Bath Buddy

沐浴之王

China, 2020, colour, 2.35:1, 98 mins.

Director: Yi Xiaoxing 易小星.

Rating: 7/10.

A likeable smalltown comedy with no surprises but good ensemble chemistry and a well-structured script.

STORY

Hot Spring Town 水镇, a canal area in eastern China, the present day. Zhou Donghai (Qiao Bin) owns the once famous, now rundown Donghai bathhouse, on a road next to a canal. He can scarcely pay the medical bills of his 75-year-old grandmother (who has Alzheimer’s) and the art lessons of his younger sister Zhou Xixi (Bu Guanjin), so eagerly takes a job to give a scrub-and-massage to an young executive playboy about to do a session of wingsuit flying in the area. Not knowing he is Xiao Xiang (Peng Yuchang), who’s become head of Yu Shen Gong 浴神宫, the biggest luxury bathhouse franchise in China, since his father died, Zhou Donghai says he’s heard the company is in trouble, as all the experienced masseurs have left. The arrogant Xiao Xiang – who’s planning to turn Zhou Donghai’s hometown into a hot-spring resort, against competition from another businessman, Jin – flies into a rage and kicks Zhou Donghai out without paying him. But when Xiao Xiang’s wingsuiting hits bad weather, he lands up in the canal outside Zhou Donghai’s bathhouse and is taken to the small local hospital, where he’s found to have amnesia. His bullied assistant Zhong Shaochu (Jin Shijia), who’s also his cousin, decides to leave him there and take over the business himself. Zhou Donghai, who happens to be at the hospital with his grandmother, recognises Xiao Xiang and claims him as his own younger brother, in order to get the RMB300 Xiao Xiang owes him in the form of free labour. Zhou Donghai’s grandmother welcomes Xiao Xiang as her grandson and the love-hungry Zhou Xixi is more than happy to take part in the charade when she sees how handsome Xiao Xiang is. Zhou Donghai plans to sell his bathhouse to Yu Shen Gong’s agent, Liu (Fang Zibin), but first wants to improve business in order to get a better price. Zhou Donghai puts Xiao Xiang to work scrubbing floors; but Xiao Xiang keeps getting memory flashes of his past playboy life, forcing the family to come up with ingenious ways to hoodwink him, including Zhou Xixi doctoring old videos. Gradually Xiao Xiang settles down and gets to like the job, and business revives. He’s now proud to be a part of the Zhou family tradition; but Zhou Donghai knows that one day his amnesia will end.

REVIEW

A well-structured, smalltown comedy, with no surprises but good ensemble chemistry, Bath Buddy 沐浴之王 is the second feature by comedian Yi Xiaoxing 易小星, better known under his nickname Jiaoshou Yi Xiaoxing 叫兽易小星 (“Yi ‘The Beast’ Xiaoxing”), under which he directed the amusing Journey to the West spoof Surprise 万万没想到 (2015). As that film showed, with its string of sketches, Yi’s roots are in online comedy shorts, where he built his fanbase; Bath Buddy, however, has the feel of a real feature film, with an over-arching structure and relationships that develop in a touching (if formulaic) way. It’s become a surprise end-of-year attraction, taking over RMB340 million in its first 10 days, a healthy amount for a small, character-driven film and already more than Surprise’s total of RMB323 million. [Finally tally was RMB405 million.]

The teaming of the boyish-looking but versatile Peng Yuchang 彭昱畅 (Our Shining Days 闪光少女, 2017; Go Brother 快把我哥带走, 2018) with older, more experienced comic Qiao Shan 乔杉 actually works very well, with Peng, 26, as the arrogant fuerdai playboy who’s been humbled by amnesia and Qiao, 36, as the wily, smalltown entrepreneur who looks to exploit his lack of memory by getting him to work for free in his ailing bathhouse. Pudgy-faced Qiao – often teamed with fellow comic Da Peng 大鹏 (Father and Son 父子雄兵, 2017; City of Rock 缝纫机乐队, 2017) but also memorable as the duplicitous husband in black comedy Kill Mobile 来电狂响, 2018 – can do goofy/crafty as easily as falling off a log and, though Peng gets top billing, it’s Qiao’s film through and through.

Though the plot depends on Qiao’s character hoodwinking a younger guy into believing he’s the elder man’s brother, the comedy is underscored by the realisation that Peng’s character is going to recover his memory at one point or another. It’s to the credit of the script – by seven people, including director Yi – as well as to the performances of Qiao and Peng that the final third doesn’t turn soggy as both (expectedly) find a measure of humility and a genuine friendship. In fact, the film comes up with a whole new subplot – a scrub-and-massage world international championship, complete with bathhouse gongfu – to drive the finale in a competitive way.

Qiao is used to working in comic ensembles and it shows in his easy chemistry with the varied supporting cast, from Wuhan-born actress Bu Guanjin 卜冠今, 26 – so good in Only the Wind Knows 那一场呼啸而过的青春 (2017), her first leading role – as his younger sister in big specs and goo-goo eyes for Peng’s character, through veteran Wei Qing 苇青, 72, as the granny, to Hong Jiantao 洪剑涛 as an elder employee of Peng and heavyweight character actor Sang Ping 桑平 as a long-haired, out-there rocker. Technical credits are unshowy but fine, from the widescreen photography by Liu Yizeng 刘懿增 (Lost in Russia 囧妈, 2020), through the editing by Hong Kong whizz Li Dongquan 李栋全 [Wenders Li], to the naturalistic art direction by Bai Furui 白馥瑞 (My Heart Leaps Up 我心雀跃, 2016). Shooting was around Wuxi, northwest of Shanghai.

The film’s Chinese title derives from the title scene in which parts of a neon sign outside the bathhouse are fused when Xiao Xiang crashes to earth, turning the characters 沐浴解乏理疗 (“Bathing, Relaxation, Physiotherapy”) into 沐浴之王 (“Bathing King”).

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Jingxi Culture & Tourism (CN), Hubei Deep Focus Pictures (CN), Alibaba Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Beijing Poke Culture (CN).

Script: Zhang Shaochu, Xing Wenxiong, Yi Xiaoxing, Jiang Kun, Hou Jintao, Zhong Xiaoxiang, Wang Chaoran. Photography: Liu Yizeng. Editing: Li Dongquan [Wenders Li]. Music: Peng Fei. Art direction: Bai Furui. Styling: Liu Qian. Sound: Wang Yanwei. Action: Liu Mingzhe. Visual effects: Wu Shijie, Sun Haidong.

Cast: Peng Yuchang (Xiao Xiang), Qiao Bin (Zhou Donghai), Bu Guanjin (Zhou Xixi), Wei Qing (Wang Sufen, Zhou Donghai’s grandmother), Hong Jiantao (Wang), Jin Shijia (Zhong Shaochu, Xiao Xiang’s cousin), Fang Zibin (Liu), Huang Kaixiang (Ma), Sang Ping (Han Huohuo, leader of rock band), Zhu Shimao (Xu Weiquan, competition judge), Bai Ke (Wang Dachui), Zhang Benyu (Ha Jeong-hwan), Shen Nan (commentator), Yan Xiaowen (Li, health inspector), Ke Da, Liu Xunzimo.

Release: China, 11 Dec 2020.