Tape Review – Three Hander Delivers Power Packed Performances, A Must See
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Thursday, 18 September 2025 15:09
- Written by Janet Walker
Tape, from Showalker UK / Munro Film Services, presents the story of three former classmates who reunite after fifteen years, as a buried secret resurfaces forcing them to confront the past, each other, and the silence around accountability.
The film begins with a flashback, fifteen years in the past, at a beach party celebrating a high school graduation. We meet Wing, and his videographer friend, Jon, as they are celebrating. Jon, at this point is a boy with a video camera, panning the crowd, zooming in on the girls cleavage, to satisfy his youthful desires. Wing is devastated the love of his life Amy has broken up with him. We can see immediately he is the romantic in the relationship and kept a keepsake of their love. When the two begin to talk about Amy, who is young, naïve, and innocent.
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The film jumps ahead 15 years, and we are in Wing's apartment, now played by Adam Pak, who has made a decent living as a small time drug dealer, not the civil service job he was dreading in high school, but serving a select public, nonetheless. We see him setting up hidden cameras throughout his studio apartment, making sure they feed into his cell, and then he sets the scene, taking beer from the fridge, pouring it down the drain and throwing the empties around the apartment so it looks like he is very drunk, sloppy, and on the loser track.
Then Jon arrives, now played by Kenny Kwan, who is a USC film school graduate director with his first film showing the Hong Kong film festival. He has assimilated, and has changed his name, as he explains it gets him more respect from foreigners and more job opportunities.
After a few awkward moments of tapdancing around the changes that fifteen years will bring, the pair begin to relax and soon they are drinking beer and smoking pot, and both are feeling freer. Throughout we see Wing, checking the video feed on his phone to see if it is still recording.
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Then the conversation turns to the night on the beach, 15 years ago. And Wing begins to talk about Amy, now played by Selena Lee, and Jon hedges a bit, dances around the night, until slowly the details begin to escape. Once Wing, who was in love with Amy, begins to hear what he suspected for 15 years, he forces Jon to tell him, exactly what happened, which is when he explains he forced her into doing something she didn't want to do, still not admitting to rape. This is when Wing pushes him further to admit what he did. Once he does Wing explains, I have you on tape and shows him.
Of course, now Jon begins to scream about how the tape will damage his career, that is just getting started, how he will lose everything, and the two begin to fight.
Then Wing explains, Amy, who is now a prosecutor, will be arriving soon. This sets up the third act. What follows is a contrite, but unrepentant Jon, who doesn't believe he deserves punishment for his crime, attempts to apologize to Amy for that night.
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She forces both of them to realize that even as she has lived lying to herself and chose to cover it up the facts of the night, neither of them have the liberty or the luxury to unearth her trauma to satisfy their conscience. She finally, after Jon's stammering's and attempts at an apology, explains clearly and eloquently her desire for his future. Her monologue her echoes the feelings of the many who have confronted the same lack of justice, lack of accountability and refusal of the system to hold prosecute. She also explains admission of rape in China, would sentence her to a life of singleness, who, she says, would marry a rape victim. Her family would be dishonored, again because of the egregious actions of a young man on a mission. As a prosecutor, she probably wouldn't lose her career, although there are many ways to degrade and denigrate those when they are determined to fight.
Tape is a power-packed three hander that delivers megaton performances. It is shocking, gripping and resonates with an insidious truth the permeates continents, as the culture of accountability is silenced by egregious failures in the judicial system. Tape is based on the 2001 film of the same name by Academy Award nominee Richard Linklater and is set to screen as part of Vancouver International Film Festival, October 2 to October 13, alongside Mr. Linklater's latest features.
Riveting and spellbinding, Tape opens in UK cinemas September 19, 2025. It is a must see film.
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Country: UK.
Language: Chinese, with English subtitles.
Runtime: 110 minutes.
Director: Bizhan Tong.
Producer: Selena Lee, Bizhan M. Tong
Executive Producer: Richard Linklater, Stephen Belber, John Sloss, Andy Wang Jaeson Ma, Changhui Shi, Tenten Wei.
Writer: Bizhan Tong, Selena Lee, Lok-Yung Lo, and co-written with original playwright Stephen Belber.
Cast: Kenny Kwan, Selena Lee, Adam Pak, Mason Fung, Angus Yeung, Summer Chan.
Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade. A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays, "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has completed the non-fiction narrative, "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," and "Days, Times, Seasons, Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," are available on Amazon. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.
