Goldbuster

妖铃铃

Hong Kong/China, 2017, colour, 2.35:1, 86 mins.

Director: Wu Junru 吴君如 [Sandra Ng].

Rating: 6/10.

Canny blend of cross-border talent marks a solid directing debut by comedienne Wu Junru [Sandra Ng].

STORY

A big city somewhere in China, the present day. After some spooky happenings, a takeaway deliveryman (Zhao Yingjun) flees in terror from the dilapidated housing block Menggui Place 萌贵坊, which sits on a prime piece of real estate in the city centre surrounded by new high-rise developments. With the help of two hired hands (A Ru’na, Xu Juncong) on site, ruthless property developer Xu Dafu (Shen Teng) is trying to empty the remaining four flats by convincing the tenants the building is haunted. In one lives Chinese medicine practitioner Wang Baojian (Zhang Yi), 31, and his young son Wang Jiding (Li Yihang); a widower, Wang Baojian is convinced the spirit of his late wife Lan is coming to find him. In another flat lives hot internet babe Ping (Jiao Junyan), 22; in another, married inventors Jin San (Pan Binlong) and his wife Li Juhua (Papi Jiang), who may also be involved in manufacturing illicit drugs; and in the final flat, two Hong Kong gangsters on the run – Ming (Wu Zhenyu), who thinks he’s an undercover policeman, and Ren (Fang Zhongxin), an ageing gigolo. None of them dare to leave the building, as they’re afraid they won’t be let back in again; but so far they have held out for 585 days. On the recommendation of Ping, they call in ghostbuster Big Sister Ling (Wu Junru) to sort out the problem. Actually a scam artist, she first declares the building isn’t haunted and then that it is. She tries to run off but then overhears the plot by Xu Dafu’s two men. Big Sister Ling decides to “haunt” the “haunters”, and eventually bring Xu Dafu and his louche son Xu Tianyu (Yue Yunpeng) to book.

REVIEW

After shepherding two of her own vehicles as creative producer 监制 – Golden Chickensss 金鸡SSS (2014), 12 Golden Ducks 12金鸭 (2015) – veteran Hong Kong comedienne Wu Junru 吴君如 [Sandra Ng] finally makes her official directing debut with Goldbuster 妖铃铃, a generally successful blend of her signature bawdy style with comedy-horror. Blending Mainland and Hong Kong sensibilities, the genre quickie earned a more than respectable RMB363 million at the Mainland box office, even though the film is little more than a series of comic episodes spoofing ghost movies, hopping vampires, ghoulish zombies, martial-arts movies and the rest, as a small group of tenants in a run-down block turn the tables on a property speculator trying to oust them.

Often identified – by design or not – with what Hong Kong sees as its unique values, Wu has chosen to make her debut behind the camera not with some worthy, government-supported, low-budget film but with a cannily engineered, cross-border commercial project that not only plays to her strengths but also shows strong signs of the business acumen of her longtime life partner, veteran director/producer Chen Kexin 陈可辛 [Peter Chan], who takes a creative producer credit via his company We Pictures. That most Hong Kong of genres, the haunted-house comedy, Goldbuster neatly skirts (the albeit elastic) Mainland restrictions on the supernatural by making it clear from the start the hauntings are fake, and also anchors the plot in a subject, set in a nameless location, that can resonate with both Hong Kong and Mainland audiences, i.e. property speculation and its effects on the average citizen.

The film’s smart packaging also shows in its casting, which hooks up, via actor Shen Teng 沈腾, with Mainland comedy troupe and co-investor Mahua Fun Age 开心麻花 that was behind mega-hits Goodbye Mr. Loser 夏洛特烦恼 (2015) and Never Say Die 羞羞的铁拳 (2017), as well as using other Mainland names like doofus comic Yue Yunpeng 岳云鹏 (Revenge for Love 疯岳撬佳人, 2017), hot internet comedienne Papi Jiang papi酱 (aka Jiang Yilei 姜逸磊) in her big-screen debut, and dopy-faced character actor Zhang Yi 张译 (Cock and Bull 追凶者也, 2016; Blood of Youth 少年, 2016). An end-title Easter egg, which has absolutely nothing to do with the main film but finishes things off in grand comic style, even has pixie-ish Mainland actress Zhou Dongyu 周冬雨 screaming her head off in a tribute to one of Wu’s classic 1990s characters. And just to reassure sensitive Hong Kong souls that she hasn’t “gone Mainland”, old pals Wu Zhenyu 吴镇宇 [Francis Ng] and Fang Zhongxin 方中信 [Alex Fong Chung-sun] play a couple of ageing Cantonese gangsters.

Playing a gutsy pseudo-ghostbuster who champions the tenants’ cause, Wu is in her element, blending her very Cantonese style of physical comedy into a pan-Chinese soup. More to the point, Goldbuster is a true ensemble movie, with the whole cast getting their time in the sun. Looking very different from his norm, Shen is fine as the ruthless speculator, notably supported by Yue as his louche son, Zhang almost unrecognisable as a widowed Chinese herbalist, and Shanghai’s Papi Jiang, 31, ditto as a crazed, bespectacled inventor. Just when the basic idea is running out of steam, a finale underscores the social message without becoming preachy, and the whole thing just about manages to reach 80-odd minutes, which is about right.

Technical credits are smooth, with East Asia-based US d.p. Jake Pollock 包轩鸣 relishing his first genre comedy with the full battery of spooky lighting, and pro work by Hong Kong key crew like editor Xu Hongyu 许宏宇 [Derek Hui], composer Huang Yinghua 黄英华 [Raymond Wong Ying-wah] and costume designer Wu Lilu 吴里璐 [Dora Ng]. The film’s nonsense Chinese title, yāolínglíng, which literally means “Demon Bell Bell”, puns on the name of Wu’s character (Ling/Bell) and also sounds in Mandarin exactly like “one zero zero” 幺零零, as well as evoking the Mainland’s emergency telephone number “one one zero”.

CREDITS

Presented by JQ Pictures (CN), Beijing Fun Age Pictures (CN), Kashgar Joy Entertainment (CN), One Cool Film Production (HK), Dream Sky Entertainment (CN), We Pictures (HK). Produced by We Pictures (HK), Treasure Island Production (CN).

Script: Zhou Yunhai, Zha Muchun, Wang Yixing. Original story: Wang Yixing, Wu Junru [Sandra Ng]. Script planning: Chen Jiayi. Photography: Jake Pollock. Editing: Xu Hongyu [Derek Hui]. Music: Huang Yinghua [Raymond Wong Ying-wah], Zheng Jiajia, Florian Linckus, Christof Unterberger, Ryan Thomas. Art direction: Li Qingyu. Costume design: Wu Lilu [Dora Ng]. Sound: Huang Zheng, Nopawat Likitwong, Kaikangwol Rungsakorn, Dhanarat Dhitirojana. Action: Li Zhongzhi [Nicky Li]. Visual effects: Li Zifei, Zhong Jianhong, Yu Ridong, Yi Nuo (Herbgarden).

Cast: Wu Junru [Sandra Ng] (Big Sister Ling; angry wife in hotel room), Shen Teng (Xu Dafu/Richie), Yue Yunpeng (Xu Tianyu, Xu Dafu’s son), Papi Jiang [Jiang Yilei] (Li Juhua), Fang Zhongxin [Alex Fong Chung-sun] (Ren), Zhang Yi (Wang Baojian), Wu Zhenyu [Francis Ng] (Ming), Jiao Junyan (Ping), Pan Binlong (Jin San), A Ru’na (Zhao Dianpao/Cannon), Xu Juncong (Zhang Yonggan), Li Yihang (Wang Jiding, Wang Baojian’s son), Zhao Yingjun (takeaway deliveryman), Zhou Dongyu (hysterical wife in hotel room), Ma Sichun (woman in hotel bed), Li Shangzheng (man in hotel bed).

Release: Hong Kong, 29 Dec 2017; China, 29 Dec 2017.