June and Arrow

六月与弓箭

China, 2017, colour, 2.35:1, 94 mins.

Director: Lin Bo 林波.

Rating: 6/10.

Strong playing propels this likeable rom-com/road movie and compensates for the scatter-gun script.

STORY

Baiyu county, Ganzi prefecture, western Sichuan province, China, the present day. On a deserted highway Liuyue (Wang Yijia) finally manages to hitch a lift from three gangsters (Lurong Pengcuo, Zhaxi Banjiu, Danzeng Gongbu) by pretending they ran her over. However, when she sees their van is full of obviously stolen money, she quickly gets out at a roadside stop. She’s spotted there by Gongjian (Yang Zheng), a shady dealer in Tibetan antiquities, who’d earlier passed her by. When he sees she has a ceremonial Tibetan dagger in a box, he offers her a lift to Baiyu town; but she refuses to sell it and, after arriving, leaves him. (Liuyue is journeying to Hepo township to return the dagger to the family of a Tibetan, Genqiu Danzhen, at the request of her recently deceased grandfather [Xu Jian].) In Baiyu, Liuyue loses the box when her backpack temporarily goes missing; on the road outside town she meets an accident-prone young woman, Baibai (Cui Jingge), who finds her backpack and the box, and the two become friends. After Liuyue has gone, Baibai finds the dagger, which fell out of the box, and tries to return it to Liuyue, who is unaware the box is now empty. However, in the meantime Liuyue has reluctantly accepted another lift from Gongjian to go to Hepo village, some 30-40 kilometres away. But when his car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, the two are forced to continue on foot. Gongjian stays close to Liuyue as he still wants to get hold of the dagger. Meanwhile, the three gangsters, who work for a big boss (Du Yuming), are also on her trail via Gongjian’s Tibetan supplier, Ze (Sangzhu Zeren).

REVIEW

An odd-couple road movie set on the border between Sichuan and Tibet provinces, June and Arrow 六月与弓箭 starts like a one-thing-follows-another crime comedy in a remote setting and gradually develops into a likeable rom-com full of crazy characters. The first feature by Lin Bo 林波, a documentary director/cameraman with 20 years’ experience of shooting in remote locations, it doesn’t quite fulfil the promise of its opening scenes due to a weakly structured script that simply throws a lot of people together in a scenic location. The performances are the thing here, with strong playing by the small cast and good chemistry throughout. Box office was microscopic.

In her first big-screen leading role, Heilongjiang-born actress-model Wang Yijia 王艺嘉, a Central Academy of Drama graduate, dominates the movie from the opening shot as, in a series of rapid sketches, her volatile character tries to hitch a lift on a deserted highway. All the people she encounters – including a wacko cyclist in a Captain America suit – are later bled into the story, plus an accident-prone young local who becomes involved along the way (nicely played by Shandong-born, Beijing Film Academy graduate Cui Jingge 崔菁格, 24, following her film debut as the lead in conventional rural romance Purple Love 一树一树紫花开, 2017). TV’s Yang Zheng 杨铮, 33, makes a coolly assured partner to Wang’s physical and emotional antics, with their on-screen chemistry blossoming when the film settles down after the lengthy, rather scatter-gun set-up.

Though the film is set and shot in a Tibetan autonomous prefecture, and has a fair amount of Tibetan dialogue, the local culture isn’t treated in an exotic way and the Han Chinese leads are treated as just part of the scenery. Once the main plot concludes, the rom-com element is rather leisurely resolved, but the leads just about make it worthwhile. June and Arrow isn’t a major entry in the genre but a consistently engaging one.

Technical credits are all professional, with the widescreen photography by Bai Long 白龙 photogenic in a natural way. The weird English title is a literal translation of the Chinese one – the two leads’ names – though Yang’s character name, Gongjian, actually means “bow and arrow” rather than just “arrow”.

CREDITS

Presented by Sichuan Film Times Film (CN). Produced by Sichuan Film Times Film (CN), People’s Government of Baiyu County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province (CN).

Script: Liang Min, Zhang Wen, Zeng Dongmei. Photography: Bai Long. Editing: Yao Jingxuan, Chen Daoli. Music: Oman Music Studio. Art direction: She Wentao. Costumes: Li Siyi, Juan Juan. Sound: Song Xincheng, Yu Rujian, Cai Yu, Wei Wei. Visual effects: Yu Gang (Chengdu Linchen Culture Communication).

Cast: Wang Yijia (Liuyue/June), Yang Zheng (Gongjian/Arrow), Wu Xiaolong (cyclist in Captain America suit), Cui Jingge (Baibai), Sangzhu Zeren (Ze), Du Yuming (big boss), Lurong Pengcuo (Bao, gangster), Zhaxi Banjiu, Danzeng Gongbu (Bao’s colleagues), Xu Jian (Liuyue’s grandfather), Lin Bo, Yao Jingxuan (doctors).

Release: China, 7 Apr 2017.