Lie Detector
测谎人
China, 2021, colour, 2.35:1, 91 mins.
Director: Yang Yuanhan 杨沅翰.
Late-stage director: Qian Guowei 钱国伟.
Rating: 5/10.
Wry, well-cast comedy about two opposites disappointingly fails to deliver in its third act.
STORY
Chongqing, summer 2018. Ma Xiaofan (Ma Li) hates people who lie and runs a small business detecting whether people are lying or not. When a man (Wang Yuanda) threatens to jump off a building, claiming he really does love his wife (Sun Dandan), Ma Xiaofan proves he’s lying. Elsewhere in the city, Zuo Nan (Wen Zhang) is a confidence trickster who boasts that he can always tell when people are lying and can use that power to control them. Zuo Nan and his disciple Ma Hao (Yu Yang) scam some cash out of a smart clothes shop and then win big at majiang; however, when the gangsters running the place take over the game, they lose everything and end up owing money to gang boss Hei (Liang Chao). While checking out the husband (Yang Qiyu) of a businesswoman (Jia Jinjin) who’s hired her, Ma Xiaofan spots Zuo Nan at a gym. She goes to warn a woman who’s being scammed by Ma Hou and Zuo Nan, seeing Ma Xiaofan, runs off. (Years earlier they had been lovers and about to marry but Zuo Nan had deserted her, laying the seed for her life-long hatred of liars.) When the time comes for Zuo Nan to repay his loan from Hei, he claims he has no money; Hei gives him a month, or else. Meanwhile, the avaricious wife (Yu Shasha) of a businessman (Zhang Yijian) tries to commit suicide and ends up hospital; she blames Ma Xiaofan, whom her husband had once hired to find out if she was lying to him. The wife’s accusation goes viral and Ma Xiaofan suddenly finds herself a social outcast. Then Zhuo Nan learns his late father has willed him their old family pawnshop and its contents – but no cash. (Zuo Nan’s father, Zuo Hongqi [Ma Jingwu], had used up all the cash he had, RMB200,000, when in 1998 he had bought a 20-year lease on the home of an old friend, Lu [Yang Xinming], to help the latter out financially.) However, the 20-year agreement is about to end, so Zuo Nan must move fast to sell the property and raise some quick cash. The deeds to the home are lodged with the master of Huayan temple (You Benchang), who hands them over to Zuo Nan only after he passes on Zuo Hongqi’s wish that his son must reform his ways. The old Buddhist master writes a holy incantation on Zuo Nan’s arm, and when Zuo Nan visits the property, now inhabited by Lu’s son (and Zuo Nan’s childhood friend) Lu Da (Tian Hao), he’s kicked out when he can’t help telling the truth that he wants to quickly sell the property. With no business, Ma Xiaofan decides to close her shop. Hei unsuccessfully tries to hire her to find out whether Zhuo Nan really has any money or not. Meanwhile, Ma Hou tells Hei about the deeds that Zuo Nan has. Betrayed by his disciple, Zuo Nan gets drunk and is spotted in the street by Ma Xiaofan who takes him back to her home. Unable to lie, Zuo Nan confesses he still loves Ma Xiaofan, and the two set out to take on Hei, who’s kidnapped Lu Da’s young son (Jiao Shengxiang) in order to get hold of the original receipt for the transaction so he can lay claim to the property and sell it.
REVIEW
Shot back in summer 2018 and only now seeing the light of day, Lie Detector 测谎人 is a clever idea that doesn’t go the distance. A wry comedy centred on a woman who hates liars and a small-time conman who can’t stop lying, it’s pleasantly amusing for the first hour as it builds up the audience’s expectations but then fails to deliver in the third act when the two are finally brought together. Pulling in a mere RMB28 million, it’s the second flop in a row this year for actress Ma Li 马丽, one of the Mainland’s top comediennes, following Tiger Robbers 阳光劫匪 (also shot about three years ago) over the May Day holiday.
The fault is entirely that of the script, which when passed for filming in 2017 was credited to Sha Hailong 沙海龙 (online comedy Billion Coward 亿万懦夫, 2020) but on the film itself is credited to four writers, led by Mainlander Wang Jing 王靖 (comedy Scandals 囧人之越挠越痒, 2013, plus several earlier dramas for director Lu Yunfei 路云飞) and Hong Konger Guo Jianle (Buddy Cops 刑警兄弟, 2016; Golden Job 黄金兄弟, 2018). More curious still is a prominent credit on the film to late Hong Kong journeyman director Qian Guowei 钱国伟 [Wilson Chin] (Lan Kwai Fong 2 喜爱夜蒲2, 2012), who died in Oct 2020 but is credited with “late-stage direction” 后期导演, suggesting he was brought in by fellow Hong Konger Zeng Zhiwei 曾志伟 [Eric Tsang], who’s billed as creative producer 监制 on the movie, to sort things out at a late stage. The official credited director, making his feature debut, was Liaoning-born Yang Yuanhan 杨沅翰, then 33, a member of Beijing comedy troupe Mahua FunAge 开心麻花 with which Ma is closely associated.
The central idea is, indeed, worthy of Mahua FunAge, with Ma – then in her mid-30s but still capable of playing much younger in the flashbacks – perfectly cast as Ma Xiaofan, a woman who was once ditched at the altar by her lover and has since dedicated her life to (and built a modest business out of) exposing liars. A funny introduction has her arriving at a potential suicide scene and calmly telling a hysterical wife that her husband is bluffing when he says he’s going to jump. Ma Xiaofan’s story unrolls in parallel with that of Zuo Nan (Wen Zhang 文章, in his first teaming with Ma), a cocky conman whose lucks runs out when he loses big to some gangsters at majiang. Things get rosier when he discovers his late father left him some property he can sell to pay off his debts, but there are unexpected complications, including an incantation by a Buddhist priest that makes him only tell the truth hereon. The main twist – hardly a surprise – is that Zuo Nan was the man who ditched Ma Xiaofan all those years ago, but now he needs her.
With little dramatic tension but carried along by some fine performances and cameos, the script spends almost an hour developing each character before they’re brought together – but then veers away from the main concept into a knockabout plot with comic villains and chases. The Chinese title means “The Lie Detector(s)” but that clever concept plays no part in the third act. Ma’s role is virtually reduced to that of a bystander, with the writers seeming to have no idea what to with her once the two main characters are reunited. Wen, who’s a director himself (rom-com When Larry Met Mary 陆垚知马俐, 2016) and can do wry comedy when necessary (Fat Buddies 胖子行动队, 2018), carries most of the third act on his own. He’s propelled also by character actor Liang Chao 梁超 as the joke gang boss but Ma’s absence as a comic partner (as well as her sheer acting experience) is sorely missed. As Zuo Nan’s unreliable disciple, Yu Yang 于洋 is just okay.
The film was shot in Chongqing from mid-May to mid-Jul 1918, and makes good use of unflashy locations with clean widescreen photography by Feng Simu 冯思慕.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Yuedong Flower Picture (CN). Produced by Beijing Yuedong Flower Picture (CN).
Script: Wang Jing, Guo Jianle, Guo Wei, Guan Jian. Photography: Feng Simu. Editing: Huang Hai. Music: Xu Haoke. Music direction: Xu Haoke. Art direction: Xing Liuting. Costumes: Jia Qing. Styling: A Ge. Sound: Wu Lei, Zhang Shixue. Action: Yang Chongyu. Martial arts: Ren Peng. Visual effects: Xu Yao. Executive direction: Zhang Peng.
Cast: Ma Li (Ma Xiaofan), Wen Zhang (Zuo Nan), Yu Yang (Ma Hou, Zuo Nan’s disciple), Liang Chao (Hei, gangster), Tian Hao (Lu Da), Ma Jingwu (Zuo Hongqi, Zuo Nan’s father), You Benchang (Pudu, Huayan temple master), Yang Xinming (Lu, Lu Da’s father), Zhang Shuangli (white-haired man), Zhang Xinkai (neighbour), Chen Xiaohan (girlfriend), Zhang Yuechi (neighbour), Sun Dandan (Feifei, wife of suicidee), Wang Yuanda (suicidee), Liu Chunxia (community auntie), Tian Xueqing, Li Shiyao (netizens), Bu Yu (film star), Ma Mengyao (fat woman in KTV), Zhang Yijian (Chen, bearded businessman), Yu Shasha (Shasha, Chen’s wife), Jia Jinjin (Bao, businesswoman), Yang Qiyu (Bao’s husband), Zhao Leiqi (Number Two), Liu Yilin (Hei’s thug), An Wei (fat woman), Chen Xixu (Zhang Xiaohai, lawyer), Li Qingyu (young Zuo Nan), Wang Hexi (young Changxi), Xin Xing (Changxi’s father), An Jianguang (novice Buddhist monk), Jiao Shengxiang (Lu Dan, Lu Da’s son), Liu Di (chief bath masseur), Zhou Shuai (male lover), Ma Qiyue (youthful Zuo Nan), Xue Yulan (youthful Ma Xiaofan), Li Yiwei (bridal-shop manageress), Li Jia’nan (deputy bath masseur), Gao Yuanzhe (fruit-shop owner), Ba Duo (old man delivering food).
Release: China, 13 Aug 2021.