On Your Mark

了不起的老爸

China, 2021, colour, 2.35:1, 103 mins.

Director: Zhou Qingyuan 周青元 [Chiu Keng Guan].

Rating: 6/10.

Mixture of father-son drama, a sporting theme, and a disease-of-the-week sub-plot is fluid but lightweight.

STORY

Shancheng city, central China, 2020. Since childhood, university student Xiao Erdong (Zhang Youhao) has always been interested in running and dreamed of taking part in a marathon. His mother, Xing Yun (Feng Wenjuan), was a provincial-level champion who was forced to retire due to multiple sclerosis, from which she eventually died. His father, taxi driver Xiao Daming (Wang Yanhui), has always discouraged the interest of Xiao Erdong, who was diagnosed 10 years ago with latent MS; instead, Xiao Daming, who played the trumpet when young, has encouraged him in playing the piano. On the day that he should be attending a practical piano exam at university, Xiao Erdong tries to audition with provincial-level trainer Xia Lu (Gong Beibi), who is looking for runners for a marathon team. Thanks to the help of his friend Fang Dun (Li Xiaopang) who works in a sports shop, Xiao Erdong gets into the stadium and manages to talk to Xia Lu. But she rejects him as his father had already informed her about his latent MS. Thanks to help from a fellow piano student, Tang Xiaoxi (He Nan), who likes him, Xiao Erdong just manages to make it back to the exam. He later tries again with Xia Lu, who can see his potential but is wary of taking him on. Finally she agrees to, if he does well in a forthcoming university students’ marathon. Meanwhile, Xiao Daming buys a new piano for his son. When it arrives and Xiao Erdong says he’s not interested in playing it, father and son argue and on the day of the marathon Xiao Daming locks him in his room. Xiao Erdong manages to escape, but without his running shoes. He starts the marathon barefoot, and his father tries to give him the shoes halfway; but during the race Xiao Erdong’s vision starts to blur, a sign that the MS has moved from its latent to acute phase. Xiao Erdong refuses hospital treatment and goes to stay with Fang Dun. To be close to his son, Xiao Daming hatches a plan with Fang Dun, pretending to be Mr. Zhao, a professional nurse, who’s lost his voice. Though he can hardly see any longer, Xiao Erdong still dreams of taking part in the 2020 Shancheng National Marathon. So the seriously out-of-shape Xiao Daming volunteers to be his official escort in the race.

REVIEW

One of several films dealing with competitive sports that were released in the Mainland prior to the (delayed) Tokyo Olympics in 2021, On Your Mark 了不起的老爸 combines more than one message in its basic formula about winning. Where its main box-office contender Never Stop 超越, released a week earlier, pivoted on a retired sprinter and a younger runner who used to idolise him, On Your Mark is a disease-of-the-week melodrama grafted onto a dysfunctional father-son relationship within an overall “inspirational” yarn about marathon running. (It also comes complete with several health warnings of its own.) Taking a so-so RMB149 million (fractionally more than Never Stop), it’s largely held together by the droll playing of veteran character actor Wang Yanhui 王砚辉 as the father, who compensates for the rather un-nuanced performance by Zhang Youhao 张宥浩 as the marathon-obsessed son with latent multiple sclerosis.

Often in father or cop/criminal roles (Dying to Survive 我不是药神, 2018; Back to the Wharf 风平浪静, 2020; Model 我是监护人, 2020), Wang, 52, is terrific as the widowed father who drives a taxi but is determined to make a musician of his student son. Once a trumpet player, and frightened that his son (like his late wife) will fall victim to MS quicker if he pursues an athletic career, the father is a study in misplaced devotion that only drives the two farther apart. Adopting a thick Chongqing accent, Wang gives the role colour and empathy, though even he can’t quite make the script’s biggest leap work – when he anonymously becomes his son’s nurse (and trainer) after the latter has been struck almost blind from the now-triggered disease. Zhang, 27, mostly known on the big screen for his comic role in the virtual-reality action drama Dream Breaker 破梦游戏 (2018) and as the bad-boy classmate in Farewell My Lad 再见，少年 (2020), is okay as the son who’s much more interested in marathons than piano playing but he doesn’t give his character much dramatic heft beyond a love of running free.

That’s partly the fault of the screenplay – by newcomer Xu Yizhou 徐逸洲 and the slightly more experienced Xiang Yaowei 向尧惟 (online youth sports movie 少年啦之零秒出手, 2016; youth comedy Coffee or Tea? 一点就到家, 2020) – which keeps trying to hit too many different themes and tends to discard side characters at will. An unsmiling marathon trainer (cleverly played by actress Gong Beibi 龚蓓苾) and especially a fellow music student (actress He Nan 鹤男, TVD Honey, Don’t Run Away 2 公子，我娶定你了2, 2021) are notable casualties.

It is also, however, the fault of the fluid but lightweight direction by Chinese Malaysian film-maker Zhou Qingyuan 周青元 [Chiu Keng Guan, aka Chiu], here making his debut with a Mainland feature following the Mainland online TVD Never Stand Still 极限17 滑魂 (2019), also centred on a sports-obsessed youth. Zhou is a very capable director of charming heartwarmers (Woohoo! 大日子, 2010; Great Day 天天好天, 2011; The Journey 一路有你, 2013) but has shown no special talent for anything more trenchant, and it’s notable here how he shows a liking for slick montages rather than dialogue to advance the narrative.

Technically, the film is fine, with good-looking but realistic widescreen photography of Chongqing (standing in for fictional “Shancheng” city) by Piao Songri 朴松日 (The Crossing 过春天, 2018; Back to the Wharf; Sister 我的姐姐, 2021) and fluid music by Taiwan’s Wang Xiwen 王希文 (rom-com When a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep 南方小羊牧场, 2012; foodie comedy Zone Pro Site 总铺师, 2013). The Chinese title means “Amazing Dad”.

CREDITS

Presented by Jiangsu Maoyan Media (CN), Wuxi Change Film (CN). Produced by Wuxi Change Film (CN), Beijing Change Film (CN).

Script: Xu Yizhou, Xiang Yaowei. Story: A Shun. Photography: Piao Songri. Editing: Deng Wentao, Li Yamei. Music: Wang Xiwen. Art direction: Zheng Chen. Styling: Zheng Chen. Sound: Chen Guanting, Du Duzhi, Wu Shuyao. Visual effects: Xie Kun, Yu Lizheng. Marathon advice: Su Qing, Ren Shuangning. Marathon coaching: Cheng Qianyu, He Ping.

Cast: Wang Yanhui (Xiao Daming, father), Zhang Youhao (Xiao Erdong, son), Gong Beibi (Xia Lu, trainer), Li Xiaopang (Fang Dun), He Nan (Tang Xiaoxi), Zhao Liang (Liu), Li Yu (Zhang), Feng Wenjuan (Xing Yun), Liu Jinshan (Fang Dun’s father), Wang Tao (marathon commentator), Liu Chang (news broadcaster), Huang Xiaolan (female passenger), Huo Dezhuan (Liu, sports ground security guard).

Release: China, 18 Jun 2021.