The Queens

我是女王

China, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 104 mins.

Director: Yi Nengjing 伊能静 [Annie Yi].

Rating: 5/10.

Super-glossy mature chickflick sports a lot of name talent in the service of not very much.

STORY

Shanghai, the present day. Actress Annie Wang (Song Hye-gyo), 33, who hasn’t worked in two years after splitting with her longtime lover, actor Zhang Yi (Qin Hao), is devastated when he finally marries another actress, Melissa (Yi Nengjing). She is emotionally supported by her two best friends, Beijing PR manager Katie (Chen Qiao’en) and older gallery owner Tina (Wu Junmei). However, the ambitious Melissa also wages war with Annie on a career level, professionally humiliating her. At the same time, both idealistic Katie and cynical Tina have relationship problems of their own – Katie with her lawyer boyfriend Tony (Yang Youning), who also has another woman in his life, and Tina with her first love, laundry owner Jiawei (Jiang Wu), who has suddenly reappeared in her life with a wife and child attached. Meanwhile, Annie has become involved with both young photographer Mark (Dou Xiao), who falls for her and tries to sort her out, and rich kid Wang Ziyu (Zheng Yuanchang), who’s heavily under the thumb of his mother (Tian Li), a high-powered businesswoman.

REVIEW

Adapted from the pseudonymous online book I Am a Queen: What Those Bad Men Taught Me 我是女王  那些坏男人教会我的事 – which went on to spawn a sequel in 2009 – The Queens 我是女王 is much more interesting for the talent behind it than what it actually achieves as a film. A super-glossy mature chickflick, centred on three Shanghai women and their men problems, it seemingly rides on the coat-tails of the whole fashionista/BFF nonsense of the Tiny Times 小时代 movies (2013-15) but without that quartet’s sense of trashy style and command of tone. More significantly, it marks the directing debut of 46-year-old Taiwan actress-singer Yi Nengjing 伊能静 – aka Annie Shizuka Inoh and, more recently, Annie Yi – who rose to fame on the back of three films for Taiwan director Hou Xiaoxian (Good Men, Good Women 好男好女, 1995; Goodbye South, Goodbye 南国再见，南国, 1996; Flowers of Shanghai 海上花, 1998) and then disappeared from international view.

As well as supporting roles in films like costume drama The Assassins 铜雀台 (2012), Yi recently produced and had script input on the well-acted Mainland drama Rock Hero 摇滚英雄 (2015), starring Mainland actor Qin Hao 秦昊, who became her second husband in Mar 2015. As well as casting Qin in a supporting role in The Queens, Yi also gives herself a plum part as a super-bitch who tries to destroy the lead character’s acting career as well as nabbing her man. It’s all a far cry from the mostly low-key performances she gave in Hou’s super-arty movies some two decades ago.

Yi turns in a professional looking product, sensibly hiring top technicians, from Taiwan d.p. Li Pingbin 李屏宾 [Mark Lee] to Hong Kong editor Zhang Jiahui 张家辉 [Cheung Ka-fai] and stylist Chen Siqin 陈思勤, all of whom assure a smooth ride even when the dialogue is borderline ridiculous. On the acting side, she’s also recruited some strong personalities, from China’s Jiang Wu 姜武 and Wu Junmei 邬君梅 [Vivian Wu] as a mature couple to younger actors like Taiwan’s Chen Qiao’en 陈乔恩 (as a mercurial BFF) and Yang Youning 杨祐宁 (as her boyfriend), plus China-born, Canada-raised Dou Xiao 窦骁 [Shawn Dou] as a young suitor of the forlorn lead.

All perform creditably within the slim demands of the script, and some more so: Chen (The Allure of Tears 倾城之泪, 2011; The Continent 后会无期, 2014) manages to balance leggy ditziness with a smidgeon of emotional depth, Dou (Under the Hawthorn Tree 山楂树之恋, 2010; Wolf Totem 狼图腾, 2015) shows a nice light touch and looks much more relaxed than usual, and the veteran Wu just hams up her role of a cynical 40-something (and keeps calling Chen’s character Candy instead of Katie) . Taiwan TV actress Tian Li 田丽, 48, briefly adds some bite in a classy cameo as a domineering businesswoman. Enjoyable as these performances are, however, they underline how the film can’t make up its mind whether it’s a rom-com or a romantic drama.

In her third outing in a Chinese movie – following a small role as the dutiful wife in The Grandmaster 一代宗师 (2013) and a more extensive one in the two-part The Crossing 太平轮 (2014-15) – elegant South Korean actress Song Hye-gyo 송혜교 | 宋慧乔, 34, takes top billing. She lets her hair down much more here, as an actress who has to evaluate her life – and the men and BFFs in it – after being ditched by her longtime lover (Qin). But she still looks Korean rather than Chinese and carries herself in a Korean way, further underlining the rather forced chemistry between the three lead actresses. Song can’t bring much conviction to her dialogue – in which she’s revoiced, anyway, by a native speaker – but like the rest of the cast goes through the motions in a professional way.

The film’s dubious message boils down to “love yourself and then others will love you”. For no valid plot reason, the film has a short scenic segment set abroad – Istanbul and Cappadocia, in Turkey – almost de rigueur nowadays in Mainland romances. The Yi-produced Rock Hero and its director Tan Hua 谭华 get a jokey nod in an awards ceremony near the end.

CREDITS

Presented by Desen International Media (Beijing) (CN), Desen International Media Group (CN), Jing Guan Qi Sheng Film & TV Culture (CN). Produced by Desen International Media (Beijing) (CN), Jing Guan Qi Sheng Film & TV Culture (CN).

Script: Wang An’an, Gu Yi, Yi Nengjing [Annie Yi]. Online book: Nvwang (“Queen”). Photography: Li Pingbin [Mark Lee]. Editing: Zhang Jiahui [Cheung Ka-fai]. Music: Chen Jianqi. Art direction: Chen Siqin. Styling: Chen Siqin. Sound: Du Duzhi. Visual effects: Evan Ricks.

Cast: Song Hye-gyo (Annie Wang), Dou Xiao [Shawn Dou ](Mark), Chen Qiao’en (Katie Chen/Candy), Yang Youning (Tony), Wu Junmei [Vivian Wu] (Tina), Jiang Wu (Jiawei, Candy’s boyfriend), Zheng Yuanchang (Wang Ziyu), Qin Hao (Zhang Yi, Annie’s former lover), Yi Nengjing [Annie Yi] (Melissa, Zhang Yi’s wife), Sun Yizhou (Li Ao), Han Dantong (Tongtong, Katie’s friend), Li Jing (fortune teller), Wang Yue (Melissa’s mother), Dong Zhicheng (Melissa’s father), Tian Li (Zhang Qingyu, Ziyu’s mother), Zhao Yihuan (herself).

Release: China, 16 Apr 2015.

(Read review of Rock Hero here: https://sino-cinema.com/2015/12/02/review-rock-hero/.)