100 Days

真爱100天

Taiwan, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 103 mins.

Director: Chen Fazhong 陈发中 [Henry Chan].

Rating: 7/10.

Charmingly modest, island-set rom-com purrs along with hardly a dull moment.

STORY

Taibei, the present day. Wo Bodan (Lu Siming), who moved in his teens to the US with his uncle when his mother remarried, is now back in Taiwan, as a high-flying vice-president of Unison Telecom. He’s instructed by the chairman, Shen (Tao Chuanzheng), to go to the outer islands with CEO Jia Zhong (Zhong Lunli) to see whether it is feasible to invest in telecom networks there, to cement Unison’s market domination over rival Alpha Comm. Just before he’s about to leave, he’s visited by his step-father, Liu Qing (Cai Mingxiu), who tells him his mother has died in Jing village. As the village is on North Island, Wu Bodan plans to combine duty with business, by paying his respects for a few hours, reconnoitring the island, and joining Jia Zhong on South Island later on. Arriving by boat, he bumps into his teenage sweetheart, Mo Weixin (Zhou Caishi), whom he’d promised never to forget when he left for the US; not having heard from him, she’s now engaged to Chen Fang (Su Da), Wu Bodan’s step-brother. At the grave ceremony, the Daoist priest (Lin Shanglin) announces that the omens are not good for the spirit of Wu Bodan’s mother to pass on peacefully; to facilitate the process, local tradition dictates that Wu Bodan must get married or engaged within 100 days. When Wu Bodan objects, the priest accepts Chen Fang getting married to Mo Weixin as a compromise solution. The next auspicious date is in two days’ time. Wanting to leave immediately, Wu Bodan is stranded overnight on the island by an approaching typhoon – to the fury of his girlfriend and office colleague Linda (Fu Li’an), who was expecting him back in Taibei for her splashy birthday party. Mo Weixin rescues him from the sea when he tries to cross to South Island by a small boat that night, and next day he still can’t leave because of flooding. As her wedding day approaches, Wu Bodan and Mo Weixin end up spending time together.

REVIEW

Utterly predictable but beautifully tooled, 100 Days 真爱100天 is a thoroughly enjoyable, no-brainer rom-com that proves, yet again, that originality isn’t always everything, especially in genres relying heavily on good technique. This first Chinese-language feature by Chinese American Chen Fazhong 陈发中 [Henry Chan] purrs along with hardly a dull moment, and even manages some emotional punch at the end, thanks to super-smooth production values and a serviceable script that’s charmingly played by a simpatico Taiwan cast. Hopefully it won’t be the last Asian outing for Guangdong-born, Hong Kong-raised Chen, who’s spent over 20 years in the US directing and editing TV series.

Starting off like a typical Taiwan first-love movie, the story flashes forward a decade or so to find its hero back home (after a spell in the US) as a go-getting yuppie exec in the telecoms business. Visiting an outlying island for his mother’s funeral, he finds himself stranded there by a typhoon and bumping into the teenage love he’d always promised to keep in touch with. He hadn’t, of course, and she’s about to be married to a local, but…well, anyone can fill in the rest of the plot.

The script takes its title and inspiration from a semi-autobiographical 2011 play by Taiwan-born, US-raised Lin Weike 林伟克 that was a two-hander between two westerners, one of whom was trying to get over his mother’s death. The film script, developed by Lin with Xu Meiqi 徐美琪, a former student of his at National Taiwan University of Arts, is entirely different but incorporates the same tradition of a son needing to marry or get engaged within a 100 days of his mother’s death to ease her spirit’s transition to the afterlife. Producing via his Taibei-based The Unison Company, Lin sets the film on a fictional offshore Taiwan island – actually, Qinbi village on Beigan island 北竿岛芹壁村, in the Mazu archipelago off the coast of China – whose traditional, almost Mediterranean-looking buildings make a seductive setting thanks to Taiwan d.p. Che Liangyi 车亮逸 [Randy Che] (Make Up 命运化妆师, 2011; Tiny Times 1 小时代, 2013; Sweet Alibis 甜蜜杀机, 2014). Xu’s script ticks the necessary rom-com boxes without being joke-driven or over-paced, while tight editing by Chen Jianzhi 陈建志 and a smooth score by Mi Lala 米拉拉 and the experienced Huang Pu 黄谱 prove able companions.

In his first major film lead, Lu Siming 路斯明, 37, makes a likeable yuppie-stranded-among-yokels, but it’s actress-model Zhou Caishi 周采诗, 31, who grounds the film with her wry performance as the left-behind sweetheart with a practical approach to romance. She’s well supported by Zhu Lei’an 朱蕾安 as her best friend, aboriginal actor Su Da 苏达 [Soda Voyu] as her ingenuous fiance, and a clutch of older actors (Chen Wenbin 陈文彬, Cai Mingxiu 蔡明修) as her fellow islanders. 100 Days doesn’t rewrite any rule books, or dazzle with star power, but it knows exactly what it is and, within its modest limits, delivers.

CREDITS

Produced by The Unison Company (TW).

Script: Xu Meiqi. Original story: Lin Weike. Photography: Che Liangyi [Randy Che]. Editing: Chen Jianzhi. Music: Mi Lala. Additional music: Huang Pu. Theme song vocal: Zhou Caishi. Art direction: Chen Shuyu. Costume design: Du Peixun. Sound: Zheng Xuzhi [Frank Cheng]. Visual effects: Christoph Zollinger (Pixomondo)

Cast: Lu Siming (Wu Bodan/Daniel), Zhou Caishi (Mo Weixin), Su Da [Soda Voyu] (Chen Fang, Wu Bodan’s step-brother), Zhu Lei’an (Yuzhen, village head’s daughter), Cai Mingxiu (Liu Qing, Wu Bodan’s step-father), Chen Wenbin (Mo Weixin’s father), Wang Ziqiang (mayor), Fu Li’an (Linda, Wu Bodan’s girlfriend), Liao Liling (Xiaoliang, taxi driver), Zhong Lunli (Jia Zhong, Unison Telecom CEO), Liu Guanting, Wang Boxuan (surfers), Zhang Changmian (mayor’s wife), Tao Chuanzheng (Shen, Unison Telecom chairman), Ye Baixun (his son), Conrad Chen (Peter, Wu Bodan’s staff member), Xu Zhihao (teenage Wu Bodan), Li Yufeng (teenage Mo Weixin), Lin Shanglin (Daoist priest), Chen Jiagui (shop owner).

Premiere: Hawaii Film Festival (Spotlight on Taiwan), 13 Oct 2013.

Release: Taiwan, 1 Nov 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 17 Oct 2014.)