Lost in Thailand
人再囧途之泰囧
China, 2012, colour, 2.35:1, 104 mins.
Director: Xu Zheng 徐峥.
Rating: 8/10.
Reteaming of lead actors from road comedy Lost on Journey is more hyper but cleverly crafted.
STORY
Beijing, the present day. After inventing a miracle fuel additive that makes car petrol expand by 50%, scientist-businessman Xu Lang (Xu Zheng) realises he can make hundreds of millions of yuan in developing and licensing the product – which he’s named Supergas Petroleum Enhancer 油霸 – if he can get power of attorney from his company’s major shareholder, Zhou. Discovering that Zhou is in a temple in Thailand, on a spiritual meditation course, he decides to track him down immediately, despite the fact that his wife An’an (Tao Hong) is about to divorce him and take their daughter (Wang Yufei) with her. Xu Lang’s business partner and old friend, Gao Bo (Huang Bo), secretly wants to sell the discovery to a French company but gets wind of Xu’s plans and decides to follow him. Because of the last-minute booking by his secretary (Xie Nan), Xu Lang is forced to join a tour group; on the plane he sits next to the talkative Wang Bao (Wang Baoqiang), a spring onion pancake seller, who’s going on his dream holiday. Arriving at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, Xu Lang discovers Gao Bo is also there and has managed to install a tracker on his mobile phone. He slips the phone into Wang Bao’s pocket and hurries over to Don Mueang airport to take a flight to Chiang Mai. However, he accidentally leaves his passport in the taxi and, unable to buy a plane ticket, has to spend a night in Bangkok and take the train the following day. Outside the airport Wang Bao suddenly turns up with his phone, and so does Gao Bo, who’s still on his trail. Forced to check into a hotel for the night, Xu Lang finds he can’t shake either the well-intentioned but annoying Wang Bao or the unstoppable Gao Bo.
REVIEW
The chemistry between leads Xu Zheng 徐峥 and Wang Baoqiang 王宝强 that made Lost on Journey 人在囧途 (2010) one of the most delightful sleeper hits of its year survives happily intact in Lost in Thailand 人再囧途之泰囧 – another odd-couple road comedy but this time set in Southeast Asia and with ruffian comic Huang Bo 黄渤 joining in for good measure. With Xu again playing a duplicitous type (here, a research scientist who’s invented a miracle fuel additive) and Wang an innocent, child-like dunce (who sells spring onion pancakes), the basic dynamics of their relationship are the same and the resolution again clear from a mile off. However, as with any road movie it’s the journey that counts and, with scenic, touristic Chiangmai replacing the grim, wintry chaos of New Year travel in China, Thailand is in every way a much more commercial package. There’s less depth to the new characters, the humour is more overstated and less grounded in reality, and overall the movie packs less of an emotional punch in its latter stages; but it’s more slickly tooled and less digressive in its construction, halting on its path only briefly to review the plot and the central relationship.
Taking over the directing, producing and writing reins for the first time in his career, bald comic Xu, best known outside China as the nice divorcee in Love in the Buff 春娇与志明 (2012), has a peachy role for himself as a frantic scientist-businessman who rushes off to Thailand to get a vital signature so fast that he has to join a holiday group in economy. On the plane, he’s stuck next to Wang’s talkative tourist with a lucky cactus and a movie-star obsession who unwittingly screws up the businessman’s plans and is then used as a convenient travelling companion. With a blond mop of hair and ever-sunny idiocy, Wang (the idiot-savant in Mr. Tree Hello! 树先生, 2010, the serial murderer in Fairy Tale Killer 追凶, 2012) ramps up his performance in the same way as Xu, with Huang (Crazy Racer 疯狂的赛车, 2008; Cow 斗牛, 2009; Design of Death 杀生, 2012), almost unrecognisable in early scenes with glasses and funny hair, as the hissable villain always on their trail.
Surprisingly, the manic comedy doesn’t pall after the first half-hour, largely because it’s cleverly paced and doesn’t rely just on physical humour. Wang’s simpleton dialogue tropes are very funny, especially when being berated by the frustrated Xu, and a clever physical gag around the half-hour mark (when Wang’s character is searching Huang’s room) not only introduces an unexpected element into the film but also kicks into higher gear what has so far been an enjoyable but standard comedy. It’s left-field elements like that which help to keep Thailand fresh when it’s starting to look predictable, plus gags – such as a discussion about Thai ladyboys in a hotel lift – that end up with neat twists.
As in Journey, the denouement is hardly a surprise in character terms, and the theme of how money and greed can destroy friendships is a common one in today’s Mainland cinema. But the underlying warmth of the central relationship is what powers the movie, capped by a playful coda that revisits one of the obsessions of Wang’s character. Other roles are just bits, including Tao Hong 陶虹 as the exasperated wife of Xu’s executive.
On the technical side, Xu has wisely hired reliable talent, including d.p. Song Xiaofei 宋晓飞 (Cow; Design of Death) and ace art director Hao Yi 郝艺 (City of Life and Death 南京！南京！, 2009; No Man’s Land 无人区, 2013; Painted Skin: The Resurrection 画皮II, 2012), both of whom contribute to a mobile, natural-looking package tightly shaped by editor Tu Yiran 屠亦然 (Design of Death). The Chinese title, which plays on that of Journey, again uses the ancient character 囧 that’s been revived as a popular web emoticon for feelings like sadness, helplessness, annoyance or embarrassment.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), YYT Media (CN), Luck Road Culture Communication (CN), Huang Bo Studio (CN).
Script: Xu Zheng, Shu Huan, Ding Ding. Photography: Song Xiaofei. Editing: Tu Yiran. Music: Zhao Yingjun, Deng Ouge, Howie B. Art direction: Hao Yi. Styling: Hao Yi. Sound: Dong Xu. Action: Chen Shuo, Li Zhijie.
Cast: Xu Zheng (Xu Lang), Wang Baoqiang (Wang Bao), Huang Bo (Gao Bo), Tao Hong (An’an, Xu Lang’s wife), Fan Bingbing (herself), Xie Nan (Lili, Xu Lang’s secretary), Wang Yufei (Xiaodi, Xu Lang’s daughter).
Release: China, 12 Dec 2012.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 4 Jan 2013.)