Tiny Times 1

小时代

China/Taiwan, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 116 mins.

Director: Guo Jingming 郭敬明.

Associate director: Gao Bingquan 高炳权.

Rating: 7/10.

Super-glossy, very Shanghai tale of four girly friends and their loves and careers.

STORY

Shanghai, the present day. Lin Xiao (Yang Mi), 25, is a graduate of Shanghai University and shares a flat with her three friends since high-school days – smart and organised Gu Li (Guo Caijie), artistic Nan Xiang (Guo Biting) who designs clothes, and overweight Tang Wanru (Xie Yilin) whose only interest is eating. Lin Xiao applies for the job of personal assistant to Gong Ming (Feng Xiaoyue), the super-rich chief editor of style bible ME Magazine, and unexpectedly gets the job, despite falling flat on her face at the interview. She works under his unsmiling, devoted executive assistant Kitty (Shang Kan), catering to all of the control-freak, germaphobic Gong Ming’s needs. Since high school, Lin Xiao had been in love with Jian Xi (Li Ruimin) but had broken up with him because of Jian Xi’s relationship with Lin Quan (Yang Yang) and her own ambiguous feelings towards Zhou Chongguang (Chen Xuedong), Gong Ming’s younger step-brother and now a star columnist at ME. Gu Li, who got a top double degree in accounting and international finance, also joins ME as chief financial officer and then advertising director. Her boyfriend is Gu Yuan (Ke Zhendong), who comes under pressure from his snobbish mother, Ye Chuanping (Wang Lin), to marry Yuan Yi (Ding Qiaowei), the daughter of his family’s business partner. Long-haired, natural beauty Nan Xiang, a fine arts award-winner, is interested in clothes design. Her first love was Xi Cheng (Jiang Chao), who gave her a lot of pain and from whom she finally decides to break after pressure from her friends. Tang Wanru can’t seem to attract a boyfriend, but dreams of Wei Hai (Du Tianhao), a onetime boyfriend of Nan Xiang. As the time nears for the 7th Annual Shanghai Fashion Awards, for which Lin Xiao has been given responsibility and in which Nan Xiang is entering her own designs, the four girls’ friendship and fortunes are tested.

REVIEW

Mainland cinema of the past five years has not been short on movies celebrating careerism, the new consumerism and how these can impact personal friendships – often in rom-coms set in the business (Go Lala Go! 杜拉拉升职记, 2010; Dear Enemy 亲密敌人, 2011) or fashion worlds (Esquire Runway 时尚先生, 2007; Love in Cosmo 摇摆de婚约, 2010; Color Me Love 爱出色, 2010). In that respect, there’s nothing especially new about Tiny Times 1 小时代 which, like recent hit So Young 致我们终将逝去的青春 (2013) – though at a much more glossy, superficial level – follows four female friends from their teens to mid-20s, through boyfriend problems and ups-and-downs at work.

Adapted from his own 2008 novel by first-time director Guo Jingming 郭敬明, a celebrity writer who also owns several teenie magazines, Tiny Times 1 has cartoony characters and zero emotional depth but doesn’t take itself at all seriously and gets by on production values, visual style and a young cast, led by Mainland hottie Yang Mi 杨幂 (Love in the Buff 春娇与志明, 2012; Painted Skin: The Resurrection 画皮II, 2012), that shows an infectious sense of fun.

Guo’s book was already adapted in 2012 as a 40-part TV series, directed by Taiwan’s Qu Youning 瞿友宁 (My Whispering Plan 杀人计划, 2002), with a completely different cast. Though set in Shanghai and largely funded by Mainland money, the film version also has a strong Taiwan element, including the composer, editor and art director; d.p. Che Liangyi 车亮逸 [Randy Che] (Make Up 命运化妆师, 2011; Mayday 3DNA 五月天  追梦, 2011); two producers from youth hit You Are the Apple of My Eye 那些年，我们一起追的女孩。 (2011); and, billed as “associate director”, TV’s Gao Bingquan 高炳权, who made his big-screen debut as co-director of foodie rom-com The Soul of Bread 爱的面包魂 (2012) starring Chen Yanxi 陈妍希 [Michelle Chen] .

The on-screen sense of youth “cool” – from metrosexual boys to girly girls – also largely stems from its Taiwan-heavy cast, with Apple lead Ke Zhendong 柯震东 as the main character’s dopey boyfriend, half-Welsh Monga actor Feng Xiaoyue 凤小岳 [Rhydian Vaughan] as a control-freak publisher, quarter-American Guo Biting 郭碧婷 [Bea Hayden] as a fashion designer, plus Guo Caijie 郭采洁 [Amber Kuo], Du Tianhao 杜天皓 and style anti-diva  Xie Yilin 谢依霖, aka Miss Lin (hold住姐), as the tubby member of the female quartet. It’s to the film’s credit that they meld easily with the Mainland cast, led by Yang at her most klutzy-charming and supported on the male side by Chen Xuedong 陈学冬 and singer Jiang Chao 姜潮.

Unlike most lifestyle rom-coms, Tiny Times 1 is pitched at a female teen fanbase, with acres of fashion statements, lots of girl talk and bitching and dreamy interludes, and handsome guys. Guo’s script, which omits several characters from the book and TV drama, leaps here and there without much dramatic continuity, and climaxes at a fashion show (of course). None of the characters are remotely believable, and the underlying message that “poor” people can also make it in life is pretty token. But it’s the ride that’s important – capped by end credits that show the whole cast fooling around, as themselves, on a dance floor. It’s all very modish, very aspirational, and very Shanghai.

CREDITS

Presented by He Li Chen Guang Media (Beijing) (CN), EE-Media (CN), Star Ritz Productions (TW), H&R Century Pictures (CN), Beijing Forbidden City Film (CN), Le Vision Pictures (Tianjin) (CN), Le Vision Pictures (CN), Shenzhen Desen International Media (CN), Amazing Film Studio (CN), Comic Rich Film & TV Culture (Beijing) (CN), Mission Media Investment (Shanghai) (CN). Produced by Star Ritz Productions (TW), Desen International Media (CN).

Script: Guo Jingming. Novel: Guo Jingming. Photography: Che Liangyi [Randy Che]. Editing: Gu Xiaoyun. Music: Hou Zhijian. Music direction: Liang Yongtai, Wen Zhen. Production design: Huang Wei [Rosalie Huang]. Art direction: Huang Zhihong. Sound: Du Duzhi. Visual effects: Herbgarden.

Cast: Yang Mi (Lin Xiao), Ke Zhendong (Gu Yuan, Gu Li’s boyfriend), Guo Caijie [Amber Kuo] (Gu Li/Lily), Feng Xiaoyue [Rhydian Vaughan] (Gong Ming, ME Magazine chief editor), Guo Biting [Bea Hayden] (Nan Xiang), Xie Yilin (Tang Wanru/Ruby), Chen Xuedong (Zhou Chongguang, Gong Ming’s younger step-brother), Li Ruimin (Jian Xi, Lin Xiao’s earlier dream man), Shang Kan (Kitty, Gong Ming’s executive assistant), Jiang Chao (Xi Cheng, Nan Xiang’s first love), Du Tianhao (Wei Hai, Tang Wanru’s dream lover), Ding Qiaowei (Yuan Yi, Gu Yuan’s arranged girlfriend), Wang Lin (Ye Chuanping, Gu Yuan’s mother), Yang Yang (Lin Quan, Jian Xi’s girlfriend), Zhang Zimu (young Gu Li), Zhu Zhen (security guard at Gong’s home), Li Chen (driver at Yuan home).

Premiere: Shanghai Film Festival (Focus China), 16 Jun 2013.

Release: China, 27 Jun 2013; Taiwan, 19 Jul 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 17 Jun 2013.)