The Hutong Cowboy
爆款好人
China, 2024, colour, 1.85:1, 112 mins.
Directors: Ning Hao 宁浩, Xu Lei 徐磊.
Rating: 8/10.
A well-structured screenplay and top cast led by veteran Ge You expose the perils of online celebrity in an entertaining way.
STORY
Beijing, 2023. Local taxi driver Zhang Beijing (Ge You) is preparing for the wedding of his son, Zhang Xiaojing (Wu Lei), to Liu Zina (Zhao Tian’ai). Zhang Beijing is divorced and lives alone in a hutong. His best friends are the big and brawny Li Kuiyong (Sang Ping) and former elementary school teacher Yang (Yang Haoyu); his ex-wife, Yuan Rong (Gong Beibi), married well-off businessman Wen (Jia Bing), who calmly upstages Zhang Beijing when the latter tries to organise a fleet of red cars for the wedding. Yuan Rong also thinks that the weding speech should be given by Wen, Zhang Xiaojing’s step-father, rather than by Zhang Beijing, his birth father, as the latter is disorganised and prone to mishaps. In a shopping precinct, the on-edge Zhang Beijing has a dispute with a woman, Li Xiaoqin (Li Xueqin), who is promoting energy bars dressed in a huge alien suit. He drives a kiddie train into her stand and ends up being slightly injured. During a hospital checkup Zhang Beijing gets to know a nurse, Lingzi (Liu Mintao), with whom he gradually becomes friendly. The dispute with Li Xiaoqin is settled amicably: she’s a bit spacey, and has come to Beijing from Liaoning, in the northeast, for work reasons. But videos of the dispute go viral, and Zhang Beijing suddenly becomes famous. As he claimed he was defending his civil rights in attacking Li Xiaoqi, he is dubbed Mr. Rights 维权哥 by netizens. Zhang Beijing is embarrassed by all the attention but everyone urges him to exploit it. He starts an online platform, Beijing Mr. Rights 北京维权哥, for victims with grievances, and wears a trademark cowboy hat. He becomes very effective and is soon an internet celebrity. However, he doesn’t earn any money from the venture, and businessmen threaten to sue him. He’s saved from one court case by the sudden appearance of Xiao (Wei Xiao), who runs Wild Smile Network 笑浪网络, a company that monitors thousands of online influencers as well as having dozens of its own at its headquarters. It also has its own “water army” 水军 that manipulates the number of online likes and dislikes. Xiao invites Zhang Beijing to join his network, and success goes to his head. Li Xiaoqin has also become an internet star since her run-in with Zhang Beijing, and he becomes friendly with her and her young son Dashan (Lilifuqiao). Inspired by her success in selling goods online, Zhang Beijing also tries merchandising but it backfires against his spotless reputation as a rights campaigner. Due to all the strain, Zhang Beijing collapes one day. But he’s determined to find out who’s defaming him. Suspecting it is Xiao, who was against him selling goods online, he discovers Xiao is now penniless following the collapse of his company. Xiao tells Zhang Beijing not to try to understand the internet, which makes and breaks people. But Zhang Beijing won’t give up.
REVIEW
A Beijing taxi driver finds that online celebrity is a double-edged sword in The Hutong Cowboy 爆款好人, a drily humorous vehicle for veteran comedian Ge You 葛优 that attempts to breathe life into the Beijing Comedy genre via a contemporary theme. Co-directed by Ning Hao 宁浩 and relative newcomer Xu Lei 徐磊, it has Ge playing the same character from the episodes directed by Ning in the portmanteau productions My People, My Country 我和我的祖国 (2019) and My People My Homeland 我和我的家乡 (20) – echt-Beijinger Zhang Beijing, who even has the city as part of his name. Written by two of the same people, Ning regulars Wang Ang 王昂 and Liu Xiaodan 刘晓丹, it expands considerably on the main character (who was given almost no background in the two episodes) as well as providing Ge, 67, with a formidable acting platform. Unfortunately, following the box-office debacle of Ning’s previous film – the Liu Dehua 刘德华 [Andy Lau] vehicle The Movie Emperor 红毯先生 (2023), which grossed a mere RMB94 million, Cowboy did even worse, taking a tiny RMB27 million.
The impermanence of online celebrity and the dangers of the internet are hardly new themes in Chinese cinema – from Invisible Killer 无形杀 (2009) through Caught in the Web 搜索 (2012) to Trending Topic 热搜 (2023) – though they may be ones of which the younger generation (who make up the bulk of film audiences in the Mainland) don’t wish to be reminded of too often. Or maybe the traditional Beijing Comedy, with its big characters, self-deprecating humour and characteristic local accent, has simply had its day. Added to which, Ge, who long typified the genre, is no longer the box-office draw he once was. Whatever the case, it’s a pity Cowboy didn’t click with cinema audiences, as it’s beautifully played and has a well-constructed screenplay that puts many others to shame, including that of The Movie Emperor (by the same writers).
Ning, 47, has a reputation for encouraging talent (often as creative producer 监制 via his company Dirty Monkeys 坏猴子) but Cowboy is the first time he’s officially co-directed with someone else. Xu, 42, had first made a mark with his first feature, Summer Detective 平原上的夏洛克 (2019), a drolly observed tale of villagers-turned-detectives whose main weakness was being over-long for its thin content. After being second-unit director on Ning’s 22-minute BMW promo Bayier’s Spring Festival 巴依尔的春节 (2020) – a CNY family story, set in the 1990s in Ning’s native Shanxi province, centred on the latest car by BMW (then known in Chinese as Bayier 巴依尔) – Xu subsequently directed and co-wrote the 39-minute short The Great Director 地球最后的导演 (2021), a futuristic black comedy set in 2065 starring Ning and Jia Zhangke 贾樟柯 as two once-famous directors competing for reputational supremacy. Ning, who was also creative producer 监制 on The Great Director, reportedly chose Xu as co-director for Cowboy as he thought Xu (a) was good at ironic humour and (b), coming from Hebei province, could bring an authentic Beijing flavour to the movie.
The 20-minute set-up, leading to Zhang Beijing’s sudden internet celebrity, establishes many characters, from the somewhat klutzy main character plying his trade (rather unenthusiastically) as a cabbie, through his ex-wife (likeably played by Gong Beibi 龚蓓苾) and her new, well-off husband (wry comedian Jia Bing 贾冰, calmly playing oneupmanship with Zhang Beijing at every opportunity), to Zhang Beijing’s pals (Yang Haoyu 杨皓宇 as a former teacher, Sang Ping 桑平 as a beefy brawler) and an internet manipulator (Wei Xiao 危笑) who learns his own lesson in humility. All these people – as well as the single mother (internet personality Li Xueqin 李雪琴) with whom Zhang Beijing has the dispute that goes viral and a no-nonsense hospital nurse (Liu Mintao 刘敏涛) who becomes his de facto romantic interest – thread through the picture as Zhang Beijing’s fortunes rise and fall and his ego is forced to adjust.
The screenplay has an almost old-fashioned architecture that’s very satisfying, and a real sense of dramatic flow as characters come and go, always developing, beyond the basically simple storyline. Like the Shanghai-set B for Busy 爱情神话 (2021), Cowboy is an ensemble movie that’s as much about the neighbourhood and its community as it is about anything grander, with the capital’s oldstyle alleyways (hutong) paralleling Shanghai’s backstreets.
Ge is well cast as the unlikely internet celebrity, a rather awkward figure who’s not looking for fame, just a sense of everyday justice and fairness, but has a bruised ego that can easily run out of control if given the chance. But as his passion for fame gets the better of him, he still retains a decent core that stands him in good stead when things go pear-shaped. The film’s Chinese title literally means “(The) Hot-Selling Good Guy”, and beneath all his braggadocio Ge’s Zhang Beijing remains a hăorén 好人 (good guy). There isn’t a weak link in the whole cast, which meshes seamlessly with Ge’s performance – though it’s worth noting the beautifully dry playing by Liu (One and Only 热烈, 2023) as the nurse who’s never impressed by Zhang Beijing’s romantic craziness, as well as the touching performance of Li (Post Truth #保你平安, 2022) as the ever-optimistic single mother from out of town.
Ning and Xu’s direction is all focused on the performances, though the film is always good-looking in a realistic way thanks to d.p. Cheng Ma 程马, aka Cheng Ma Zhiyuan 程马志远, who shot Ning’s episode in My People, My Country. Editors Du Yuan 杜媛 and Qiao Aiyu 乔爱宇 bring the whole thing in at a comfortable running time of less than two hours; only a final in-joke about the now-unknown Zhang Beijing no longer being able to get the autograph of director Zhang Yimou 张艺谋 (who’s shooting Full River Red 2 满江红2, a time-travel sequel) feels overdone. The whole film was shot in Beijing – in Dongcheng, Xicheng and Chaoyang districts – and looks it. Xu has since directed Green Wave 前程似锦, a father-son drama, starring Xu Chaoying 徐朝英 and Wang Chuanjun 王传君, set in Beijing, that premiered at the Pingyao festival in Sep 2024.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Dirty Monkeys Studios (CN), Hainan Sun Rise Film (CN).
Script: Wang Ang, Liu Xiaodan. Photography: Cheng Ma [Cheng Ma Zhiyuan]. Editing: Du Yuan, Qiao Aiyu. Music: Liu Cong, Shi Sisi. Art direction: Lou Pan. Styling: Kong Lingyuan. Sound: Wen Bo, Wang Sheng. Visual effects: Zhang Long, Jiang Jun, Lan Jianqiao (Horizon VFX). Executive directors: Wang Feng, Du Tianfu.
Cast: Ge You (Zhang Beijing), Li Xueqin (Li Xiaoqin), Yang Haoyu (Yang), Sang Ping (Li Kuiyong), Liu Mintao (Lingzi, nurse), Wei Xiao (Xiao), Lv Xing (taxi-company manager), Lilifuqiao (Dashan, Li Xiaoqin’s young son), Wu Lei (Zhang Xiaojing), Jia Bing (Wen, Yuan Rong’s second husband), Gong Beibi (Yuan Rong, Zhang Beijing’s ex-wife), Lei Jiayin (himself, actor in Full River Red 2), Zhang Zixian (young policeman), Jin Guangfu (wig salesman), Zhao Tian’ai (Liu Zina, Zhang Xiaojing’s bride), Guo Xiaoxiao (secretary), Niu Ben (old man in hutong), Wang Yihao (Yang’s grandson), Qiqi (Wang’s granddaughter), Hei Dekun (old policeman), Liu Shiliu (fake policeman), Jiang Yi (assistant director on Full River Red 2), Chen Jiaxin (Ma), Chen Bing (wedding singer), Liang Zhi (Qian, hospital specialist).
Release: China, 1 Oct 2024.