Lock Me Up Tie Him Down

完美假妻168

Hong Kong/China, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 93 mins.

Director: Liu Zhenwei 刘镇伟 [Jeff Lau].

Rating: 7/10.

Hong Kong maverick Liu Zhenwei [Jeff Lau] is on best form with this black comedy about a cat-and-mouse game between a kidnapper and a housewife.

STORY

Shenzhen city, Guangdong province, southern China, the present day, June. One morning, returning from shopping, housewife He Shaoqun (Xu Ruoxuan) is confronted in her flat by a man in black who tells her he’s kidnapped her husband of eight years, Zheng Guofu (Wang Xuebing), and has chained him in a bath with an electric generator attached. The man, Huo Ke (He Jiong), says he just wants He Shaoqun to be his wife for seven days – 168 hours – and then her husband will be returned. That evening Huo Ke comes back for a dinner cooked by He Shaoqun; when bedtime arrives, however, he tells her to sleep on the sofa. Next morning she searches his wallet – and later his mobile phone – but finds nothing to identify him. However, by comparing the distance travelled each day in his car, she works out he’s holding her husband within a five-kilometre radius of the flat. She follows him to an apartment building, where Huo Ke keeps a dog; that evening, she sneaks out to the flat again and, using Huo Ke’s keys, goes inside. Her husband appears to have escaped but she finds an interesting document in Huo Ke’s safe. In the meantime, Huo Ke has realised where He Shaoqun has gone, and arrives at his flat just as she’s leaving. When he gets back to her flat, she’s waiting for him and stands her ground. Meanwhile, Zheng Guofu, who has been wandering the night streets, arrives at the flat of a young woman, Wenli (Jiang Mengjie), and presents her with a gun.

REVIEW

One of the most under-rated comedies by Hong Kong maverick Liu Zhenwei 刘镇伟 [Jeff Lau], Lock Me Up Tie Him Down 完美假妻168 is also a comparatively rare excursion into the present-day for a writer-director whose career, especially during the past 20 years, has been more intimately bound up with costume and martial-arts spoofs. The problem with Liu’s flms has always been how to marry his fecund imagination and cross-genre humour with a disciplined structure that helps the audience along. In Lock Me Up he gets the balance between content and structure just right: a precision black comedy that starts with a wild proposition and manages to sustain its twists and invention until the end. Topped by fine performances from Taiwan actress-singer Xu Ruoxuan 徐若瑄 [Vivian Hsu], in her last major role prior to marriage and motherhood, and popular Mainland presenter-actor He Jiong 何炅, in his first leading role, the modestly mounted movie unfortunately managed only a blah RMB29 million at the China box office.

The film was one of two by Liu (the other being costume romp Just Another Margin 大话天仙) that were released only a month apart in early 2014, breaking an almost three-year silence by the film-maker since East Meets West 东成西就2011 (2011). That crazed, pop-culture mash-up had closed a difficult decade for Liu as he’d thrashed around for an identity as a director, as well as making now-forgotten movies like Kungfu Cyborg: Metallic Attraction 机器侠 (2009) and The Fantastic Water Babes 出水芙蓉 (shot 2007, released 2010). Since “returning” with Margin and Lock Me Up, Liu has largely concentrated on costume/martial-arts comedies, but with only one major box-office success, A Chinese Odyssey: Part Three 大话西游3 (2016).

Set in modern-day Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, the plot focuses on a former actress-turned-housewife (Xu) who’s been married for eight years but has no children and is suffering from insomnia. One morning, returning from shopping, she’s confronted by a mysterious stranger (He) who says he’s kidnapped her husband and simply wants her to be his wife for a week, after which her husband will be released. It’s soon made clear that sex is not part of the deal, so the challenge for the wife is to find out – in an elaborate cat-and-mouse game – the kidnapper’s identity and her husband’s location while obediently fulfilling her role as a housewife. While gently satirising social roles, the film cleverly crosses back and forth between genres, from comedy to drama via thriller moments, as well as gradually revealing the backstory behind the whole situation. It’s a high-wire act that could so easily have gone wrong, but Liu’s script (as usual, under his writing pseudonym Ji An 技安) pretty much succeeds. Even after the crazy reason for the stranger’s actions is revealed, the film manages to tie up all its various strands, going right back to the housewife’s own childhood.

Then in her late 30s, but still looking a decade younger, Xu rises to the demands of a tricky role with a performance that embraces all of the film’s shifting moods, from polite exchanges to moments of pantomime action. The similarly aged He, reined back here, mirrors her in perfect synch, as do Mainland actor Wang Xuebing 王学兵 (in a smaller role as the husband) and a host of other names in cameo roles, including Hong Kong’s Hui Yinghong 惠英红 [Kara Hui] and Chen Xunqi 陈勋奇 [Frankie Chan] as the housewife’s parents, plus Mainland dancer-turned-actress Jiang Mengjie 蒋梦婕 (then largely known from TV) as a loopy goodtime girl. Running jokes by Mainland stand-up comic Li Jing 李菁 as a frustrated policeman and Hong Kong’s Yang Shimin 杨诗敏 as a nosy neighbour perk the momentum without diverting the mood into farce.

The expert shifts in mood – with only slight lapses around the hour mark, as the plot reveals its secrets – are reflected by the film’s production values which, though modest and largely set in a single flat, have a sleek look, with richly-toned widescreen photography by Hong Kong d.p. Huang Baomin 黄宝民, plus smart editing by veteran Mai Zishan 麦子善 [Marco Mak] and styling/costume design by Liu Tianlan 刘天兰, all of whom worked on East Meets West. A soundtrack mostly composed of classical favourites (Tchaikovsky, Rakhmaninov, Johann Strauss, Prokofiev) helps to maintain the slightly fairytale/irreal tone.

The film’s Chinese title literally means “A Perfect Fake Wife 24/7” but also sounds similar in Mandarin to “A Perfect Holiday 24/7”. The term “168”, as well as meaning “24/7” (i.e. 168 hours), also carries the connotation in Chinese of “good luck hereon”.

CREDITS

Presented by Shenzhen Bright Art Film (CN), Beijing Yunying Bona (CN), China Film Stellar Media Theatre Chain (CN), Shenzhen Film Distribution & Screening (CN). Produced by Golden Gate Productions (HK).

Script: Ji An [Liu Zhenwei]. Photography: Huang Baomin. Editing: Mai Zishan [Marco Mak]. Music: Zhao Zengxi, Zhang Renjie. Art direction: He Jianxiong. Costume design: Liu Tianlan. Styling: Liu Tianlan. Sound: Zeng Jingxiang [Kinson Tsang]. Visual effects: Zheng Wenzheng.

Cast: Xu Ruoxuan [Vivian Hsu] (He Shaoqun/Tiffany), He Jiong (Huo Ke/Yang Wei/Tan Guanxi), Wang Xuebing (Zheng Guofu), Hui Yinghong [Kara Hui] (He Shaoqun’s mother), Chen Xunqi [Frankie Chan] (He Shaoqun’s father), Li Jing (Yi Zhijian, policeman), Yang Shimin (Mrs. Chen, neighbour), Wu Chenchen (Cong Tou/Onion Head, Mrs. Chen’s son), Jiang Mengjie (Wenli), Chen Bolin (director in commercial), Chen Yanxi [Michelle Chen] (adult Luo Lichang), Cai Xu Kun (young Huo Ke).

Release: Hong Kong, 24 Apr 2014; China, 4 Mar 2014.