The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan

前任4    英年早婚

China, 2023, colour, 2.35:1, 128 mins.

Director: Tian Yusheng 田羽生.

Rating: 7/10.

A direct sequel (in real time) to the previous film, this one is the usual, largely superficial mixture of yuppie relationships but well played and smoothly mounted.

STORY

Chengdu, Sichuan province, southwest China, the present day. After being tested at a clinic, Meng Yun (Han Geng) learns he has a low sperm count, though normal for his age. Yu Fei (Zheng Kai), his friend and business partner in Mojo Design, is told by his girlfriend Ding Dian (Zeng Mengxue) that she suspects she’s pregnant; he offers to marry her but she gets upset, saying she’s still in her 20s and not ready for marriage. Both Meng Yun’s mother (Yu Hui) and Yu Fei want to get Meng Yun hitched again, as he’s been single since splitting with his longtime girlfriend Lin Jia (Yu Wenwen). Yu Fei arranges a blind date with a graphic designer, Xiao’ai (Zhang Tian’ai), which seems to go well, though she later rejects him. Yu Fei and Ding Dian agree to a “trial marriage” period and she moves in with him; meanwhile, Meng Yun tries more blind dates but all are unsuccessful. When Meng Yun tells Yu Fei, the latter also admits that he’s having problems with his “trial marriage”, finding it too demanding. Later Yu Fei and Ding Dian have a frank talk, with plenty of drink, and all seems to end positively. Meng Yun has a blind date with a surgeon, Huang Yue (Zhuyanmanzi), who guesses he has a medical condition. Meng Yun then meets a straight-talking lawyer, Liuliu (Liu Yase), with whom he gets on well. However, he then accidentally learns from Ding Dian that Lin Jia is back in town, after divorcing the man she’d married following her split with Meng Yun. Ding Dian arranges a dinner between her, Yu Fei, Meng Yun and Lin Jia, at which Lin Jia turns up with her young son. Lin Jia lets Meng Yun know that she wishes him well but they have no future together. On the sly, Yu Fei gets a strand of the boy’s hair to check his DNA. One night at the office Yu Fei confesses to Meng Yun that he’s becoming bored living with Ding Dian; later, after another frank talk, Ding Dian decides to move out. Meanwhile, Meng Yun and Liuliu spend more and more time together, even though both of them claim they’re not looking to get married.

REVIEW

Since the huge success of The Ex-File: The Return of the Exes 前任3   再见前任 (2017, RMB1.94 billion), the third (and best) entry in the loose series of yuppie relationship comedies, writer-director Tian Yusheng 田羽生 has had a patchy few years, starting with the thin black comedy The Last Wish 小小的愿望 (2019), adapted from a South Korean original, and followed by an “associate director” 联合导演 credit on Korean War movie The Sacrifice 金刚川 (2020) and an episode credit on the portmanteau Covid drama Ode to the Spring 你是我的春天 (2022). So it’s no surprise that, despite declaring Return of the Exes the last in the series, he’s returned to the honeypot with The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan 前任4   英年早婚. The good news is that it maintains the standard of the last one, and with box-office only fractionally smaller (RMB1.01 billion).

Unlike the three other films in the series, which were only tangentially related despite the recycling of some characters’ names, EF4 is a sequel (in real time) to No. 3, with actors Han Geng 韩庚, 39, and Zheng Kai 郑恺, 37, specifically repeating their roles as business partners Meng Yun and Yu Fei, as well as actresses Zeng Mengxue曾梦雪, 29, and Mainland-born, Vancouver-raised singer-actress Yu Wenwen 于文文 [Kelly Yu], 34. In the six years since the last movie, both Han and Zheng have developed some depth to their acting, with the former much more relaxed and the latter not just a cheeky lothario any longer. (In the meantime, coincidentally, both actors have also married and become parents in their real lives.) Zeng and Yu, for whom Return of the Exes was their first main role, have lost nothing in the interim, especially Chengdu-born Zeng, who matches Zheng’s wackiness as the longtime girlfriend who also likes a drink or three to make up.

A notable addition to the acting team is Liu Yase 刘雅瑟, 34, as an independent, self-confidant lawyer who becomes embroiled with Han’s character: first notable as the tomboy in So Young 致我们终将逝去的青春 (2013), Liu hasn’t got the bigger roles she deserves over the years but here walks away with the scenes she’s in. Her character is also one of the more nuanced, and is key to the film’s coda that teases out the relationship between the independent lawyer and the over-cautious Meng Yun. This subtler ending directly contrasts with the much more pat one between Yu Fei and his longtime girlfriend.

With most of the same team behind the script, it’s the usual mixture of sparring between the sexes, the underlying theme of whether men can ever change and give up their “freedom”, and acres of talk about relationships, love and marriage – all largely superficial and in very yuppie settings (restaurants, gyms, bars). Pointedly, no one is ever shown working. Meanwhile, the glossy widescreen photography by Taiwan ace Che Liangyi 车亮逸 [Randy Che], replacing Tian’s previous d.p. Huang Lian 黄炼, smooth cutting by the experienced Kong Jinlei 孔劲蕾 and invisibly supportive music by Wang Qianting 王倩婷 (Delicious Romance, 2023) all motor things along. The film shot in Tian’s hometown, Chengdu, Sichuan province, from late Dec 2022 to Feb 2023. The ironic handle in the film’s Chinese title means “Marry in Your Prime”.

CREDITS

Presented by Huayi Brothers Pictures (CN), Beijing United Entertainment Partners Culture & Media (CN), Shanghai Taopiaopiao Movie & TV Culture (CN), China Film (CN).

Script: Da Kuan [Hu Jiahao], Da Guang [Ma Jingqi], Master Tian [Tian Yusheng]. Photography: Che Liangyi [Randy Che]. Editing: Kong Jinlei, Li Jiahua. Music: Wang Qianting. Art direction: Zheng Chen. Styling: Bai Yiting. Sound: Liu Jia. Visual effects: Li Bao, Yi Jianping.

Cast: Han Geng (Meng Yun), Zheng Kai (Yu Fei), Zeng Mengxue (Ding Dian), Yu Wenwen [Kelly Yu] (Lin Jia), Liu Yase (Liuliu), Zhang Tian’ai (Xiao’ai), Zhuyanmanzi (Huang Yue), Luo Mi (Wang Zi), Su Yan (doctor), Yu Hui (Meng Yun’s mother), Liu Yichun (younger cousin), Yu Huiyuan (Leilei), Chi Ningning (Yu Li), Lin Lexuan (Han Jing), Jiu’er (Lin Jia’s father), Feng Mingchao (Chaochao), Yao Yize (Xiaoyao), Song Yixing (Yu Fei’s former girlfriend), Zhang Luan (Jia, businessman at dinner), Gao Ying (Jia’s wife), Li Jiayun, Deng Jie (Yu Fei’s assistants).

Release: China, 28 Sep 2023.