hollywood sphere could learn from.
With Bodies at Rest, Harlin seems to be operating from a more restrained place - he covers the action, while letting the story unfold at its own pace.
The script is tightening series of vices, and the filmmaking supports the story's unfolding with a focus on tension.
There is action, but most of the movie comes down to a series of standoffs between the morgue staff and their captors.
You get your classic scenes from these thrillers - a sudden arrival which demands role-play; an attempt to smuggle out an SOS message; the foiled escape; the false escape, and a great collection of reversals and obstacles which keep our heroes on the back-foot.
The performances are all solid - Cheung is the calm centre, trying to maintain composure and out-wit his foes, and Yang Zi throws herself into some bruising fight sequences. Richie Jen brings a cold-blooded certainty and physicality to the lead villain.
Nothing about the movie stands out in a memorable way, but that is no criticism - the actors fulfil their roles and keep the story credible.
I love thrillers like this, where the suspense is based on characters trying to outthink each other. And the script does not try to fool the audience or let the characters off with a cheap deus ex machina plot contrivance.
Heroes and villains are always trying to stay on top of each other. No matter what Chen Jia Hao or Lynn improvise, the villains are figuring out their own solutions, and vice-versa. And the characters seem to be genuinely affected by their various scraps - by the end of the movie, the survivors are exhausted, bloodied and limping.
It is the definition of a thrill ride - and it stays in the same building!
A fun watch, and a great addition to Renny Harlin's filmography.
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