EX-Files

前任攻略

China, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 107 mins.

Director: Tian Yusheng 天羽生.

Rating: 6/10.

Glossy comedy-drama on yuppie relationships only partly fulfils its promise.

STORY

Beijing, summer 2013. Ambitious, 31-year-old Meng Yun (Han Geng) co-runs a small ad agency with his longtime friend from university days, Luo Qian (Wang Likun), and enjoys the typical yuppie lifestyle of a single man. Attending the wedding banquet of an ex-girlfriend, Li Xiaojie (Mao Junjie), he finds himself seated at a “former boyfriends’ table” along with four other guys. Across the room is a “former girlfriends’ table” at which a fifth member, hotel employee Xia Lu (Yao Xingtong), arrives at the last moment. The bride and groom publicly thank their exes for “contributing to our emotional growth”. When the girls start brawling, Meng Yun escapes with Xia Lu and by the next day they’re a couple. At a dinner at Luo Qian’s flat one evening, Meng Yun becomes slightly jealous when she invites along a male friend, the older and more experienced Zhao Ming (Zhang Hanyu). Another evening, Xia Lu invites her best friend Xiaowen (Bai Jiajia) to meet Meng Yun’s best friend and work colleague Yu Fei (Zheng Kai), and the two hit it off. On the way to celebrating their first 100 days together, Xia Lu and Meng Yun bump into Xia Lu’s ex, South Korean playboy Bak Eun-ho (Lee Sang-yeob), and at the restaurant they bump into another of Meng Yun’s exes, Shang Dan (Liu Yan). Xiaowen and Yu Fei separately urge them to come clean about their past love lives, though each professes to be uncurious. But Bak Eun-ho continues to pop up in their lives, as well as some of Meng Yun’s other exes, including party girl Mengmeng (Xiong Naijin). Their easy-going relationship starts to become strained.

REVIEW

Not so much a yuppie rom-com, more a light relationships drama about love and commitment, EX-Files 前任攻略 is a pleasant enough, glossily-packaged date movie that could have been much more affecting with stronger leads and a further re-write. As it stands, most of the colour comes from the strong supporting cast. The clever idea of a couple’s ideal relationship capsized by their exes – the Chinese title roughly means “Ex Raiders” – is too episodically developed to get up a proper head of steam, despite several entertaining sequences. In his first directing stint, Tian Yusheng 天羽生 – one of the Holy Palace Workshop 圣堂工作室 team of writers on sleeper hit Lost on Journey 人在囧途 (2010) – ticks all the technical boxes for a slick Beijing lifestyle movie and occasionally shows more than that, as in the “film-strip” intros to the exes and an atmospheric series of dissolves in a darkened flat near the end. Overall, however, EX-Files keeps tantalisingly slipping out of reach of the film it could have been.

The main problem is the casting of the leads, played by actor-singer-dancer Han Geng 韩庚, 30, who forged his name in South Korea, and Yao Xingtong 姚星彤, also 30, who’s best known now for her role as a national-treasure hunter in CZ12 十二生肖 (2012). Yao came attached with the production, which is adapted from her first, semi-autobiographical novel EX 致前任 (2014), and though the Harbin-born actress’ background is largely in romantic drama (Blossom 绽放, 2008; Amor 感情生活, 2010) she adapts well to the lighter mode here. Despite having a few moving moments in the second half, however, she doesn’t register a strong enough screen presence as a co-lead, partly because the novel has been turned around to centre on her male partner and partly because Han, despite wearing glasses to give his face some character, is as colourless here as he was in My Kingdom 大武生 (2011) and So Young 致我们终将逝去的青春 (2013).

Both, and especially Han, are consistently overshadowed by the supporting cast. In the best-buddy role, Zheng Kai 郑恺, who’s starting to show some personality in the right roles (Personal Tailor 私人订制, 2013), proves lively, as does Buyi-minority actress Ban Jiajia 班嘉佳 (I Mind You Only 我只在乎你, 2005) as the female lead’s wild-girl best friend. In guest roles, Zhang Hanyu 张涵予 (Assembly 集结号, 2007) quietly aces his fellow actors by dint of sheer experience and South Korean TV drama heartthrob Yi Sang-yeob 이상엽 | 李相烨, over-acting wildly and speaking an argot of Korean and Mandarin, looks as if he’s been beamed in from a Ryu Seung-beom 류승범 | 柳昇范 comedy.

Entertaining as they are, all these turns further weaken the viewer’s ability to identify with the central relationship. The biggest shame, however, is the short shrift that actress Wang Likun王丽坤, 28, gets in what turns out to be a pivotal role, as the male lead’s longtime friend and business partner. After being introduced as a major character, she then disappears for an hour before being brought back at the end to try to square the emotional circle. The striking Inner Mongolian actress (thriller Filling the Gap 八十一格, 2008) has been largely in TV dramas, but (apart from a clumsily staged scene near the end) shows real style and nuance here in an underwritten part.

CREDITS

Presented by Huayi Brothers Media (CN), Beijing Century Treasure Culture Communication (CN). Produced by Beijing Treasure Culture Communication (CN).

Script: Holy Palace Workshop (Tian Yusheng, Shi Chenyun, Liu Bohan, Niu Xinyao). Novel: Yao Xingtong. Photography: Huang Lian. Editing: Lin An’er [Angie Lam]. Music: Wang Zhengliang. Production design: Zhao Xuehao. Art direction: Dong Yi. Costume design: Bai Xipo. Sound: Hu Xiyue, Hu Liang, Liu Jia. Visual effects: Yao Qi. Executive director: Liu Zuotao.

Cast: Han Geng (Meng Yun), Yao Xingtong (Xia Lu), Zheng Kai (Yu Fei), Ban Jiajia (Xiaowen), Zhang Hanyu (Zhao Ming), Wang Likun (Luo Qian), Lee Sang-yeob (Bak Eun-ho, Xia Lu’s ex), Xiong Naijin (Mengmeng, Meng Yun’s ex), Liu Yan (Shang Dan, Meng Yun’s ex), Maidina [Madina Memet] (Lingling, Meng Yun’s ex), Zhang Dianlun (Lao Si, bride’s ex), Xiao Fei (hep-hop guy, bride’s ex), Yang Dapeng (chubby guy, bride’s ex), Ma Jingqi (man in suit, bride’s ex), Guan Zhe (Ma Shiyu, groom), Mao Junjie (Li Xiaojie, bride), Huang Mengying (office type, groom’s ex), Zhang Xiaojue (girl with glasses, groom’s ex), Ai Ru (material girl, groom’s ex), Shan Shuyi (busty girl, groom’s ex), Hou Sen (MC), Li Yu (hotel manager, Xia Lu’s boss), Leng Zhongyi, Hu Jiahao (friends), Zhu Xianqing (cinema usher).

Release: China, 31 Jan 2014.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 28 Feb 2014.)