The Old Cinderella

脱轨时代

China, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 101 mins.

Director: Wubai 五百 [Guo Shubo 郭书博].

Rating: 8/10.

Actress Zhang Jingchu powers back in a well-written comedy-drama centred on a divorcee.

STORY

Guangzhou, southern China, the present day. After five years of marriage, Xu Ke (Zhang Jingchu) divorces Liu Guangming (Pan Yueming) after she finds him having an affaire with TV presenter Yoyo (Ban Jiajia). Xu Ke, a 30-something former tour guide, keeps custody of their young son Baobao (Jia Ziming) and moves back to her own flat; Liu Guangming, a media gossip journalist on a web site, keeps their dog. On her way back from the divorce, Xu Ke crashes her car into that of a young Taiwan guy, Kang Shengxi (Wu Kequn), who admits responsibility. She goes back to being a guide and, on a tour of Israel, finds that Kang Shengxi is one of the group along with his girlfriend Liu Yang (Jiang Xiwen). They spend time togther when Liu Yang disappears one night. Back home, Xu Ke’s best friend and former classmate Mao Rongrong, aka Maomao (Zhu Zhu), arranges blind dates for her but none work out. Then, at a charity party, Xu Ke again meets Kang Shengxi, who turns out to be the wealthy son of the chairman of Times Group. Invited to a nightclub by him, Xu Ke finds that Yoyo is one of his circle of friends. Liu Guangming still makes overtures to Xu Ke to forgive him but, whenever they meet around their son, she remains stand-offish. Kang Shengxi takes Xu Ke and her son to Hong Kong’s Disneyland, and back in Guangzhou he invites her to a party thrown by a producer (Ren Jie) who is interested in auditioning her for a TV show. At the party, Xu Ke bumps into Yoyo in an identical red dress and ends up trying to drown her in the swimming pool. Yoyo threatens to sue unless she makes a public apology; Xu Ke refuses, but Kang Shengxi negotiates a solution. Xu Ke starts working for Kang Shengxi, but Liu Guangming still tries to win her back.

REVIEW

Mainland actress Zhang Jingchu 张静初, whose career dawdled after a powerful start in a trio of movies by Zhang Jiarui 章家瑞 (Huayao Bride in Shangri-La 花腰新娘, 2005; The Road 芳香之旅, 2006; Red River 红河, 2009), powers back with one of her finest performances so far in The Old Cinderella 脱轨时代, an involving romantic comedy-drama centred on a divorcee and the two men in her life. Now 34, Zhang has clearly decided to take her own career in hand, following through on strong roles in the offbeat rom-com Lacuna 醉后一夜 (2012) and single-mother drama My Running Shadow 我的影子在奔跑 (2013) with a smartly-written movie on which she also has a producing credit. Equally interestingly, Cinderella is also produced and co-written by Lu Chuan 陆川, in his first feature break from more heavyweight fare like City of Life and Death 南京！南京！(2009) and The Last Supper 王的盛宴 (2012). The result, with a few reservations, is one of 2014’s most satisfying and likeable surprises, and it’s Zhang who earns it an extra point.

Playing a sightly dowdy 30-something who’s always being called “auntie” 阿姨 by younger men, Zhang shows a range of emotions she’s only hinted at in most of her previous movies, which have often capitalised just on her porcelain beauty. In Cinderella she moves in a commanding way between ironic comedy, touching sadness and inner conflict – and in one long sequence, set in a hospital bed, blends all three with consummate ease. She’s surrounded by a small but mostly strong cast, including Pan Yueming 潘粤明 (the dating-agency boss in Forever Young 怒放之青春再见, 2014) in a typically mild-mannered role as her hopeless ex; Buyi-minority actress Ban Jiajia 班嘉佳 (EX-Files 前任攻略, 2014) as her husband’s mistress, who’s especially good in a catty face-off at a poolside party; and presenter-singer-actress Zhu Zhu 朱珠 (the assistant in Shanghai Calling 纽约客@上海, 2012) as her straight-talking, glamour-puss pal. The only weak link in the cast is Taiwan singer Wu Kequn 吴克群 (Love at 7-11 7-11之恋, 2002) who seems unable to get beyond a self-satified, look-at-me smirk as the rich-kid suitor.

It’s a tribute not only to Zhang’s lead performance but also to the screenplay by Gao Ya’nan 高雅楠 – adapting her own 2010 novel If You Can’t Love Properly 如果不能好好爱 – that the film is not derailed by Wu’s uninflected performance. At the end of the day, to be sure, Cinderella is basically a semi-rom-com focused on a divorcee torn between her ex, her young son and a new man in her life; but with its smart but not over-clever dialogue, and a construction that keeps all the characters in play, it’s a little bit more than just another slick confection focused on China’s 1980s, career-oriented generation. In his first feature after several online shorts, 34-year-old director Wubai 五百 (literally “Five Hundred”, pen name of Guo Shubo 郭书博) gives his actors plenty of space and allows some real emotion to come into play without losing an overall lightness of tone. Only in the final minutes does the film faulter, in a woolly ending.

Widescreen photography of the Guangzhou settings by Hong Kong’s Lin Zhijian 林志坚 [Charlie Lam] (Echoes of the Rainbow 岁月神偷, 2010; Lacuna; The Great Hypnotist 催眠大师, 2014) is good-looking without being over-glossy and, apart from some unnecessarily flashy memory montages, editing by Qiao Aiyu 乔爱宇 (Tiny Times III 小时代  刺金时代, 2014) and Tian Lei 田磊 is especially sharp in dialogue sequences. Now de rigueur in any Mainland rom-com, the foreign location this time is Israel, though its adds nothing to the film apart from being an exotic travel promo. The Chinese title literally means “The Age of Derailment”.

CREDITS

Presented by Guangzhou Wahsam Film (CN), China Film (CN), Beijing Chuan Films (CN). Produced by Guangzhou Wahsam Film (CN), China Film (CN), Beijing Chuan Films (CN), Golden Globe Media (CN).

Script: Gao Ya’nan, Lu Chuan. Novel: Gao Ya’nan. Photography: Lin Zhijian [Charlie Lam]. Editing: Qiao Aiyu, Tian Lei. Music: A Kun. Song: Wu Kequn. Vocal: Wu Kequn. Art direction: Lin Mu. Costume design: Xie Huixin. Sound: Shen Jianqin, Xu Chen, Ji Jing. Visual effects: Yin Duanyang (VHQ Post Media Group). Main-title animation: Huang Jianle, Guo Jiawei. Artistic advice: Gao Xiaosong.

Cast: Zhang Jingchu (Xu Ke), Pan Yueming (Liu Guangming), Wu Kequn (Kang Shengxi), Zhu Zhu (Mao Rongrong), Ban Jiajia (Yoyo), Jia Ziming (Baobao), Jiang Xiwen (Liu Yang/Angel), Ren Jie (Tang, TV producer), Estas Tonne (street musician).

Release: China, 7 Mar 2014.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 22 Aug 2014.)