Special Couple
合法伴侣
China/UK/Hong Kong, 2019, colour, 2.35:1, 105 mins.
Director: Huang Lei 黄雷.
Rating: 4/10.
London-set rom-com is a laboured attempt at a supposedly provocative “gay” comedy.
STORY
London, early 2018. Gu Dabai (Li Zhiting) is a music student in the UK who is also struggling to make a career as a singer-composer. He shares a flat with childhood friend Jin Tian (Bai Ke), who has UK permanent residency and runs a small business that also employs his fiancee, Vivian (Zhou Weitong). Returning from a tour of some clubs, Gu Dabai is warned again by Bai Ke that his student visa is about to expire; however, Gu Dabai is only interested in the fact that he’s managed to get an audition with well-known music producer Billy Cook (Ben Manning). On the day of the audition Gu Dabai goes to the rescue of a guy being mugged and ends up being beaten and with his guitar smashed; he’s only saved from more harm by the intervention of someone in a giant panda suit. As a result of having to go to the police station, he’s too late to renew his visa and faces deportation. His solicitor (Abi McLoughlin) jokingly suggests he and Jin Tian should get married as they “make such a nice couple”. To prevent his friend being deported, Jin Tian embraces the idea and Gu Dabai unwillingly agrees. At the immigration department, Gu Dabai is questioned by an officer, Watson (Rupert Graves), who is not convinced by his story and says he’ll investigate them. The friend’s new next-door neighbour turns out to be the person in the panda suit – Hermione (Zhang Rongrong), a Eurasian who runs a fencing school and speaks Mandarin with a Taiwan accent. Gu Dabai and Jin Tian rearrange their flat and visit a gay club to get in the mood for Watson’s visit. When Watson arrives, Hermione is using the friends’ bathroom as her shower has broken down; Jin Tian initially mistakes Watson for her plumber. Gu Dabai and Jin Tian enrol at Hermione’s fencing school, so that Vivian’s young daughter, Xiaoqi (Alexa Qin), can experience it. Gu Dabai finds himself falling for Hermione; however, she still thinks he is gay and asks him to pretend to be her new boyfriend to get rid of her troublesome ex, Harry (Joseph Timms). Watson continues to shadow the two friends around, still unconvinced they are really gay. And then Gu Dabai’s parents (Gong Hanlin, Jiang Shan) suddenly fly in for a visit.
REVIEW
A London-set rom-com in which two straight Chinese friends pretend to be gay so one of them can’t be deported, Special Couple 合法伴侣 is a long way from being anything special. The second theatrical feature of Xi’an-born director Huang Lei 黄雷 (son of veteran director/producer Huang Jianxin 黄建新), it’s a desperately unfunny attempt at a supposedly provocative comedy that’s nicely shot by veteran d.p. Zhao Xiaoshi 赵晓时 (Forever Enthralled 梅兰芳, 2008; Personal Tailor 私人订制, 2013; A Hustle Bustle New Year 没有过不去的年, 2021) but flatly written and with the cast hardly generating a spark between them. The first non-documentary made under the 2014 UK-China co-production treaty, it was finally released in the Mainland this spring, almost two years after premiering at Shanghai’s film festival, taking a meh RMB10 million. It has yet to surface in the UK.
Huang’s first feature was the children’s comedy-adventure Angry Kid 愤怒的小孩 (2013), in which a boy runs away from home and meets up with a beggar girl on the run from some villains who exploit her. Also shot by d.p. Zhao, it was routine fare – boosted by cameos from name actors – but a lot more lively and much more fun than Special Couple, which hardly bothers to justify its unbelievable plot with any psychology and spends the next 90 minutes going round in circles as a suspicious immigration officer (noted UK actor Rupert Graves, looking understandably puzzled) follows the supposedly gay couple around. Meanwhile, the one who’s about to be deported (played by Hong Kong actor-singer Li Zhiting 李治廷 [Aarif Lee]) finds himself falling for his new neighbour (French-Taiwan actress Zhang Rongrong 张榕容 [Sandrine Pinna]) and his pal (Mainland comic Bai Ke 白客, Surprise 万万没想到, 2015; Nice to Meet You 遇见你真好, 2018), who has UK permanent residency, doesn’t seem worried that a marriage of convenience to his childhood friend could imperil his own forthcoming marriage to his girlfriend (Shui-minority Mainland actress-model Zhou Weitong 周韦彤, caper-comedy A Busy Night 情况不妙, 2016).
It’s all sluggishly scripted by new name Xu Rongshuo 许容硕 and the experienced Shu Huan 束焕 (Coward Hero 鼠胆英雄, 2019), and played without an iota of comic bounce. Huang reportedly cast Li in the lead role because he had actually been a student in the UK. But the Chinese-Malay performer, 31 at the time of shooting in spring 2018, is bland at the best of times (Echoes of the Rainbow 岁月神偷, 2010; Bruce Lee My Brother 李小龙, 2010; The Thousand Faces of Dunjia 奇门遁甲, 2017) and hardly convinces either as a music student or as someone who would go through with such a ruse. He also shows no sense of comic timing, unlike Bai Ke, 29, who is at least serviceable in the role of his pal. Mostly performing in her Taiwan-accented Mandarin, Zhang is hampered by a script that serves her up uninteresting, borderline soppy dialogue, while Zhou’s character hardly manages to register.
The London setting is as phoney as the plotting. Apart from some scenes showing famous landmarks, most of the film was actually shot in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and often looks like it, with no attempt being made even to hide street signs like “Donegall Square North”. The professional scoring by Ma Shangyou 马上又 (Angry Kid) and Duan Lian 段炼 fails to add any charm or wit to the finished product. The Chinese title means “Legal Companions” or “Companions-in-Law”.
CREDITS
Presented by Shanghai SMG Pictures (CN), Shanghai Dimension Films (CN), Emperor Film Production (HK), Emperor Film & Entertainment (Beijing) (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), Zephyr Films (UK). Produced by Shanghai Dimension Films (CN), Zephyr Films (UK).
Script: Xu Rongshuo. Script supervision: Shu Huan. Photography: Zhao Xiaoshi. Editing: Chen Zhongming. Music: Ma Shangyou, Duan Lian. Art direction: Di Kun. Styling: Di Kun. Sound: Chen Hui, Wang Chong. Action: Liu Mingzhe. Visual effects: Han Yi. Choreography: Liang Daiqing.
Cast: Li Zhiting [Aarif Lee] (Gu Dabai), Zhang Rongrong [Sandrine Pinna] (He Min/Hermione), Bai Ke (Jin Tian), Rupert Graves (Watson, immigration officer), Zhou Weitong (Weiwei An/Vivian, Jin Tian’s girlfriend), Joseph Timms (Harry, Hermione’s former boyfriend), Jiang Shan (Gu Dabai’s mother), Gong Hanlin (Gu Dabai’s father), Pat Deery (Mr Smith, landlord), Barbara Adair (Mrs Smith/landlady), Alexa Qin (Xiaoqi/Seven, Vivian’s daughter), Kilian Kraus (delivery boy), Ryan McParland, Sofian Francis, Jack Miles (muggers), Abi McLoughlin (Emma Fraser, solicitor), Ross Anderson-Doherty (Charlie, barman at gay club), Shane McCaffrey (customer at gay club), Tábata Cerezo (Harry’s date), Yegor Shyshov (news cameraman), Sara Dylan (Billy Cook’s assistant), Ben Manning (Billy Cook).
Premiere: Shanghai Film Festival (Asian New Talent Awards), 19 Jun 2019.
Release: China, 12 Mar 2021; UK, tba; Hong Kong, tba.