My Old Classmate

同桌的妳

China, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 98 mins.

Director: Guo Fan 郭帆.

Rating: 7/10.

Charming but unoriginal schooldays romance is helped by good leads, notably actress Zhou Dongyu.

STORY

New York, Jul 2013. After graduating from Xiamen University, Lin Yi (Lin Gengxin) moved to the US 10 years ago to realise fame and fortune in the world of IT. Out of the blue he receives an invitation to the wedding in Beijing of an old girlfriend, Zhou Xiaozhi (Zhou Dongyu), that triggers old memories. They first met in Sep 1993 when Zhou Xiaozhi (Zhang Zifeng) was a new pupil in his class at a Beijing junior high school, and Lin Yi immediately fell for her. Three years later he managed to transfer from science to arts in order to remain in the same class as her; two years later they went out together for the first time, to watch a film; and in May 1999, while taking part in an anti-US demonstration over the bombing of the China embassy in Belgrade, they held hands for the first time. Zhou Xiaozhi’s ambition had always been to go to Beijing University and then Stanford University in the US, and she told Lin Yi that he had to follow her in order to be her boyfriend. In the event, Lin Yi ended up in his second choice, Xiamen University, down south in Fujian province, where Zhou Xiaozhi also showed up. On the eve of the new millennium, she said he could be her boyfriend for five minutes a day (otherwise he’d take her for granted), and later increased it to 21 minutes a day when he passed an English proficiency exam. Then, in Sep 2001, Zhou Xiaozhi found she was pregnant, and fell ill after an abortion. She broke up with Lin Yi; but during the SARS crisis of 2002-03, when he was put under observation, they reunited. After graduation in 2003, he left for the US, with her promising to join him later. Or did she?

REVIEW

Charmingly put together, but with hardly an original bone its body, My Old Classmate 同桌的妳 assembles several themes that have been doing the rounds in recent Mainland cinema – the “China dream” of making it big abroad (American Dreams in China 中国合伙人, 2013), and the reunion of college pals (So Young 致我们终将逝去的青春, 2013; Forever Young 怒放之青春再见, 2014) – and wraps them round what is, essentially, a quirky but likeable schooldays romance with a will-they/won’t-they hook. A surprise twist at the 70-minute mark cleverly shifts the goalposts prior to the reunion finale but, despite an edgy wedding-dinner sequence in which the original gang is reunited, the film’s best moments are by then already over.

The film takes its Chinese title from an emblematic 1994 song (同桌的你, known in English as You Who Sat Next to Me) about youthful memories written by musician-filmmaker Gao Xiaosong 高晓松, who co-wrote the film’s script and also produced. (Originally sung by Beijing-born Lao Lang 老狼, it was re-recorded in 2010 by Taiwan actress-singer Liu Ruoying 刘若英 [René Liu].) As such – and none the worse for it – it’s in a long line of movies fabricated around popular song titles, and relies a lot on the chemistry between its two leads – 22-year-old actress Zhou Dongyu 周冬雨, who sprang to fame in Under the Hawthorn Tree 山楂树之恋 (2010), and 26-year-old actor Lin Gengxin 林更新 from Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon 狄仁杰之神都龙王 (2013). Though Lin consistently looks older than the petite, elfin-faced Zhou, the casting works well, as he, hopelessly in love since they shared a desk at junior high school, patiently surmounts every obstacle she constructs over a decade to test the depth of his feelings.

It’s a comic-romantic idea that could have made a whole movie on its own, rather than being a 70-minute flashback in a reunion romance. But so good is the performance by Zhou that she manages to make her character genuinely endearing rather than annoyingly frustrating, as she fends off her suitor’s advances by limiting the time he can officially be her boyfriend to a few minutes every day. Zhou’s naive freshness was one of the few decent things in The Allure of Tears 倾城之泪 (2011) and helped to transform The Palace 宫  锁沉香 (2013) into a classy costume drama. In Classmate she hits just the right notes with Lin, as a young woman who’s scared of being taken for granted and is even willing to sacrifice her own happiness rather than spoil the long-term dream of her beloved.

Like American Dreams in China, the movie references key events that will resonate with its target “’80s generation” audience: the 1999 anti-US demonstrations following the NATO bombing of China’s Belgrade embassy, the hope-filled dawn of the new millennium, its shattering with the 2001 World Trade Center debacle, China joining the WTO, and the 2002-03 SARS crisis. Apart from the last – which effects a reconciliation between them – the events don’t impact directly on the human drama, which is largely played lightly, with plenty of college pranks among the leads’ group of friends.

The film’s roommate friendships don’t run as deep as in So Young and the recent Forever Young, but are likeably drawn, especially on the male side, by musician Gong Ge’er 龚格尔 as the regulation tubby and singer Wang Xiaokun 王啸坤 as the smooth talker of the group. American-Chinese actor-presenter Sui Kai 隋凯 [Michael Sui] (the MC in breakdance drama Fearless 热血街头, 2012) is charmingly goofy as a foreign-looking student who pretends his Mandarin is poor in order to pull girls.

The script, by Gao and two other writers, flirts with an undeveloped idea of Lin’s character inventing a Facebook-style social platform, but is otherwise smooth. Commercials director Guo Fan 郭帆, who previously co-made the hugely ambitious but incomprehensible Lee’s Adventure 李献计历险记 (2011), starring Fang Zuming 房祖名 [Jaycee Chan], adopts a fairly straightforward approach this time, with occasional visual effects at the service of (rather than overwhelming) the characters. Widescreen photography by Liu Yin 刘寅 (Lee’s Adventure) and tight editing by Hong Kong veteran Zhang Jiahui 张嘉辉 [Cheung Ka-fai] top the professional technical contributions, and rousing use of Queen’s power ballad We Are the Champions is used in the finale.

For the record, the film title makes a small change to the song’s, replacing its final character 你 (“you”) with the identically pronounced 妳 (“you” female), as the movie is told from a male perspective.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Skywheel Entertainment (CN), Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN). Produced by Beijing Skywheel Entertainment (CN).

Script: Gao Xiaosong, Ao Li, Song Jinchuan. Photography: Liu Yin. Editing: Zhang Jiahui [Cheung Ka-fai]. Music: Gong Ge’er, Sha Weiqi. Art direction: An Bin. Costumes: Yang Jin. Sound: Jiang Jianqiang. Action: Fu Bin. Visual effects: Vision Unit Image (Beijing) Culture Communication.

Cast: Zhou Dongyu (Zhou Xiaozhi), Lin Gengxin (Lin Yi), Sui Kai [Michael Sui] (Tom Sui, the “overseas” student), Wang Xiaokun (Wang Erde, Lin Yi’s roommate), Gong Ge’er (Gong Bing, “Bee Man”, Lin Yi’s roommate), Li Mincheng (Li Xiao, Lin Yi’s roommate), Zhao Siyuan (Zhou Xiaoxi, Zhou Xiaozhi’s roommate), Cao Yang (Cao Yang, Zhou Xiaozhi’s roommate), Zhang Zifeng (young Zhou Xiaozhi), Shi Zhaoqi (Lin Yi’s father), Sun Deyuan (Sun, junior high-school teacher), Li Jiacheng (young Lin Yi), Jiang Zhigang (Feng Zhe, Zhou Xiaozhi’s fiance), Du Yang (Lin Yi’s mother), Zhou Haodong (Zhou Xiaozhi’s father), Zhang Xiaobei (university teacher), Dai Wenjie (university classmate), Kaylan Armstrong, John Bueno, David Kenneth Vaughan (international students), Michael J. Gralapp (Lin Yi’s American boss), Aoike Natsuko (Maggie, Lin Yi’s fiancee), Dan van Wert (Maggie’s lover), Dan Kern (priest), Zhao Zewen (fat class bully), Feng Qianhui (announcer), Chen Yirong (Miaomiao).

Release: China, 25 Apr 2014.

(Review originally posted on Film Business Asia, 27 Jul 2014.)