Impossible

不可思异

China, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 3-D, 98 mins.

Director: Sun Zhou 孙周.

Rating: 5/10.

So-so family comedy about a lorry driver and a pesky alien isn’t big enough to support all the VFX.

STORY

Guangdong province, southern China, the present day. One night, as a meteor shower hits the Earth, long-distance lorry driver Tang Liguo (Wang Baoqiang) has his vehicle blown off the road in the hills near Yingde. While he’s unconscious, a flying ball-like alien scans him and his laptop computer, as well as destroying the goods he’s transporting. In Guangzhou, the provincial capital, his client Tian Jing (Xin Zhilei) demands compensation for the ruined goods. Tang Liguo says he’ll help her get compensation on the delivery order but then accidentally drops it down the toilet. Magically, however, a “spirit” inside his laptop creates a duplicate. However, Tang Liguo’s boss, Wang (Xiaoshenyang), says he has no money to compensate anyone: apart from already owing RMB15 million to loan sharks, he’s also being pressured by avaricious businessman Yi Ge (Da Peng) to take a loan from him. Tang Liguo’s young daughter, Tang Guo (Pan Miduo), died in a car accident three years ago, and his wife has since left him; but he still feels his daughter’s presence in a mysterious way. One day the flying ball-like alien appears from his laptop, announcing he is Memeda 么么哒, an interstellar explorer on a data-gathering mission from Planet 452B; he presents Tang Liguo with the gift of a new car – inside his fourth-floor flat. Nobody believes Tang Liguo’s story, except for Tian Jing, for whom Memeda creates a shop and a new set of luxury goods to sell inside it. Wang is also converted when, after being tortured by the loan sharks, he’s saved by Memeda during a suicide attempt. After spending time with him, Tian Jing starts to take a shine to the clumsy, child-like Tang Liguo. But then Yi Ge, having heard about Memeda, suggests a deal whereby Tang Liguo helps him to capture the alien.

REVIEW

A so-so family comedy about a lorry driver and a pesky alien, Impossible 不可思异 is largely a showcase for the dorky, child-like persona of Mainland actor Wang Baoqiang 王宝强, 31, who has often played victims (Blind Shaft 盲井, 2003; Mr. Tree Hello！树先生, 2010) and crazed villains (Fairy Tale Killer 追凶, 2012; Kung Fu Jungle 一个人的武林, 2014) but is more identified now with comic roles, often with an action element that exploits his martial-arts background (Lost in Thailand 人再囧途之泰囧, 2012; Monk Comes Down the Mountain 道士下山, 2015). Impossible shows that Wang can be very good as part of an ensemble but can’t carry a film on his own, however much he plays the cute card and throws himself around. Apart from lacking a real lead – as well as much of a plot – the film also has a very didactic tone about civic responsibility, parental duty and various health issues that won’t much interest the action/sci-fi crowd, and when the VFX finally take over near the end they’re nothing to write home about.

The biggest surprise is the name on the can. Director Sun Zhou 孙周, 61, has had some large gaps in his feature-film career but his previous seven features – spread over almost 30 years – have included some beauties: the magical Heartstrings 心香 (1992), the flashy but arresting Zhou Yu’s Train 周渔的火车 (2002), the espionage drama Qiuxi 秋喜 (2009) and one of China’s classiest rom-coms, I Do 我愿意 (2012). With a background in both photography and acting, Sun, at his best, can serve up striking looking, beautifully played fare in which neither element cancels out the other. At their heart, his films are character-driven, and therein lies the problem with Impossible: on the one hand, Sun doesn’t provide a big enough dramatic frame to support the weight of the visual effects; on the other, though he seems more interested in the smaller moments than the bigger ones,  the thin script generates little emotional swell. A backstory of the main character pining for his dead daughter ends up as fanciful rather than heart-tugging, despite a striking sequence halfway through in which the alien transports him back to the day of her death.

As a simple lorry driver who’s a born loser, Wang is physically well cast but lacks screen heft; he also has minimal screen chemistry, and no sexual vibe, with actress Xin Zhilei 辛芷蕾 (horror Bunshinsaba II 笔仙II, 2013; arty Crosscurrent 长江图, 2016), who, despite an unflattering haircut, gives one of her most forceful performances so far as a wannabe luxury-goods entrepreneur. Xin often overshadows Wang in their scenes together, as does hammy comedian Da Peng 大鹏 (Jianbing Man 煎饼侠, 2015) as the cartoon villain. Wang finds a more simpatico screen partner in TV comedian Xiaoshenyang 小沈阳, 34, who’s more low-key as the bankrupt transport boss hounded by loan sharks.

Shot in late 2013, the film was held up during post-production when Hong Kong comic Du Wenze 杜汶泽 [Chapman To], who originally played the villain, made online anti-China remarks in early 2014 that sparked a boycott of his films by Mainland audiences. Du was digitally replaced by Toronto-based VFX supervisor Chen Zitao 陈子弢 [Adrian Chan] with Mainland comic Da Peng, who acted against a green screen and was then pasted into the film. The surgery is virtually invisible. Other VFX are okay, especially those for the flying ball-like alien (a kind of blue-eyed cat’s head with gills) that exploit the 3-D. A giant monster that forms the climax is much less impressive, not helped by the fact that by then the script has pretty much given up.

CREDITS

Presented by Dongguan Star Union Skykee Film & Media Advertisement (CN), China Film (CN), Pearl River Film Group (CN), Huace Pictures (CN), Hefei Radio & TV Investment (CN). Produced by Zhejiang Dongyang Star Union Skykee Film & Media Investment (CN), China Film (CN), Pearl River Film Group (CN).

Script: Sun Zhou, Hu Jiang, Ding Xiaoyang, Zhou Feng. Photography: Jian Liwei, Guo Daming. Editing: Xu Hongyu [Derek Hui]. Music: Deddy Tzur, Daniel Alcheh. Art direction: Shen Xiaochong. Styling: Li Min. Sound: Liu Yinghao, Chris Goodes, James Ashton. Action: Li Zhongzhi [Nicky Li]. Visual effects: Daniel Jeannette, John Dietz, Luo Weihao, Chen Zitao [Adrian Chan] (Pixomondo). Alien design: Lin Zitao [Adrian Chan], Ma Jianxiang, Sun Zhou. 3-D: Li Zhaohua. Executive direction: Hu Jiang.

Cast: Wang Baoqiang (Tang Liguo), Xiaoshenyang (Wang, Tang Liguo’s boss), Da Peng [Dong Chengpeng] (Yi Ge/Brother One), Yin Zheng (Weikang, loan shark), Cheng Yi (Tian Ye), Xin Zhilei (Tian Jing), Pan Miduo (Tang Guo/Candy, Tang Liguo’s late daughter), Pu Chaoying (Auntie Li), Yu Kailei (Li Ergou), Wang Weibo (Memeda actor), Zeng Shuai (Xiaolizi), Shao Yuhua, Su Yuhua, Wang Jieran (Yi Ge’s men).

Release: China, 4 Dec 2015.