My Dear Liar

受益人

China, 2019, colour, 2.35:1, 112 mins.

Direction: Shen Ao 申奥.

Rating: 7/10.

Black rom-com about two scammers and their not-so-stupid target has a strong script and performances.

STORY

Chongqing municipality, central China, 2017. Friends for 20 years, company accountant Zhong Zhenjiang (Zhang Zixian) and internet cafe manager-cum-parttime driver Wu Hai (Da Peng) run small scams to make money – such as engineering a car crash and demanding compemsation money. Now, however, investigators are moving in on a major embezzlement that Zhong Zhenjiang and general manager Sun perpetrated on the company they both work for, and which will take RMB7 million to fix. Zhong Zhenjiang tells Wu Hai the only way to get such an amount is through a major insurance fraud, which could net RMB10 million. Wu Hai is nervous but Zhong Zhenjiang manoeuvres him into a position where he has to go along with the plan, which involves Wu Hai romancing webcam babe Foxy Fairy 小狐仙, aka Yue Miaomiao (Liu Yan), who already scams money out of men (including Wu Hai, a big fan) to make a living. After sending his six-year-old son Wu You (Zhang Shaobo) off to a relative, Wu Hai poses as an internet company vice-president and invites Yue Miaomiao to an expensive restaurant he can’t afford. When she gets thrown out of her flat, he offers to share his, above the internet cafe. Next thing, Yue Miaomiao moves in lock, stock and barrel, and starts running up shopping bills that Zhong Zhenjiang has to clandestinely fund. She finally agrees to marry Wu Hai and, after a big wedding feast, he proposes a honeymoon in Europe. First, however, he says she must first sign a travel-insurance document in which he is the beneficiary if she happens to die. Then, just as Yue Miaomiao is halfway through signing her name, Wang Hai’s son unexpectedly turns up.

REVIEW

After his first non-comic leading role in the twisty crime drama Vortex 铤而走险 (2019), Mainland actor Da Peng 大鹏 (aka Dong Chengpeng 董成鹏) further broadens his range in My Dear Liar 受益人, a Chongqing-set black comedy with a touch of romance in which two scammers find themselves up against a smarter victim than they’d bargained for. It’s an impressive first feature by thirty-something writer-director Shen Ao 申奥, a Beijing Film Academy graduate (class of 2005) who’d previously made a handful of shorts and is now signed up to the Bad Monkey studio founded by director Ning Hao 宁浩, who was creative producer 监制 on Liar. Box office was a quietly appreciative RMB219 million.

The screenplay by Shen, plus new names Xu Luyang 许渌洋 and Wang Yanqiu 王燕秋, starts on familiar ground as a laddish comedy (with plenty of flavoursome local dialect) in which two old friends are forced to up their game from minor scams to a major one in order to get out of financial trouble. The bolder one (Zhang Zixian 张子贤, in his first major role) plans an insurance swindle in which the shyer one (Da Peng) romances and marries his favourite webcam girl (Liu Yan 柳岩) and then inherits her life insurance after she has an unfortunate “accident”. (The film’s Chinese title means “The Beneficiary”.) All goes well until the girl (almost) signs the insurance document – and then true love sticks its oar in as well.

With scraggy hair and cowering demeanour, and without his trademark specs, Da Peng is almost unrecognisable in the first 20 minutes, and most of the going is carried by Zhang, as an outwardly confident, big-talking conman. When Da Peng switches to a more recognisable persona as a smoothie bullshitter – starting with a very funny scene in a posh restaurant – the comedy ramps up significantly, especially combined with Liu’s wonderfully trashy webcam girl. In the less jokey second half, in which Da Peng reverts to the hangdog loser role and Liu’s character undergoes significant changes, the film is more a black comedy than a knockabout one but the change is handled with considerable subtlety as the romantic angle moves to centre stage.

In his shorts Shen had already shown an instinctive grasp of structure as well as changing moods: both The Opposite Shore 河龙川岗 (2009), the funny-sad story of a friendship between two Chinese and a Korean in the freezing Northeast, and I’m Not Brave 나는용감하지암다 | 我不勇敢 (2011), a drama about a Chinese Korean holding up a minimart in South Korea, are paced like full-length features despite being around half-an-hour long, and even his 10-minute Tide & Wave 潮逐浪 (2010) traverses a range of emotions within its compact, 10-minute running time.

On a performance front, the mood shifts in Liar are actually more down to actress Liu than the two male leads. Generally cast in sexpot supporting roles, the bouncy actress-presenter here gets to play her real age (late 30s) and provenance (Hunan), as a webcam girl who’s bored with her job and is looking to settle down, and shows a surprising range of emotions and pathos, especially opposite Da Peng. She appeared with the actor in superhero parody Jianbing Man 煎饼侠 (2015), playing herself, but her role in Liar is a substantial dramatic opportunity that she measures up to.

Technically, the film is fine – good-looking but with no gloss or stylistic quirks. Widescreen photography by Zhong Rui 钟锐 of the Chongqing locations presents the metropolis in everyday, untouristy style, while editing by Zhou Xiaolin 周肖林 brings everything in at a reasonable 110-or-so minutes – apart from a laboured vasectomy sequence that could be dumped.

CREDITS

Presented by Bad Monkey (Shanghai) Culture Communication (CN), The City Film (CN), Shanghai Tencent Pictures Culture Media (CN), Shanghai Alibaba Pictures (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), Wanda Pictures (CN), Phoenix Entertainment (CN), Beijing Culture (CN). Produced by Bad Monkey (Shanghai) Culture Communication (CN).

Script: Shen Ao, Xu Luyang, Wang Yanqiu. Photography: Zhong Rui. Editing: Zhou Xiaolin. Music: Peng Fei. Art direction: Du Guangyu. Styling: Du Guangyu. Sound: Wang Danning. Visual effects: Xu Bin.

Cast: Da Peng [Dong Chengpeng] (Wu Hai), Liu Yan (Xiaohuxian/Foxy Fairy/Yue Miaomiao), Zhang Zixian (Zhong Zhenjiang), Zhang Shaobo (Wu You, Wu Hai’s son), Liu Gang (car-accident driver), Long Jie (insurance saleswoman), Chen Wei (Tao, shopkeeper), Peng Bo (hotpot restaurant boss), Su Na (Diamond Bay saleswoman), Tang Qian (policeman), Deng Fei (watch-shop salesman), Chen Zhenghua (Yue Miaomiao’s father), Xu Yukun (vasectomy doctor), Ding Wenbo (traffic policeman), Li Yiru (guide), Ma Xinmo (chili-eating competition MC).

Release: China, 8 Nov 2019.