Honey Money Phony

‘骗骗’喜欢你

China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 114 mins.

Director: Su Biao 苏彪.

Rating: 7/10.

A rom-com posing as a scamming comedy, this is smartly written and played by a small but perfect cast.

STORY

Aogang, 3 Jul 2023. Lin Qinglang (Jin Chen), 29, has been working in Aogang for 527 days, and 242 days ago she was cheated by an ex-boyfriend, Zhang Zijun (Wang Hao), out of MOP$200,000. Since then, in addition to her proper job at a major insurance company, she’s been taking multiple small jobs – such as waitressing and vlogging – in order to pay back the MOP$200,000 she’d borrowed from a bank. A female friend, Dong Xiaohui (Li Xueqin), makes money by scamming car owners with fake “accidents” in the street. One day Lin Qinglang notices that someone calling himself Hu Jianlin is trying to scam her over the phone for MOP$5,000; thanks to a colleague at the insurance company, she immediately finds out his real name – Ouyang Hui (Sun Yang) – and forces him to help her scam the MOP$200,000 back from Zhang Zijun. She tells Ouyang Hui how she had met Zhang Zijun at a tennis club, fallen for him, and then offered to borrow MOP$200,000 when he claimed to have fallen for an investment scam. When she realised she’d been cheated, she had demanded the money back; but he denied scamming her, as she had given him the money freely. Zhang Zijun now works as general manager of a travel agency owned by businesswoman Hai’ou (Liu Yan), who fancies him. Ouyang Hui reveals his plan to Lin Qinglang. They will pose as owners of a travel agency and introduce themselves to Frank (Song Muzi), manager of the luxury The Golden Sea hotel. Dong Xiaohui will pose as Dong Yikui, the real-life daughter of a wealthy Mainlander, chairman of Dong Electronics. She will say that her father wants to reward a hundred or so of his staff with a short holiday at The Golden Sea luxury hotel in Aogang, and has asked her to liaise with Zhang Zijun to arrange the sizeable booking. Ouyang Hui knows that Zhang Zijun has already had business dealings with Frank. But the booking will, of course, require a sizeable advance payment in cash. After Ouyang Hui arranges for Frank to be away on a holiday, his uncle, super-conman Bai Shitong (Wang Yaoqing), takes Frank’s place in negotiations with Zhang Zijun.

REVIEW

A scam victim gets her revenge by blackmailing a professional scammer to scam her scammer in Honey Money Phony ‘骗骗’喜欢你, a smartly written and played rom-com posing as a crime comedy. It’s the first directing gig by Su Biao 苏彪, 37, a regular co-writer with comedian-director Da Peng 大鹏 [Dong Chengpeng 董成鹏] since his days in online sketch comedy. Strongly cast, and with Da Peng as creative producer 监制, Honey has a freshness that only wanes a little during the second half. It took a very nice RMB445 million over the 2024-25 New Year period.

Born in Harbin – so a northeasterner like Da Peng – Su first started working with him as a writer on the first series of the latter’s hugely popular sketch series Diors Man 屌丝男士 (2012), produced by streaming service Sohu Video. When Da Peng graduated to directing his own movies, Su Biao followed, co-writing superhero parody Jianbing Man 煎饼侠 (2015), celebrity-culture satire City of Rock 缝纫机乐队 (2017), shaggy-dog comedy Post Truth #保你平安 (2022) and street-dance drama One and Only 热烈 (2023). The first three all showed strong signs of Da Peng’s background in sketch comedy, so it’s interesting to note that Honey, despite having some standout individual sequences, is constructed and plays like a regular feature film.

A lot of the film’s special appeal is due to gymnast/dancer-turned-actress Jin Chen 金晨, 34, who had a strong start in movies with the rom-com Forever Love 201314 (2013) but has largely been lost to TV in the meantime, finally coming back strongly in the hit scamming drama No More Bets 孤注一掷 (2023), as the duped model forced to work in an online casino. That film also featured (as the villain’s sidekick) actor Sun Yang 孙阳, 35, who here plays the professional scammer: born in Hong Kong, Sun has actually developed most of his film career in the Mainland, especially after signing with Da Peng’s management and production company Shanghai The City Film 上海他城影业. The spikey chemistry between him and Jin is a big part of Honey’s success.

Looking great in nerdy glasses as a determined but mercurial ditz, Jin harks back to her performance in Forever Love, showcasing her gift for slightly spacey romantic comedy. The audience just knows from the first combative meeting between Jin’s scam victim and Sun’s professional scammer that the inevitable will happen; but it doesn’t really matter as there’s a whole complex plot to enjoy first, as she forces him into getting her revenge on the boyfriend who cheated her. The chemistry between Jin and Sun seems fresher than in many rom-coms, and the actors and the script throw in a lot of small character moments, with Jin making good use of her physical suppleness and hand dexterity.

The screenplay is officially credited to Yang Yuting 杨玉婷 (an assistant director on Da Peng’s City of Rock) from an original script by a certain Jiang Jingyi 江婧旖, with Su handling “script supervision”. The finished product – along with precision editing by Huang Zeng Hongchen 黄曾鸿辰 (Johnny Keep Walking! 年会不能停！, 2023, in which Da Peng starred) – manages to create some memorable sequences, such as an impersonation of a chairman’s daughter in a hotel foyer that almost goes horribly wrong, alongside a developing narrative in which the viewer becomes emotionally invested. Also providing an extra boost from the halfway point is Taiwan actor-comedian Wang Yaoqing 王耀庆, 50, as the scammer’s ultra-smooth uncle who joins the team. Wang brings a twinkly-eyed calm to the proceedings (as well as a nifty song-and-dance in the street) which contrasts nicely with the more emotional leads, as well as with the slightly klutzy appeal of internet personality Li Xueqin 李雪琴 (Da Peng’s dumpy younger sister in Post Truth; the single mother in The Hutong Cowboy 爆款好人, 2024) as a small-time scammer.

Though clearly set and shot in Macau (even down to using Macau’s currency, the pataca), the film is officially set in the fictional “Aogang”, a reversal of the Chinese abbreviation Gang’ao 港澳, meaning “Hong Kong and Macau”. Nearby Zhuhai is referred to as Haizhu. As well as being an entertaining rom-com, the film is also a showcase for Macau’s hotels and Cotai Strip resort area. It was shot from mid-Apr to early Jun 2024. The Chinese title roughly means “‘Scam-Scam’ Likes You”. If the film-makers had used the British spelling of “phoney”, the English title would have had a more symmetrical wit.

CREDITS

Presented by Guangzhou Maoyan Pictures (CN), Shanghai Ruyi Films (CN), Wanda Pictures (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), Shanghai The City Film (CN), Beijing Dino Films (CN), China Film Creative (Beijing) (CN). Produced by Guangzhou Maoyan Pictures (CN).

Script: Yang Yuting. Original script: Jiang Jingyi. Script supervision: Su Biao. Photography: Li Yueliu. Editing: Huang Zeng Hongchen. Music: Huang Yixin. Art direction: Yang Bin. Costumes: Meng Feiyang. Styling: Zhao Yige. Sound: Zhang Qiaojun, Zhao Ying. Visual effects: Liu Shiyang. Executive direction: Shangguan Cuiyang.

Cast: Jin Chen (Lin Qinglang), Sun Yang (Ouyang Hui/Hu Jianlin/Huang Xinhua), Li Xueqin (Dong Xiaohui), Wang Hao (Zhang Zijun), Wang Yaoqing (Bai Shitong), Liu Yan (Hai’ou, Zhang Zijun’s boss), Ren Xianqi [Richie Ren] (himself), Song Muzi (Frank, manager of The Golden Sea), Tong Monan (Mark, Dong Electronics employee), Yi Yunhe (photographer), Xiao’ai (Ouyang Hui’s father), Huang Yishan (motorist/acting coach), Zhang Quandan (local guy).

Release: China, 31 Dec 2024.