Don’t Run the Thief

笨贼别跑

China, 2016, colour, 2.35:1, 89 mins.

Director: Lei Jinke 雷金克.

Rating: 7/10.

Costume village comedy centred on a treasure hunt is directed and played way above the norm.

STORY

Shimei village, somewhere in northern China, Ming dynasty, mid-16th century. Qi Jiguang, a Chinese general, has repelled the raids by Japanese pirates that have been plaguing the region. In Shimei village the pirates were forced to leave behind some treasure, plus a map showing its location, but planned to return in 10 years to retrieve it. That 10-year period is now up. Within a short space of time, there arrive in the village two hopeless bandits, Biao (Peng Bo) and Chanzi (Li Yufei), and then a young Korean, Bak Tae-gi (Li Tiannuo), who hopes to do business selling ginseng but has been robbed of it en route by the aforesaid bandits. When Bak Tae-gi arrives in the village, some kids manage to knock him out and in so doing find the treasure map hidden in a bird’s nest. The kids, led by Yuanyuan (Dong Yijun), daughter of a beancurd-seller (Man Ningxi), plan to go looking for the treasure next morning; but Bak Tae-gi is mistaken for a pirate and arrested by the villagers. When Biao and Chanzi hear that a “pirate” has been arrested, they think he will be their ticket to finding the treasure. Meanwhile, three constables arrive in the village and that evening question the “pirate”. While the chief constable (Han Feng) is being entertained by village head Ma (Dong Xiangrong), his two subordinates (Zheng Xiaofu, Kang Jinkai) try to get him to bribe them into releasing him. Biao and Chanzi overhear all this and draw up their own plan, which includes cutting their chief out of the deal. Meanwhile, the kids plan to set Bak free, as they need his help in reading the treasure map.

REVIEW

Though it registered scarcely a blip on the box-office charts when released in spring 2016, Don’t Run the Thief 笨贼别跑 is an entertaining, smartly played and intelligently shot costume comedy with lots of greedy and stupid people running round a village looking for treasure. Nothing very original there, one might say, but young director Lei Jinke 雷金克, 29 – a onetime precocious journalist-turned-filmmaker (real name Lei Yifan 雷怿帆) with six features already under his belt – has turned in a smoothly directed production on what looks like a modest budget and also shows a feel for pacing and structure. Just when the single comic idea (which involves a lot of mugging and running around) starts to run out of steam, a smart twist pumps new life into the material and propels it in another direction. Only in the finale, set inside the treasure cave, does Lei’s grasp seem to falter, with the momentum going slack for a while.

Set during the Ming dynasty pirate raids by Japanese and others – an era in which films from The Valiant Ones 忠烈图 (1975) to The Sword Identity 倭寇的踪迹 (2011) have already been set – the story centres on a stone village in (presumably) northern China where the pirates were forced to leave behind some treasure but left a map showing its location for when they came back to retrieve it a decade later. That’s the simple set-up for a comedy that pits a clever village head, his moronic residents, four local kids, three police constables, two stupid bandits and one travelling Korean salesman against and with each other as the tiny community is gripped by treasure fever. Oh, and there’s also a mysterious old swordsman who’s rumoured to have been in prison for murder.

The three writers, all of whom have worked on at least one of Lei’s recent comedies Lovely Devil 痞子•洛克 (2015) and Might and Magic 魔法大门 (2016), concoct a gradually more entwined village comedy that has as much running around as, say, Design of Death 杀生 (2010) or Trouble Makers 光荣的愤怒 (2006) but not their sheer complexity. This leaves more space for real performances between all the mugging, and the cast, including Peng Bo 彭波 (Crazy Stone 疯狂的石头, 2006) as the chief bandit and Lei regular Li Tiannuo 李添诺 (drama Under a Confessor 天堂的音符, 2013; comedy compendium Coincidence 凡人烦恼, 2014) as the comically louche Korean, all seize the chance with glee. Equally good are Han Feng 韩丰 as the taciturn chief constable who speaks in archaic monosyllables and, in a more long-limbed performance, Dong Xiangrong 董向荣 as the sly village head.

An added pleasure is Lei’s careful direction, which does much more than just get the actors into the frame: compositions by d.p. Zhong Guoping 钟国平 are way more subtle than usual for this kind of comedy, and the score ditto, which uses traditional instruments including the suona 唢呐. Don’t Run is by no means a comedy classic but, given its non-starry cast and modest production values, is a very pleasant, well-crafted surprise.

The gibberish English title is presumably a mistake for Don’t Run, Thief! The Chinese one literally means “Don’t Run, Stupid Thief”. Singer Zhang Lei 张磊 cameos in a humorous end-titles sketch.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing CFC Films Distribution (CN), Beijing Shangge Culture Media (CN), Chulun Media (Shanghai) (CN).

Script: Guo Weipeng, Li Shiyi, Ma Qiang. Photography: Zhong Guoping. Editing: Zhao Yan. Music: Zhao Xiaofei, Wang Fei. Art direction: Yang Baoliang. Styling: Zhu Lai. Sound: Kong Jinhai. Special effects: Wang Xiaoqing. Executive direction: Guo Weipeng.

Cast: Peng Bo (Biao, older bandit), Li Tiannuo (Bak Tae-gi/Piao Taiji), Dong Xiangrong (Ma, village head), Dong Yijun (Tian Yuanyuan, Tian Si Niang’s daughter), Li Yufei (Chanzi, younger bandit), Man Ningxi (Tian Si Niang, beancurd seller), Han Feng (Song Wu, chief police constable), Zheng Xiaofu (Haozi, tall police constable), Kang Jinkai (Tang Bing, third police constable), Chi Junlong (Chuizi), Tang Ziyue (Xiaoman), Zhang Jintian (Dai Yu), Jin Wenxi (San Gui, Ma’s son), Hou Qi (Guitou Dao/Ghost Head Sword, mysterious old man), Zhang Heng (Da Huang, big villager), Chen Yutian (Fu, Ma’s servant), Zhang Lei (film’s director, in end titles).

Release: China, 2 Mar 2016.