Cities in Love

恋爱中的城市

China, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 116 mins.

Directors: Wen Muye 文牧野 (I), Dong Runnian 董润年 (II), Han Yi 韩轶 (III), Fu Tianyu 傅天余 (IV), Ji Jiatong 冀佳彤 (V).

Rating: 7/10.

Globe-trotting collection of romantic tales is lightweight but fairly even in quality.

STORY

The present day. I: Prague 布拉格. Arriving off the train, Chinese tourist Zitong (Yang Mi) has her bag snatched but catches up with one of the perpetrators, young Taiwan petty criminal Peter (Zheng Kaiyuan), and forces him to help her find it. They end up searching a rubbish tip outside the city, but finally Peter retrieves it from a Czech petty criminal. Zitong stays over at Peter’s flat that night and next morning reveals her reason for visiting Prague. II: Shanghai 上海. Jiang Xiaobei (Jiang Shuying) has opened a small gourmet restaurant called C’Est La Vie but has no customers. A friend advises her to spin a story to give the place a special appeal, so Jiang Xiaobei invents a fictional Frenchman, “Monsieur François”, as her chief chef. When a TV cooking programme decides to cover the place, she’s saved by the appearance of a young actor (Yi Hyeon-jae), who offers to play the role of François. III: Paris 巴黎. Depressed after being cheated on by his French girfriend, physics lecturer Liu Chang (Huang Xuan), 29, is picked up in the street one night by a mysterious French-Chinese woman, Vanessa Zhang (Zhang Rongrong), who kisses him, takes him breaking into a shop, and then offers to tattoo his back. IV: Hokkaido 北海道. Xiaojiang (Jiang Yiyan) and her Taiwan husband Quan (Zhang Xiaoquan) are honeymooning in an idyllic, snowy spot she’s always dreamed of visiting. However, her immaculately planned trip is thrown into chaos by a call from Quan’s boss, who asks him to bring back a special type of dried fish. To Xiaojiang’s annoyance, they set out on a long journey to find the place. V: Italy 意大利. Arriving by plane in Florence, Yanran (Bai Baihe) is finally met by her “guide”, a young Taiwan man called Xiaomai (Ruan Jingtian) who drives a rickety delivery van, ignores her complaints, and takes her to a remote countryside hostelry. She then announces she’s come to “purchase a man” – to accompany her to her ex-boyfriend’s wedding the next day.

REVIEW

Released six months before Run for Love 奔爱 (2016), and also comprising five short stories set around the globe, Cities in Love 恋爱中的城市 has no big-name directors like the more recent film but is much more evenly balanced – and also 20 minutes shorter. Though it never hits the highs of Run, it also never plunges to its depths, and overall has a fresher, lighter feel. Cities also gains extra heft from having a name cast of young Mainland and Taiwan talent, plus some experienced names on both the technical and producing sides. Japan’s Iwai Shunji 岩井俊二, Taiwan’s Wei Desheng 魏德圣 and Hong Kong’s Guan Jinpeng 关锦鹏 [Stanley Kwan] – all directors in their own right – are credited as segment producers: Iwai for the Shanghai and Paris stories, Wei for Prague and Hokkaido, and Guan for Italy.

Tempting as it is to label the film as a “young film-makers’ showcase”, the five directors are actually a very mixed bunch. The most experienced is Taiwan’s Fu Tianyu 傅天余, who’s in her early 40s and has written and directed for Taiwan’s Public Television Service as well as making youth movie Somewhere I Have Never Travelled 带我去远方 (2009). Also with several years’ experience in writing is Dong Runnian 董润年: as well as TV drama work, he co-wrote the last two movies by Guan Hu 管虎 (The Chef The Actor The Scoundrel 厨子戏子痞子, 2013; Mr. Six 老炮儿, 2015) as well as contributing to another big Mainland hit, road comedy Breakup Buddies 心花路放 (2014) by Ning Hao 宁浩. Of the others, Han Yi 韩轶, 32, has already cut her teeth on shorts (Hand 手, 2009), as has her male colleague Wen Muye 文牧野 (Stone 石头, 2010; Battle 斗争, 2013; Requiem 安魂曲, 2014). The least experienced is Ji Jiatong 冀佳彤, whose only prior credit seems to be as an actress on desert crime movie No Liar, No Cry 不怕贼惦记 (2011).

On the photography side, Hong Kong stalwarts Yu Liwei 余力为, Guan Benliang 关本良 [Kwan Pun-leung] and Li Yaohui 黎耀辉 [Lai Yiu-fai] are all involved, plus the Mainland’s Wang Boxue 王博学 (Singing When We’re Young 初恋未满, 2013) who shot both the Prague and the Paris segments. Knitting the whole thing together with a typically smooth and innocuous score is veteran Japanese composer Umebayashi Shigeru 梅林茂.

What the stories lack in portentousness and weight, compared with Run‘s, they make up for with spontaneity. All are set during winter in the various locations and, apart from one, team a Mainland actor with a Taiwan one. The opener, by Wen, is a throwaway anecdote in Prague about a tourist and a petty crook that’s nicely played by Yang Mi 杨幂 and Zheng Kaiyuan 郑开元, in which Zheng, who played one of the three leads in Taiwan high-school mystery Partners in Crime 共犯 (2014), holds the screen against the more experienced Mainland star, here not so squeaky. Equally ephemeral is the Paris segment by Han, which showcases Taiwan indie icon, French-Chinese actress Zhang Rongrong 张榕容 [Sandrine Pinna], with Mainland supporting actor Huang Xuan 黄轩 in a tale of night-time bewitchment on the streets of the French capital. It’s charmingly played, with good chemistry between the two, and lightly directed – which could also be said about the Hokkaido segment by Fu, a translucently shot shaggy-dog story featuring Jiang Yiyan 江一燕 and Taiwan actor Zhang Xiaoquan 张孝全 [Joseph Chang] as newlyweds who have their honeymoon disturbed by a strange request from the husband’s boss. Reflecting Fu’s greater experience, it’s the best looking and slickest tale in the set.

The other two segments are sustained by the energy of their actresses rather than by any special chemistry with their screen partners. Dong’s Shanghai-set tale – the only one with a non-Chinese actor – has minimal romantic chemistry between Jiang Shuying 江疏影 and metrosexual South Korean actor-model Yi Hyeon-jae 이현재 | 李贤宰 (Tiny Times III 小时代  刺金时代, 2014) but is a fine showcase for the former – so good as the ethnic minority beauty in So Young 致我们终将逝去的青春 (2013) and here very likeable as the struggling restaurateuse. In the final tale, set in Florence, Taiwan’s Ruan Jingtian 阮经天 cuts a more masculine figure than Lee but is miscast as a local who has to handle Bai Baihe’s demanding Mainland tourist. With Ruan largely just sitting there, inexpressive, the big-eyed Bai is left to carry the segment, which relies heavily on the usual cliches about charming Italians. The only one of the five directors not to have any writing input on her segment (which was handled by Chen Shu 陈舒, Brotherhood of Blades 绣春刀, 2014), Ji directs professionally, giving her actors plenty of space.

Cities is one film that it pays to watch until the end, with a postscript that gives a slightly more substantial feel to the whole thing. As a final bonus, onetime Hong Kong actress Zhang Manyu 张曼玉 [Maggie Cheung], now 51, contributes a throaty end-title song (If You Were Gone 如果没了你) for which she’s also credited with music and lyrics.

CREDITS

Presented by Shanghai Artown Entertainment (CN). Produced by Shanghai Artown Entertainment (CN).

Script: Wen Muye (I); Dong Runnian, Zhang Yifan (II); Zha Muchun, Han Yi (III); Fu Tianyu (IV); Chen Shu (V). Photography: Wang Boxue (I, III); Yu Liwei (II); Guan Benliang [Kwan Pun-leung] (IV); Li Yaohui [Lai Yiu-fai] (V). Editing: Zhu Lin (I); Huang Muheng (I, III, V); Wei Shufen, Li Gen (II); Liu Quanhui (IV). Music: Umebayashi Shigeru. Music direction: Su Junjie. End titles song: Zhang Manyu [Maggie Cheung]. Art direction: Milan Býček (I); Yang Jie (II); Benjamin Lamps (III); Shinkai Shinji (IV); Mirco Rocchi (V). Styling: Wang Xuemin (I); Liu Guolan (II, III, V); Yamasaki Keiko (IV). Costumes: Marie Dimberton (III); Veronica Spadaro (V). Sound: Ludvik Bohadlo (I); Gao Jianqiang (II); Feng Jun (V). Visual effects: Zheng Wenzheng (Creasun Studios). Artistic direction: Lin Yuxian. Executive direction: Zhang Chi.

Cast: I: Yang Mi (Zitong), Zheng Kaiyuan (Peter), Robin Doležal; II: Jiang Shuying (Jiang Xiaobei), Yi Hyeon-jae (“Monsieur François”), Qi Xiaodong (Zhou Changjian), Li Meng (Xiaoding), Ding Kaidi (female reporter); III: Zhang Rongrong [Sandrine Pinna] (Vanessa Zhang), Huang Xuan (Liu Chang); IV: Jiang Yiyan (Xiaojiang), Zhang Xiaoquan [Joseph Chang] (Quan, her husband), Arifuku Masashi (old man), Miyajima Mitsuko (old woman); V: Bai Baihe (Yanran), Ruan Jingtian (Xiaomai), Amerigo Fontani (Leo), Cosimo Frezzolini (policeman), Yin Ziwei (Luo Tianyu, Yanran’s ex-boyfriend), Valentina De Angelis (Luo Tianyu’s fiancee).

Release: China, 20 Aug 2015.

(Read review of Run for Love here: https://sino-cinema.com/2016/04/05/review-run-for-love/.)