96 Minutes 96分鐘 Review: Austin Lin and Vivian Sung Lead a Melodramatic, But Thrilling Race-Against-Time Whodunit Thriller
Heavily promoted as “Taiwan’s first high-speed rail disaster thriller”, 96 Minutes boasts the kind of familiar bomb-on-a-train premise, with the title referring to the countdown time limit from the starting point in Taipei to the final station in Kaohsiung. Except this movie clocks in at nearly two hours long, since the first act is dedicated to establishing what happened during the typhoon night three years ago. A bomb disposal officer, Song Kang-Ren a.k.a A-Ren (Austin Lin), under the command of his superior, Li Jie (Lee Lee-Zen), is assigned to disarm a time bomb in a cinema.
Everything seems to be going well at first, but after successfully defusing the bomb, it somehow triggers a hidden second explosive planted in a nearby department store, unbeknownst to either of them, causing mass casualties. A-Ren is riddled with guilt ever since, despite being branded as a hero. This leads to his decision to quit the force.
But the past catches up with him when he boards a train with his police officer-fiancée, Huang Xin (Vivian Sung) and her mother. His former superior happens to be on the train, informing A-Ren about an anonymous text message stating there’s a bomb somewhere aboard. It might be a hoax, but whatever it is, things become complicated when one of the passengers, a physicist named Liu Kai (Wang Po-Chieh), overhears their conversation.
A movie like this typically involves the hero — which, in this case, A-Ren — must race against time to find the bomb and defuse it before it’s too late. Such a basis of the story remains intact in 96 Minutes, but with an added whodunit angle. If you are expecting a Speed-like premise through and through, writer-director Hung Tzu-Hsuan, best known for his 2018’s The Scoundrels, is more interested in exploring the mystery story through the perspective of multiple characters. Among them are some of the passengers, including Liu Kai’s wife, Yang Ting Juan (Yao Yi-Ti) and the bespectacled Mr Wu (Frederick Lee). The whodunit narrative approach immediately reminds me of the Liam Neeson-starred airplane thriller, Non-Stop.
Hsuan does a decent job sustaining the momentum with enough suspense, but there’s a glaring problem that it’s hard to ignore. The writer-director, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Evonne Chen and Yang Wan-Ju, feels the need to emphasise heavily on A-Ren’s guilt that’s been consuming him inside out. All to the point, it gets overly melodramatic for its own good, resulting in an otherwise fast-moving movie riddled with an erratic pace. This makes the title of 96 Minutes feel like it’s being burdened by its own ambition, which could have benefited from taut editing. The drama part tends to be overwhelming, not only in the earlier part but also in the heavy-handed third act.
96 Minutes may have been leaning more on the tense verbal exchanges, but that doesn’t mean Hsuan abandons his action-movie expertise, as seen in The Scoundrels. But you have to wait until the second half before you get to see A-Ren engage in a hand-to-hand combat. It may have been sparse, but at least Hsuan makes it count by effectively incorporating a mix of long takes and dynamic camerawork with none of the jittery nonsense.
The special effects are adequate, while the acting, mainly by Austin Lin and Vivian Sung, did a better-than-expected job playing against types in their dramatic, action-oriented roles. The movie also uses the recurring flashbacks efficiently, revealing bits and pieces of what really happens on that fateful night three years ago, which triggers the present-day bomb-on-a-train event. Originally premiered in Taiwan to a box-office success in early September, 96 Minutes has since emerged as one of the top-grossing local films in 2025.
