Really?

我说的都是真的！

China/Hong Kong, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 98 mins.

Director: Liu Yiwei 刘仪伟.

Rating: 6/10.

Crime comedy showcasing Mainland doofus comic Xiaoshenyang starts running out of ideas halfway.

STORY

Beijing, the present day. Xia Zhi (Xiaoshenyang), who claims to be a “celebrity planner”, is a pathological liar who drinks too much and likes telling tall tales in his local bistro. His wife Wang Xiu (Luo Haiqiong) has already divorced him and taken their young daughter Xia Xiaotian (Gu Yuhan) with her; the latter is still devoted to her father but tells him that Wang Xiu has a new boyfriend, bakery owner Zhou Zhaoxin (Liu Yiwei), and the three of them plan to emigrate to Sydney. Bistro owner Yin Xiaoxue (Chen Yihan) is fond of Xia Zhi and tolerates his over-active imagination. One day, while there, he claims he’s just seen a man kidnapped in the street outside by two other men. As usual, no one believes him; but in fact Xia Zhi is correct. Zhang Guangxian (Wu Zhoukai), a middleman in a deal organised by gang boss Hu Qingmu (Lian Kai), had vanished after being sent to hand over some goods and collect RMB300,000. Hu Qingmu’s men had found and interrogated Zhang Guangxian but the latter then died in a fight while trying to escape. Gang member Zhao Dongdong (Li Yixiang) checks out the bistro, where Xia Zhi spins a story about the kidnapped man that is also completely accurate. Hu Qingmu thinks Xia Zhi must have been Zhang Guangxian’s accomplice, so he sends Zhao Dongdong and another gang member, Ma Shuang (Shao Bing), to kill him. However, all their attempts fail, including one in Xia Zhi’s flat when his daughter visits him. Xia Zhi reports the latter attack to the local police, where an old classmate, Han Zhigang (Wu Yue), works, but no one believes him. Afraid to go home, Xia Zhi first tries to spend the night with Yin Xiaoxue but can’t stop kissing her, and then begs Han Zhigang to put him in a police cell. Next day Xia Zhi is suspicious of everyone in the street. After Zhao Dongdong tries to shoot him in the bistro, he again goes to the police and again isn’t believed. Finally his daughter believes him and the two hatch a plan to flush the gangsters out into the open.

REVIEW

A pathological liar finds no one believes him when he’s hunted by hitmen in crime comedy Really? 我说的都是真的！, a starring vehicle for Mainland TV comic Xiaoshenyang 小沈阳 that doesn’t really stretch its single idea to feature length. Written and directed by all-round entertainer Liu Yiwei 刘仪伟 – whose last directorial outing was kiddie comedy Mars Baby 火星没事 (2009) – and produced by Jiao Aimin 焦爱民 – who’s been behind several directing gigs by actress Xu Jinglei 徐静蕾 (Go Lala Go! 杜拉拉升职记, 2010; Dear Enemy 亲密敌人, 2011; Somewhere Only We Know 有一个地方只有我们知道, 2015) – the film starts to exhaust its central concept around the halfway mark and lacks a suitably actionful finale to revive the comic momentum. The film flopped in the Mainland with a paltry RMB18 million.

Xiaoshenyang, 36, is one of several doofus TV comics – including chubby Yue Yunpeng 岳云鹏, recently in Valentine’s Day film Revenge for Love 疯岳撬佳人 (2017) and CNY comedy The Faces of My Gene 祖宗十九代 (2018) – who’ve tried to ride the big-screen wave and graduate from supporting roles. In his first try at a lead, in action comedy Just Call Me Nobody 大笑江湖 (2010), he signally lacked the screen presence to hold the whole (admittedly raggedy) thing together, though since then he’s never been less than solid in supports and guest bits (Impossible 不可思异, 2015; Pigsy in the last two The Monkey King 西游记 films, 2016-18). Compared with Nobody, he’s much better in Really?, which relies a lot on his skilful dialogue delivery, spinning one tall story after another. But he still lacks a big enough personality to fill a big screen for 90 minutes without backing from a strong cast and an inventive script.

As the manager of a local bistro where he spins his stories, Taiwan cutie Chen Yihan 陈意涵 (Hear Me 听说, 2009; Girls 闺蜜, 2014) is strong whenever she appears, though the script is never quite sure what to do with her, apart from making her a kind-of girlfriend. Her compatriot Lian Kai 连凯 huffs and puffs as the gang leader urging on his incompetent goons but the role fails to catch light in a comic way. Much better are the character actors playing his gang – especially Li Yixiang 李易祥 as an arch-browed hitman – and other supports, including 13-year-old Gu Yuhan 顾语涵 as the lead character’s straight-talking daughter, Wu Yue 吴樾 as a very tolerant local cop, and Luo Haiqiong 罗海琼 as the lead’s equally tolerant ex-wife. Director Liu himself pops up here and there as the ex-wife’s sappy new boyfriend.

More’s the pity that Liu couldn’t take the idea to the next level, as the first half has some very funny stuff, kicking off with a crowdpleasing scene silencing a bore in an aeroplane and climaxing with a 10-minute sequence in the lead’s flat in which two hitmen (played by the befuddled Li and dim-looking Shao Bing 烧饼) try to hide when the lead comes back with his daughter. Beautifully played and choreographed, and with dialogue that even advances the plot a little, it shows the film’s gift for satirising as well as exploiting crime-film cliches. Within half an hour, alas, Xiaoshenyang is running around in drag to sustain the flagging comic invention.

Technically the film is always well appointed. The Chinese title means “Everything I Said Is True!”.

CREDITS

Presented by Orient Imagine Entertainment (Beijing) (CN), Gravity Pictures Film Production (CN), Flagship Entertainment Group Hong Kong (HK), Beijing Yadi Media (CN), Beijing Monumental Films (CN), Infinity Pictures (CN), iQiyi Motion Pictures (Beijing) (CN). Produced by Monumental Films (CN), Gene Films (CN).

Script: Liu Yiwei. Photography: Shi Yue. Editing: Zhang Jia. Music: Ma Shangyou. Production design: Lu Wei. Art direction: Tian Xuguang. Styling: Kong Lingyuan. Sound: Huang Zheng, Li Shuo, Zhang Yong. Action: Shim Jae-weon, Ju Yong-min. Special effects: Cai Kuiguang. Visual effects: Zhang Chao, Zhang Chunmiao, Xu Bin (Beijing Soar Dragon of Legend, 123 Visual Effects). Executive direction: Liu Shiliu.

Cast: Xiao Shen Yang (Xia Zhi), Chen Yihan (Yin Xiaoxue), Wu Yue (Han Zhigang), Luo Haiqiong (Wang Xiu, Xia Zhi’s ex-wife), Lian Kai (Hu Qingmu, gang leader), Li Yixiang (Zhao Dongdong), Li Yiling (Li, policewoman), Shao Bing [Zhu Yunfeng] (Ma Shuang, gangster), Liu Yiwei (Zhou Zhaoxin, Wang Xiu’s new boyfriend), Liu Shiliu (Li Xiping, deputy gangster), Gu Yuhan (Xia Xiaotian, Xia Zhi’s daughter), Fan Ye (Da Yan/Big Eyes, handsome gangster), Zhang Wanyi (Houzi/Monkey, young gangster), Wu Zhoukai (Zhang Guangxian), Wang Yuelun (fat man), Li Qinqin (auntie), Shu Huan (man in Zhongshan suit), Zhao Yingjun (crazy witness at police station), Liu Liang, Bai Ge (kissing lovers), Huang Yixin (material girl).

Release: China, 30 Mar 2018; Hong Kong, tba.