Nice to Meet You

遇见你真好

China, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 98 mins.

Director: Gu Changwei 顾长卫.

Rating: 7/10.

Fresh, fun take on the high-school rom-com genre, with two strong leads in Lan Yingying and Bai Ke.

STORY

Jiangxi province, southern China, 2009. After failing the university entrance exam in the summer, wannabe writer Zhang Wensheng (Bai Ke) enrols at Zijing [Bauhinia] Senior High School, a “repeat school” 复读学校 where students study for a year in order to sit the exam again. There he meets fellow student Chen Shanni (Lan Yingying), who has a liking for practical jokes and fooling around. Zhang Wensheng and his deskmate Chen Qi (Li Chenhui) end up doing toilet-cleaning duty with her. Zhang Wensheng is initially not very keen on Chen Shanni, who’s always teasing him. When she finds a notebook containing his stories, she asks him to write one about her. At first he refuses but, as he gradually falls for her, he does write a story. Unfortunately, when his notebook is confiscated during class, the story is read out at school assembly by the headmaster (Fan Ming) and Chen Shanni feels humiliated. Another student at Zijing is Hu (Cao Jun), grandson of the owner (Su Hai) of a local pleasure boat-cum-cafe/bar. He has a scar on his face that he claims was caused by lightning when he was young, and is treated as an outsider by other students, especially school bully Qinglong (Jiang Yi) and his followers. When Hu falls for the shy Ling Caicai (Wang Yuwen) at a flag-raising ceremony, Qinglong says she’s his girl, which finally results in the two men fighting it out and Qinglong setting fire to the pleasure boat. Another student at Zijing is hopeless PE student Xie Lun (Zhang Haiyu) who, while recovering from a foot injury, ends up dating a student in the next dormitory, Zhou Xiaomi (Zhou Chuchu), whom he dialled by chance one day. She claims his call saved her from committing suicide, as she was depressed over the death of her boyfried Sang in the boat fire. She blames Sang’s death on another girl who fancied him. She finally takes a liking to Xie Lun but isn’t sure if he’s serious or not. Several years later, after the characters have graduated from university, some happy circumstances reunite all the couples.

REVIEW

Mainland d.p.-turned-director Gu Changwei 顾长卫 springs a very pleasant surprise with Nice To Meet You 遇见你真好, a high-school rom-com that actually succeeds in having a fresh feel. After starting out with arty fare (Peacock 孔雀, 2005; And the Spring Comes 立春, 2007; AIDS drama Love for Life 最爱, 2011), Gu then went mainstream with the fluffy but rather charming rom-com Love on the Cloud 微爱之渐入佳境 (2014), a satire of the film industry that gave actress-model Yang Ying 杨颖 [Angelababy] one of her best roles. Now taking on one of the most over-worked genres in the Mainland industry – the high-school rom-com – Gu again comes up trumps, with an overall lightness and simplicity plus a pair of performances (Bai Ke 白客, Lan Yingying 蓝盈莹) that really make the movie.

Singer-comic Bai Ke, 29, also known under his real name Luo Hongming 罗宏明, played the wannabe local hero in Journey to the West riff Surprise 万万没想到 (2015). Here he plays it relatively straight as a young wannabe writer who, after failing the university entrance exam, goes to a “repeat school” for a year, where he meets a kooky practical joker played by Lan. Shanghai-born Lan, 28, is better known for her TV work (such as the spikey A&E head nurse in Surgeons Story 外科风云, 2017) than her big-screen roles (rural drama A Beautiful Teacher 绿绒蒿, 2013) but it’s her playful, teasing presence that drives the first half-hour, with careful, lower-key support from Bai Ke as her emotional quarry. Their kind-of-pally relationship, which is actually much more, is equally well framed by the direction and production, which is always precise but never gets in the way of the performances.

When, at the the 25-minute mark, a new character appears and it becomes clear that the film is actually a series of interlinked stories, the absence of Bai Ke and Lan is quite a loss. Though they’re charming enough in their own right, the pairings of Cao Jun 曹骏 and Wang Yuwen 王玉雯 (the latter in her film debut), as a social outsider and a shy beauty, and then Zhang Haiyu 张海宇 (in his film debut) and Zhou Chuchu 周楚楚, as a goofy PE student and a girl he “saves” from suicide, don’t quite fill the gap, despite especially good playing by TV actor Cao and by film/TV actress-singer Zhou (the young widow in The Wild Strawberries 野草莓, 2010; singer in Ip Man: The Final Fight 叶问  终极一战, 2013; new teacher in My Heart Leaps Up 我心雀跃, 2016). It’s especially nice, therefore, when Bai Ke and Lan return in the finale, which wraps things up in a surprisingly moving, feel-good way.

The small army of scriptwriters and planners who adapted the original novella (飞火流星, literally “Flying Fire, Shooting Stars”) by Guangdong-born writer Kong Long 孔龙 have preserved the three separate stories while tangentially linking them in an unforced way. Gu keeps the whole formula fresh not only through the performances but also by his light directorial touch and overall technical package – lightly flecked music, light character comedy and light, summery photography by d.p. Sun Ming 孙明 (a kind of less burnished version of his work on The Seal of Love 秋之白华, 2011). The film has a beguiling feel of great simplicity which allows it to slip easily from reality into semi-magical sequences – looking at the sky from a rooftop, seeing the boat owner’s fake zebra at night, and the final resolutions of the three stories.

Most importantly, like Love on the Cloud, the movie is just good fun. In once scene, Gu himself pops up for a millisecond as a policeman wearing sunglasses, along with Kong as a colleague. Gu’s well-known actress wife Jiang Wenli 蒋雯丽 has some fun with a curly wig and goofy teeth as a dormitory head, while veteran TV comic Fan Ming 范明 goes way over the top as the headmaster with a joke Shandong/Henan accent. Like Fan’s accent, however, the film overdoes things a little with an upbeat, sing-song ending in which the credits travel across the screen along with viewer’s comments, just like an online movie.

Alas, Mainland audiences weren’t impressed: the film sank with a meh RMB51 million.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Premiere Age Media & Culture (CN), Huanhuan Xixi (Tianjin) Culture Investment (CN), Huayi Brothers Pictures (CN), Beijing Harmony & Harvest Communication Media (CN), Horgos Premiere Age Film & TV Culture (CN). Produced by Horgos Premiere Age Film & TV Culture (CN).

Script: Kong Long, Zu Luanluan, Yao Guanchen, Zhang Yuyou, Shi Ge, Zhang Yaxi, Liu Ying, Gu Changwei. Novella: Kong Long. Script supervision: Guo Fangfang. Script planning: Miao Zhan, Hui Kuang, Yang Weiwei, Zhang Fan. Photography: Sun Ming. Editing: Du Yuan. Music: Guo Sida, Huang Liang, Li Xuhao. Music direction: Guo Sida, Dong Wei. Art direction: Zhao Xuehao. Styling: Kong Lingyuan. Sound: Li Wen, Gu Changning. Action: Zhong Bo. Visual effects: Liu Song (Beijing Phenom Films). Executive direction: Zhang Chaoli.

Cast: Bai Ke (Zhang Wensheng), Lan Yingying (Chen Shanni), Li Chenhui (Chen Qi, Zhang Wensheng’s deskmate), Cao Jun (Hu), Wang Yuwen (Ling Caicai), Jiang Yi (Qinglong), Zhang Haiyu (Xie Lun), Zhou Chuchu (Zhou Xiaomi), Fan Ming (headmaster), Jiang Wenli (Wang Cailing, dormitory manager), Su Hai (Thunder Fire, pleasure-boat owner), Li Bingran (girl in baseball cap), Jia Jin, Yan Wei, Li Junjun, Li Di, Duan Hui, Shan Rongkuan, Wu Peilin (Qinglong’s followers), Shi Ge (maths teacher), Wu Zhongfu (PE teacher), Gu Changwei, Kong Long (policemen), Zhang Chaoli (plain-clothes policeman).

Release: China, 29 Mar 2018.