No Limit
无极限之危情速递
China, 2011, colour, 2.35:1, 91 mins.
Director: Fu Huayang 傅华阳.
Rating: 4/10.
Messy mixture of action and young romance, partly redeemed by its two young leads.
STORY
Shanghai, the present day. One morning in Jiexin Square, mountain bike enthusiast Wu Jixian (Zhang Han), who works for an express delivery service, bumps into Xiao’an (Zheng Shuang) when she’s photographing her skateboarding friend Tornado (Cao Shuai). Wu Jixian steals a kiss from her and Xiao’an determines to get even. Inadvertently, however, both become caught up in the struggle for a box containing a live parrot that a pharmacology professor, Jia Zhenjie (Wang Hui), has brought back from Southeast Asia and which could help develop a breakthrough toxin. Xiao’an steals the box when Wu Jixian is delivering it to the professor’s home, and Wu Jixian later recovers it when he “rescues” her from an embarrassing birthday party thrown by her wealthy father. Xiao’an is kidnapped by Nengrang (Shi Yanneng), a martial-arts disciple of The Master (Fu Huayang) who’s gone rogue and wants to sell the parrot to some Japanese. The Master, from whom Jia Zhenjie stole the parrot, sends his four female martial-arts pupils after Nengrang; among them is Nana (Hu Mengyuan), whom Nengrang had tricked into helping him.
REVIEW
No Limit 无极限之危情速递 makes an interesting case study in trying to be a bit of everything and ending up with not much of anything. Part light youth movie, part X-treme sports film, part meet-cute romance (released on Chinese Valentine’s Day) and part martial-arts quickie, the result is like a Hong Kong B movie made 20 years ago but updated to modern-day Shanghai. Commercials producer and TV director Fu Huayang 傅华阳, who made China’s first musical youth movie, the silly but fun Kung Fu Hip Hop 精武门 (2008) with Fan Bingbing 范冰冰 and Hong Kong’s Chen Xiaochun 陈小春 [Jordan Chan], doesn’t seem to know what to focus on here, and comes up with a throwaway film (again using a mixture of Mainland and Hong Kong names behind the camera) that keeps veering from enjoyably trashy via genuinely charming to cartoonishly awful.
Some of the best fight material (visible in flashbacks to an undeveloped backstory) seems to have been squeezed out in the final cut, and the two real martial artists in the cast – Shi Yanneng 释彦能 (Shaolin 新少林寺, 2011) and MMA female champion Tang Jin 唐金 – aren’t properly exploited beyond a couple of brief, building-wrecking fights. The mountain-bike and skateboarding elements are no more than okay, and model-cum-web personality Hu Mengyuan 胡梦媛 (formerly known as Hu Yuner 胡允儿) is unconvincing as one of a team of killer babes.
The best material is in the meet-cute scenes between bright young stars Zhang Han 张翰 (Hearty Paws 2 마음이2, 2010) and Zheng Shuang 郑爽, who made their names together in the TV drama series Meteor Shower 一起来看流星雨 (2009) and Meteor Shower II 一起又看流星雨 (2010), and whose pairing is the main point of the enterprise. An amazing total of eight people worked on the nothing script. Hopefully, more can be expected from Fu’s forthcoming release Angel Warriors 铁血娇娃 (2013), a jungle-set female action movie starring Yu Nan 余男.
CREDITS
Presented by Antaeus Film (CN), Hillywood Film & TV Development (CN). Produced by Antaeus Film (CN), Shanghai Shenbing Tianjiang Film (CN).
Script: Fu Huayang, Xu Shalang, Yang Qianling, Zhou Li’na, Wu Youyin, Zhao Shenming, Li Ping, Zhao Yu. Photography: Guo Zhenming, Xiao Weihong. Editing: Zhong Weizhao [Azrael Chung]. Music: Hei Jian. Art direction: Guo Shaoqiang. Costumes: Chen Xiaoyi. Styling: Bai Xipo. Action: Ma Yucheng. Martial arts: Fan Zhanhong. Executive director: Xu Yin.
Cast: Zhang Han (Wu Jixian), Zheng Shuang (Xiao’an/Ann), Shi Yanneng (Nengrang), Hu Mengyuan (Nana, Third Sister), Fu Huayang (The Master), Hong Bin (delivery company head), Cao Shuai (Tornado), Zhou Tongtong (Fourth Sister), Jiang Yufei (First Sister), Tang Jin (Second Sister), Liu Fuyi (Kiki), Zhang Chi (Thunder & Lightning), Yan Xiayan (delivery boy), Yan Chen (Wheels), Song Chenyi (Iron Skin), Yang Chunqing (Hard Knock), Fu Mulan (bird girl), Zhou Qiong (Rose, Wu Jixian’s fat work colleague), Wang Hui (Jia Zhenjie, professor).
Release: China, 12 Aug 2011.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 21 Mar 2012.)