Coward Hero

鼠胆英雄

China, 2019, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 106 mins.

Directors: Shu Huan 束焕, Shao Dan 邵丹.

Rating: 6/10.

Period beauty-and-the-geek romantic action-comedy is the strongest of Yue Yunpeng’s star vehicles to date.

STORY

Shanghai, 1934. Yan Dahai (Yue Yunpeng), 26, a low-level member of the Blue Dragon Gang run by Zhao Hanqing (Tian Yu), has fallen for Du Qing (Tong Liya), a chorus girl at the glitzy Feilemen night club. One of her many fans, he remembers a particular night at the club, when his boss was making a pitch to Shanghai’s biggest black marketeer to become his main client instead of the rival Hatchet Gang. The club was suddenly raided by the police and, while his boss escaped, Yan Dahai was caught in the massive gun battle and barely survived. Soon afterwards he consulted a Chinese doctor about a stomach pain, was diagnosed with cancer, and given three months to live. While clandestinely visiting Du Qing at the club, he learns that she owes 50,000 silver dollars to some gangsters. Even though she kicks him out for thinking he’s a Peeping Tom, he determines to find the money for her. After trying to raise it from his boss, and failing, he’s mistakenly credited one day with killing an assassin from the Hatchet Gang in police headquarters. He’s recognised by a young policeman, Xing Tiecheng (Yuan Hong), whom he’d saved during the night-club shootout and who thinks Yan Dahaihe’s actually an undercover cop from Nanjing. Police chief Zhou Jidao (Han Tongsheng) offers Yan Dahai a job, which he eagerly accepts when he sees the amounts of money offered to the police by grateful relatives. With nothing to lose, and determined that all his money should go to Du Qing, Yan Dahai tries his best to get killed by volunteering for dangerous operations. But all he gets are medals for bravery from the police and offers from colourful underworld figures.

REVIEW

The jury is still out on whether dim-looking Mainland stand-up comic Yue Yunpeng 岳云鹏, 34, can carry a film commercially, but his performance in Coward Hero 鼠胆英雄 is certainly the strongest of the three starring vehicles he’s been in so far. Though box office has been only a polite RMB100 million – just over half that of his most successful outing, the cameo-stuffed The Faces of My Gene 祖宗十九代 (2018) – it’s still an advance on his first tailor-made vehicle, comedy-romance Revenge for Love 疯岳撬佳人 (2017). Though Coward is virtually a period re-run of the same beauty-and-the-geek theme, it’s a considerably better movie overall – from script, casting and direction to look, mounting and production design, but most importantly because Yue is paired this time with a much stronger actress, Tong Liya 佟丽娅.

With fellow stand-up comic Guo Degang 郭德纲 (who directed Yue in My Gene) as creative producer 监制, Coward Hero is an entertaining, if slightly over-long, directing debut by writer Shu Huan 束焕, 48, who’s worked on high-profile comedies like Lost in Hong Kong 港囧 (2015) and Buddies in India 大闹天竺 (2017), and d.p. Shao Dan 邵丹, 42, who’s shot both mainstream (Sky Lovers 天上的恋人, 2002; Switch 天机•富春山居图, 2013) and arty stuff (Bangzi Melody 村戏, 2017; The Hidden Sword 刀背藏身, 2017). Centred on the single idea of a lovelorn loser (Yue) who finds he has terminal cancer, so joins the police force to pay off the debt of a trashy chorus girl (Tong) he’s fallen for, Shu’s script is essentially a parody of cliches in 1930s Shanghai gangster movies. As well as some nice purely visual gags (playing on Yue’s blank-face style), there are also much more elaborate ones (a silent-film parody, fighting a lithe villainess, and a memorable frozen-motion VFX sequence as money is showered into the street), signalling that the film is not just a knockabout platform for Yue’s talents. In fact, it’s far from that, with the elaborate art direction by Nan Nan 南楠 (The Insanity 你好，疯子！, 2016; Lee’s Adventure 李献计历险记, 2011) and rich styling by Chen Suyuan 陈溯源 – seen at its best in the huge set for the central night club where Tong’s character dances – creating a large, detailed stage for the action.

With a raft of strong supporting performances – hatchet-faced veteran Han Tongsheng 韩童生 (the taxi driver in 12 Citizens 十二公民, 2014) as the police chief, Tian Yu 田雨 as a mercurial gang leader, Da Peng 大鹏 as a legendary gangster – Coward Hero is also a consistently entertaining parade of character types. What makes it a little special, however, is the way in which Shu’s script turns an underdog comedy into a quite moving love story in the latter stages, largely thanks to Tong’s game playing of the physical gags and touching handling of the central relationship. As in odd-couple rom-com How Long Will I Love U 超时空同居 (2018), the 35-year-old Uyghur actress gets a role she can sink her teeth into and draws above-average playing from her co-star. The night-club finale manages to be both funny and magical at the same time, and the coda, in which Yue’s character lives on in her memory, is equally magical.

Other technical credits, from song-music direction by Zhao Yingjun 赵英俊 to editing by Tu Yiran 屠亦然, are equally smooth. As is now usual, the dialogue stirs in some Shanghainese along with the Mandarin for local flavour.

CREDITS

Presented by Dade Pictures (Tianjin) (CN), Suobao (Beijing) International Pictures Investment (CN), Quark Media (Inner Mongolia) (CN), Cultural Investment Holdings (CN), Beijing Wenyun Huaxia Film & TV Investment (CN).

Script: Shu Huan. Photography: Shao Dan. Editing: Tu Yiran. Music: Li Bin, Gao Tianxiang. Music direction: Wang Zhe. Song direction: Zhao Yingjun. Art direction: Nan Nan. Styling: Chen Suyuan. Sound: Tu Hao, Yang Jingyi. Visual effects: Wang Chengcheng, Liu Song.

Cast: Yue Yunpeng (Yan Dahai), Tong Liya (Du Qing), Han Tongsheng (Zhou Jidao, police chief), Tian Yu (Zhao Hanqing, Blue Dragon Gang head), Cai Ming (Hua, nightclub boss lady), Liu Wei (Xuan, druglord), Yuan Hong (Xing Tiecheng), Da Peng [Dong Chengpeng] (Gun God, gangster), Yu Yang (Big Crab), Meng Yao (Drug Fairy, villainess), Li Jie (chief police inspector), Lei Jiayin (Blue Dragon Gang deputy head), Xing Jiadong, Nagahide Asano, Chang Liang, Yu Qian, Hua Shao, Zhang Meng, Sun Yue, Guo Fengzhou, Sang Ping.

Premiere: Shanghai Film Festival (China Movie Channel Media Focus), 16 Jun 2019.

Release: China, 2 Aug 2019.