The Youth That Is Fading Away

既然青春留不住

China, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 89 mins.

Director: Tian Meng 田蒙.

Rating: 6/10.

Formulaic but entertaining college-and-after rom-com sports engaging leads and a light touch.

STORY

Chongqing municipality, central China, Sep 1999. Wang Jinhui (Zhang Han) and Zhou Hui (Chen Qiao’en) are both first-year students at a not very well-known college. He’s from Beijing and has colour blindness but bluffs his way through the college physical; she is a small-town girl, a top student and made fun of for her large breasts. Wang Jinhui has a girlfriend, Gu Xiaoyan, back in Beijing and is content to write and sing songs in his spare time; his four roommates are all obsessed with girls, such as skirt-chaser Feng Song (Wang Xiaokun) and his unrequited love for straight-talking Chongqing girl Zhu Ting (Shi Yufei), and serious Hu Zheng (Lin Xiaofan) and his crush on teacher Cai (Ni Jingyang). Zhu Ting shares a room in the dormitory opposite with Zhou Hui and three other girls. Zhou Hui falls for Wang Jinhui’s singing, though he shows no special interest in her. From the start of the second semester, in Jan 2000, she gets more proactive and the two go for a hotpot together, getting very drunk in the process. After that their relationship really develops; but after finding a condom in his pocket on a romantic date, she ditches him, even before their first kiss. Zhu Ting makes her move on Wang Jinhui, and they are secretly snapped together, further alienating Zhou Hui. During a candlelit memorial for Hong Kong singer-actor Zhang Guorong [Leslie Cheung], after his death on 1 Apr 2003, a fight breaks out between Feng Song and Wang Jinhui, as the former considers Zhu Ting to be his girl. Feng Song is injured and the college head (Wang Xun) wants to expel Wang Jinhui. However, Wang Jinhui passes his finals, and leads a song-‘n’-dance by the students in the canteen. The students go their separate ways, with Wang Jinhui going back to Beijing. Five years later, in 2008, Wang Jinhui is busking for a living on the Beijing streets. After spotting Zhou Hui by chance, he discovers she’s married. He also tells her that Gu Xiaoyan married another man. Later, Feng Song visits him and helps him set up a small noodle restaurant, which is successful. Some time later, around 2013, Feng Song tells him that Zhou Hui has got divorced, so Wang Jinhui goes to visit her.

REVIEW

A formulaic college-and-after romance that swings along on the charm of its two stars, a lively cast, and light handling by writer-director Tian Meng 田蒙, The Youth That Is Fading Away 既然青春留不住 was made at a time when Taiwan TVD actress-singer Chen Qiao’en 陈乔恩 was at the peak of her popularity in the Mainland and local actor-singer Zhang Han 张翰 (with whom she’d starred in the TVD The Queen of SOP 胜女的代价, 2012) was a fast-rising name. It’s a good pairing, with Chen, then in her mid-30s, seamlessly progressing from a nerdy teenager in big specs to an assured woman almost 15 years later, and Zhang, then around 30, managing to be cool and charming rather than bloodlessly pretty. Box office was a barely respectable RMB50 million.

Tian, who graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 2002, made his feature debut with the crime-comedy Radish Warrior 倔强萝卜 (2009), starring Huang Bo 黄渤 and Huang Yi 黄奕, but was largely known as a commercials director. Despite Radish‘s poor box office (RMB20 million), he teamed again with Hong Kong creative producer Wen Jun 文隽 [Manfred Wong] for the much sunnier and outwardly more commercial Love, based on the online novella When Spinach Meets Water Spinach 当菠菜遇上空心菜 by Hebei-born writer Gu Xiaosha 顾小沙 (aka Gu Wei 顾伟) that was re-titled and published in book form just prior to the film’s release (see cover, left). Since Love, Tian hasn’t had a film released, though his name was attached to a project starring Zhang called Gentlemen Attention Please 先生们请立正.

Apart from the two leads’ easy chemistry, supporting roles (though generic student types) are played with gusto, especially Shi Yufei 施予斐 (rom-com The Honey Enemy 情敌蜜月, 2015) as a Chongqing man-eater and, as the hero’s best pal, singer Wang Xiaokun 王啸坤 (who played a similar role in My Old Classmate 同桌的妳, 2014). Goofy comic Wang Xun 王迅 pops up here and there as the college’s spluttering head, and much fun is had early on with local Chongqing accents. The final half-hour, charting some of the characters’ post-college lives, isn’t quite as engaging, but the cast involved handle the time transition naturally.

Clean, mobile camerawork by d.p. Chai Ran 柴然 and delicate scoring in light-pop style by Chen Zhiyi 陈致逸 help the whole package along, plus occasional songs – such as the anthemic Lin Yilian 林忆莲 [Sandy Lam] number At Least I Still Have You 至少还有你 for the sequence of a candlelit memorial to the late Hong Kong singer Zhang Guorong 张国荣 [Leslie Cheung]. The film is also known under the English titles Youth Never Returns (on posters) and I’ll Never Lose You. The Chinese title roughly means “As Youth Doesn’t Last”.

CREDITS

Presented by Hangzhou Herun Film (CN). Produced by Hangzhou Herun Film (CN).

Script: Tian Meng, Shao Yihui, An Zhiyong. Script planning: Wang Dezhi, Ding Xiaoyang, Hou Guotao, Ying Jun, Shen Kemin, Yang Weiran. Online novella: Gu Xiaosha [Gu Wei]. Photography: Chai Ran. Editing: Li Nanyi, Dai Zong, Zhou Jingjing. Music: Chen Zhiyi. Art direction: Li Yanwei. Costumes: Xiao Lin. Styling: Yuan Bin. Sound: Shi Yugang, Li Tao. Visual effects: Wang Chengcheng. Executive direction: Liu Junli, Feng Xiaonan.

Cast: Zhang Han (Wang Jinhui), Chen Qiao’en (Zhou Hui), Wang Xun (Sun, college head), Ni Jingyang (Cai, teacher), Shi Yufei (Zhu Ting), Wang Xiaokun (Feng Song), Chen Yalan (Wu Mei), Liao Juan (Xiaochuan), Guo Ziqian (Li Jiuxi), Cao Hanchao (An Ning), Liu Ting (Han Xiao), Jia Shengqiang (Xie Yong), Lin Xiaofan (Hu Zheng), Hua Zhou (Xu Shuang), Zhang Lei (Zhou Hui’s husband), Chen Siyu (Qiuyue, campus beauty), Hou Yi (company commander), Feng Xiaonan (Zhang, teacher).

Premiere: Shanghai Film Festival (Focus China: CCTV-6 Movie Channel Media Award), 17 Jun 2015.

Release: China, 23 Oct 2015.