Ex-Files 2: The Backup Strikes Back

前任2  备胎反击战

China, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 107 mins.

Director: Tian Yusheng 天羽生.

Rating: 7/10.

Remake of a South Korean rom-com improves on the original, with small tweaks and great lead chemistry.

STORY

Southern China, the present day. Geeky Yi Ze (Guo Caijie) has always dreamed of becoming a commercials director but, after seven years as an assistant director, her boss Pan Sen (Hou Sen) still hasn’t delivered on his promise. She has no career and no love life. When Pan Sen tells her the company’s next job will be with famous singer-turned-actor Yu Fei (Zheng Kai), she remembers how, seven years ago, she gave Yu Fei some help when he was a long-haired nobody trying to enter a talent competition. Arriving at the beach shoot, Yu Fei remembers Yi Ze and pays her special attention; Yi Ze even directs the commercial when Pan Sen falls asleep. After getting drunk together, Yi Ze and Yu Fei end up in bed; but next morning he leaves for work and she hardly hears from him again. Lovesick, she visits a part-Korean noodle chef-cum-fortune teller, Master Tian (Wang Chuanjun), who tells her she’s confusing a one-night stand with a relationship and not to end up as a “spare tyre” by taking it all too seriously. He coaches her in how to fight back, first by changing her image into a confident career woman. Yu Fei is bowled over by Yi Ze’s new appearance and, when she makes him feel guilty for her being fired after the commercial needed redoing, he offers to do the reshoot for free if she directs. The reshoot is a success but, when Yu Fei tries to coaxe her back into bed again, she declines, saying he was just “average” last time. Yu Fei is even more upset when he hears he’s been teamed in a commercial with popular actor Li Xianghe (Zhang Yixing), which Yi Ze is to direct. The truth is that his acting career has stalled, he’s only good for commercials, and his agency wants him to return to singing with a comeback concert. But his vocal chords are not up to the job any more.

REVIEW

Not for the first time – viz. Miss Granny 重反20岁 (2015) – a Chinese remake improves on its South Korean original with Ex-Files 2: The Backup Strikes Back 前任2  备胎反击战, a smart adaptation of How to Use Guys with Secret Tips 남자사용설명서 (Yi Weon-seok 이원석 | 李元硕, 2013) that sails along with a slim-line, cleverly re-tooled script and tip-top chemistry between its two leads, China’s resident cocky guy Zheng Kai 郑恺 and Taiwan’s elfin actress-singer Guo Caijie 郭采洁 [Amber Kuo]. Though writer-director Tian Yusheng 天羽生 has co-opted the remake into his Ex-Files series, it has no connection with the first film, EX-Files 前任攻略 (2014), apart from also having Zheng in the cast (curiously as a character with the same name but different background). None of that should detract from a thoroughly entertaining rom-com which sees him and Guo on top form.

It’s been a smooth rise for Chengdu-born Tian, 33, who studied at Beijing’s Central Academy of Drama and in 2005, on the eve of graduation, set up the scriptwriting team Holy Palace Creative Workshop 圣堂工作室 with friends. The group had a summer sleeper hit with Lost on Journey 人在囧途 (2010), directed by Hong Kong’s Ye Weimin 叶伟民 [Raymond Yip] and a key film in driving the careers of actors Wang Baoqiang 王宝强 and Xu Zheng 徐峥. After Zheng’s unofficial follow-up, Lost in Thailand 人再囧途之泰囧 (2012), proved a mega-hit, Tian was determined to take the directing reins himself with Holy Palace’s script EX-Files, an adaptation of a semi-autobiographical novel by actress Yao Xingtong 姚星彤 set in a world of ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends. Taking a solid RMB130 million, it’s now been aced by the success of the current film, which grossed twice as much.

The original South Korean film (see poster, left) was an enjoyably breezy rom-com set in the commercials industry that was utterly formulaic but none the worse for that, especially thanks to good chemistry between its leads, Yi Shi-yeong이시영 | 李诗英 and Oh Jeong-se 오정세 | 吴政世, the former as a put-upon Plain Jane who buys a self-help manual to get even with an egotistical male star. Tian’s re-working gets rid of the Korean script’s two major weaknesses – the manual, which gets in the way of the developing relationship story, and its Svengali-like creator, whose appearances become an annoying diversion. In their place, Tian & Co. (now known as New Saint Film Studio 新圣堂) invent a chameleon-like character who becomes the Plain Jane’s makeover adviser – played with a finely-tuned sense of the ridiculous by singer-presenter Wang Chuanjun 王传君 who helps to reinforce the film’s off-centre comic tone. Other inventions, like the running joke of three dorky male fans, are equally delightful.

Zheng’s cocky characters can sometimes grate but here he’s just right, clicking with co-star Guo (perfectly cast as a put-upon loser who believes “true beauty comes from within” 心灵美) in a way that he never managed with, say, Jiang Yiyan 江一燕 in wannabe rom-com One Night Stud 有种你爱我 (2015). Not only does Guo have a good sense of the genre’s rhythms but the material also lets both of them exploit their talent for physical comedy – seen at its best in Zheng’s lothario trying to kiss Guo’s character in a lift (also a highlight of the South Korean film), his reaction after she says his sexual performance was just “average”, or his emoting in a car to the strains of Nessun dorma. With almost zero plot to speak of, the chemistry between Zheng and Guo motors the film, and carries it through the more conventional second half.

As well as drawing more cohesive playing from his cast, Tian has also ironed out some of the other bumps in his previous film, delivering a much slicker technical package with some of the same crew (d.p. Huang Lian 黄炼, composer Wang Zhengliang 王铮亮). Though it’s never stated where the film is set, location shooting was in Shenzhen. In the end credits, Ex-Files 3 前任3  颜值大作战, is trailed as “coming in 2016”. It will also star Zheng. [In the event it did star Zheng, along with Han Geng 韩庚, but wasn’t released until the end of 2017 and was called The Ex File: The Return of the Exes 前任3  再见前任.]

CREDITS

Presented by Huayi Brothers Media (CN), New Saint Film Studio (CN). Produced by Huayi Brothers Media (CN), New Saint Film Studio (CN).

Script: New Saint Film Studio (Lao Shi [Shi Chenyun], Xi Men, Master Tian [Tian Yusheng], Da Kuan [Hu Jiahao]). Original script: No Hye-yeong, Ha Su-jin, Yi Weon-seok, Gim Jin, Choi Jin-weon, Yi Ho-jae, Gim Seon-ryeong. Photography: Huang Lian. Editing: Zheng Hanmin, Zhang Ming. Music: Wang Zhengliang. Art direction: Zhai Tao. Styling: Chen Yuye. Sound: Liu Jia, Hu Liang. Action: Luo Yimin. Visual effects: Yann Doray.

Cast: Zheng Kai (Yu Fei), Guo Caijie [Amber Kuo] (Yi Ze), Wang Chuanjun (Tian Shifu/Master Tian/noodle chef/fortune teller), Zhang Dianlun (Bobbie), Zhang Yixing (Li Xianghe), Hou Sen (Pan Sen), Qi Qi (Na Mei, location manager), Ma Yingqiao (Lulu, planning manager), Li Su (Cao, talent agency boss), Ma Jingqi (Mu), Qiu Lufan (Annie, actress in commercial).

Release: China, 6 Nov 2015.