Godspeed

人生路不熟

China, 2023, colour, 2.35:1, 99 mins.

Director: Yi Xiaoxing 易小星.

Rating: 5/10.

A comedy road movie centred on a dysfunctional family is strongly cast, starts promisingly but doesn’t go anywhere.

STORY

Chengdu city, Sichuan province, southwest China, the present day. Geeky Wan Yifan (Fan Chengcheng), a games programmer at DoraDot Technology, meets Zhou Weiyu (Zhang Jingyi) when he takes on a drunk on a public bus, loses, and Zhou Weiyu floors the drunk with a wrestling move. Two years later they are living together and he is about to meet her family for the first time, joining them on a visit to their hometown to celebrate the 80th birthday of Zhou Weiyu’s grandfather. Though they’ve never met, Zhou Weiyu’s father, Zhou Donghai (Qiao Shan), a lorry driver who runs a transport business, has taken a dislike to Wan Yifan. When they first meet, Wan Yifan mistakes someone else for Zhou Donghai and gets into a fight. lster as they start the journey – with Wan Yifan in Zhou Donghai’s lorry, and Zhou Weiyu with her mother, Huo Meimei (Ma Li), in a car behind – the two men reach a kind of understanding. Huo Meimei has taken a liking to Wan Yifan and always defends him when her husband becomes short-tempered. The group spend the night at a bath house favoured by lorry drivers who all know Zhong Donghai and defer to him. Zhong Donghai questions Wan Yifan more about his job, but Zhou Weiyu has warned him not to admit that he’s a games programmer.Next day, at a camping site, the family meets Jia (Tian Yu), a former business colleague of Zhong Donghai, who shows off his luxury camper van, which Wan Yifan ends up accidentally wrecking. That night Zhou Donghai and Wan Yifan take a supposed shortcut but the lorry ends up in a field. Next morning they’re rescued by Guang (Chang Yuan), a childhood friend of Zhou Weiyu who runs a nearby luxury resort, Youran Manor. Guang shows off his wealth and entertains them, but keeps making known his liking for Zhou Weiyu. Wan Yifan gets totally drunk and embarrasses everyone. Next day they drive through some spectacular scenery before spending then night at a trabsport hotel, where Wan Yifan accidentally saves some other lorry drivers from petrol thieves. However, Zhou Donghai discovers the name of the company Wan Yifan works for. Next night, in Kaobian township, everything goes wrong and ends with Wan Yifan walking away on his own.

REVIEW

Despite the presence of accomplished comedians Qiao Shan 乔杉 and Ma Li 马丽, plus several cameos by other names, Godspeed 人生路不熟 is a family road movie that doesn’t go anywhere. The third feature directed by onetime online film-maker and comedian Yi Xiaoxing 易小星 (previously known as Jiaoshou Yi Xiaoxing 叫兽易小星, literally Yi “The Beast” Xiaoxing), it’s a disappointment coming after his well-scripted character comedy Bath Buddy 沐浴之王 (2020), which showed him throwing off the sketch-based style of his directing debut, Surprise 万万没想到 (2015), a comic riff on Chinese classic Journey to the West 西游记. Godspeed starts promisingly, with a likeable tone peppered with cartoony comic moments, but halfway through starts becoming repetitive, with no clear trajectory for its characters. Despite this, the film managed to take a very hunky RMB1.18 billion on release in spring last year.

The basic premise of the script, lead written by Zhou Yunhai 周运海 (Goldbuster 妖铃铃, 2017; Pegasus 2 飞驰人生2, 2024) plus five others, is very simple: a couple and their daughter set off to visit their hometown for a family celebration, and the daughter’s boyfriend, a geeky games programmer, joins them, despite the objections of the father, a no-nonsense lorry driver. The first half is almost entirely driven by the bad vibes between the grumpy father (Qiao) and the geeky boyfriend (Fan Chengcheng 范丞丞, younger brother of actress Fan Bingbing 范冰冰) as the latter hides his real occupation and keeps causing chaos at their various stops en route. But when, around the hour mark, the script cooks up a totally gratuitous action setpiece (as the father and his lorry-driver pals gang up against some petrol thieves) it’s clear that the film has no clear destination and, for a road movie, the characters’ development is stuck in neutral.

The role of the father is a perfect fit for the straightfaced humour of Qiao; the problem is that he’s not called on to do anything more than his usual grimacing and double-takes. Fan is okay but bland in a bland role. As the mother, Ma mostly hovers on the sidelines as a peacemaker between the father and boyfriend, while Zhang Jingyi 张婧仪 (Love Will Tear Us Apart 我要我们在一起, 2021; Tale of the Night 长沙夜生活, 2023), after a spunky intro as the once-tomboyish daughter, is never allowed to follow through, largely relegated to a nothing part. Some variation is provided en route by over-sized personalities showing off their wealth (Tian Yu 田雨 as a boastful camper-van owner, the always entertaining Chang Yuan 常远 as a lustful poseur) but even that device starts to become predictable. In a WTF piece of casting, actor-singer Yin Zheng 尹正 pops up in the latter stages as a younger version of Qiao.

Technical credits are fine throughout, with d.p. Sun Ming 孙明 (Hi, Mom 你好，李焕英, 2021) serving up some striking Sichuan vistas. Experienced editor Tu Yiran 屠亦然 keeps things moving as much as he can, though the raggedy final 10 minutes, with its multiple endings, is hardly his fault. The film’s Chinese title means “the road of life isn’t familiar”.

CREDITS

Presented by Shanghai PMF Pictures (CN), Shanghai Taopiaopiao Movie & TV Culture (CN), Beijing Poke Culture Films (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), China Film (CN), Zhejiang Hengdian Film (CN), Beijing Twinkle Star (CN), Beijing Weimeng Internet Technology (CN), Xiamen SGR Pictures (CN). Produced by Shanghai PMF Pictures (CN).

Script: Zhou Yunhai, Jiang Kun, Hou Jinshou, Wang Chaoran, Xin Mingyan, Yi Daxing [Yi Xiaoxing]. Photography: Sun Ming. Editing: Tu Yiran. Music: Chen Guangrong [Comfort Chan], Chen Yongjian. Art direction: Zhao Xuehao. Styling: Tang Ning. Sound: Feng Yanming, Lin Xuelin. Action: Yao Xingxing. Car action: Sun Yu. Visual effects: Ye Zi, Qiao Le. Executive direction: Xi Zi.

Cast: Qiao Shan (Zhou Donghai), Fan Chengcheng (Wan Yifan), Ma Li (Huo Meimei), Zhang Jingyi (Zhou Weiyu), Chang Yuan (Guang), Tian Yu (Jia), Yin Zheng (younger Zhou Donghai), Xiao’ai (Liu), Zhang Lei (Lang Yiming, Wan Yifan’s boss), Zhang Xiran (young Zhou Weiyu), Gan Yunran (Tian Gou, Wan Yifan’s office colleague).

Release: China, 28 Apr 2024.