The One
独一无二
China, 2025, colour, 1.85:1, 121 mins.
Director: Wang Mu 王沐.
Rating: 6/10.
Light drama centred on a high-schooler who feels constricted by her deaf family is well-played, with a strong first half, but becomes way over-long and discursive.
STORY
Jiangcheng city, somewhere in central China, the present day, summer. Yu Yan (Zhang Jingyi), 17, is at senior high and due to sit the gaokao (university entrance examination) next year. Her father Yu Zhijian (Chen Minghao), mother Zhou Lin (Jiang Qinqin) and elder brother Yu Zhou (Xin Yunlai) are all deaf, so she acts as a kind of bridge for them to the outside world – a bridge they have come to rely on, especially her father and mother who run a small fish restaurant. Her elder brother is a gentler soul who lives in his own world, immersed in his job of handicrafts and repairs. One day he falls for a pretty young customer, Xiaoqi (Ouyang Na’na), who comes into the shop where he works to have the shoulder strap of a bag mended; the problem is, he can’t talk to her to ask her out for a meal. At school, Yu Yan’s deskmate, Xiaowen (Zhang Yuzi), keeps trying to pair her off with a boy in their class, Tong Mingsheng (Chen Haosen). Yu Yan says she’s not interested but then, by chance, she ends up being accompanied by him on the piano at auditions for the school choir arranged by music teacher Gu (Bai Ke). Yu Yan confesses to Xiaowen that her family exploits her too much, and ahe wants to break free and go to a music college away from home. She has a good voice, and has already start writing songs for herself; realising her home situation, Gu says he’ll help her get into a college. However, her parents resist the idea of her moving away, saying they can’t do without her help, inluding working at the restaurant in the evenings. Since their last assistant left, the father has refused to hire anyone else. Yu Yan asks her paternal uncle, Yu Zhicheng (Zhang Yu), for help but he says he’s too busy trying to make a living as a taxi driver. After bumping into Tong Mingsheng by chance, Yu Yan gets to know him and his belief that one must break free of external influences to realise oneself. He starts visiting her at the restaurant, and her parents and brother all approve of him. However, her father is suddenly diagnosed with a slipped disc that requires medical treatment, tying Yu Yan even more closely to the family. And then Yu Zhicheng announces that he wants the family to sell the house – which he claims their father, Yu Dahai (Huang Jianxin), verbally willed to both him and Yu Zhijian – so he can take his half of the money and go away. Yu Zhijian refuses and, after a huge row, Yu Zhicheng storms out.
REVIEW
A high-schooler yearns to break free of her family – all of whom are deaf and have come to rely on her help – in The One 独一无二, a well-played but over-long light drama seen though the eyes of the conflicted teenage lead. Like his writing-directing debut, Awakening Spring 温柔壳 (2023), which dealt with a couple’s psychological problems, this second outing by Dalian-born Wang Mu 王沐, 38, has an involving first half but wanders around after that – and certainly doesn’t justify its two-hour running time. Amid a strong cast, however, it’s worth seeing for the beautifully calibrated lead performance by Hunan-born actress Zhang Jingyi 张婧仪, 26, so good in odd-couple drama I Miss You 被我弄丢的你 (2024) and roles showing quiet determination (Love Will Tear Us Apart 我要我们在一起, 2021; All about My Mother 关于我妈的一切, 2021), which never tips over into melodrama. Her performance alone earns the film an extra mark. Though The One is a much slicker and more mainstream-looking production than Awakening Spring, box office was an identically tiny RMB17 million.
The screenplay by Wang and playwright Chen Si’an 陈思安 – previously known in the film world only for her Taiwan TV movie 几点回家 (literally, “What Time Will You Be Home”, 2014), a drama about a single-parent family – is actually based on a French film The Bélier Family La famille Bélier (2014), a comedy-drama directed and co-written by Eric Lartigau that has already been remade in English as CODA (2021) by US writer-director Sian Heder. Where Bélier was set on a farm and CODA in a family fishing business, The One is based around a small fish restaurant in a fictional metropolis (Jiangcheng, repped by Wuhan), where 17-year-old Yu Yan (Zhang), who’s into singing and song-writing in an amateur way, wants to spread her wings and go to music college after a lifetime being tied to a family in which she’s the only non-deaf member. The film is a far more modest production than CODA but preserves the central irony (without ever underlining it) of a teenager with the one gift that her family will never be able to appreciate.
The film has a nice feel for neighbourhood street life during a central China summer and convincingly draws family life centred on the fish restaurant. The individual characters have a real, quirky feel, rather than being simply generic: the seemingly intolerant father (strong character actor Chen Minghao 陈明昊) has a rather wacky sense of humour, the mother (always good Jiang Qinqin 蒋勤勤, A Fool 一个勺子, 2014, The Door 完美有多美, 2017) is clearly devoted to her daughter despite their differences, and the elder brother (boybander-actor Xin Yunlai 辛云来) seems locked in his own silent world, devoted to his handcrafts. Their deafness is also convincingly shown – not as a handicap, more an annoyance – and Zhang’s mastery of sign language when “interpreting” for her family looks impressive. However, the film often has difficulties maintaining a mood when signage and silence replace dialogue, even though Wang and his cast do their best to overcome this built-in dramatic handicap.
The main problem is that the film’s second hour is way too dragged out for its content – with scenes going on beyond their point – and also veers away from the central story of the first hour, with Yu Yan’s problems and her struggle for independence. Initially a subplot, the story of her paternal uncle comes more to the fore as he tries to force his elder brother to sell the family house he claims he was willed half of. Though this strand does finally result in Yu Yan gaining some independence, it unbalances the whole film, with two characters from the first half (the music teacher and boyfriend) almost disappearing from the film. It also leads to a final section of forced jollity and tearful family solidarity that’s totally out of kilter with the rest of the movie.
As the girl’s rather nasty uncle, morose character actor Zhang Yu 章宇 is a powerful presence; as the friendly, if eccentric, music teacher, comedian Bai Ke 白客 (who played the male lead’s elder brother in Awakening Spring) is good in a guest-like role. Taiwan cellist-turned-actress Ouyang Na’na 欧阳娜娜, who’s become a rare sight on the big screen nowadays, pops up in a nothing role as the brother’s dream girl, while veteran director-producer Huang Jianxin 黄建新 also pops up, scarcely recognisable, in flashbacks as the girl’s late grandfather. The whole technical package is smoothly shot by young d.p. Zhang Jiahao 张嘉昊 (Brief History of a Family 家庭简史, 2024) and assembled by experienced editor Zhu Lin 朱琳, with a slightly heightened natural look. Music by Shanghai-born electronic musician B6, aka Lou Nanli 楼南立, who also worked on Awakening Spring, is at its best when gently atmospheric.
The Chinese title is a phrase meaning “unique”, “unrivalled” or “the one and only”. For the record the film has no connection with goofy cookery comedy The One 绝世高手2017 (2017), with Mainland actor/director Lu Zhengyu 卢正雨 and Taiwan actress Guo Caijie 郭采洁 [Amber Kuo], nor with Taiwan youth drama Love in Vain 独一无二 (2015), directed by Yang Shunqing 杨顺清, which has the same Chinese title.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), Youth Enlight (Chengdu) Pictures (CN). Produced by Youth Enlight (Chengdu) Pictures (CN).
Script: Wang Mu, Chen Si’an. Photography: Zhang Jiaohao. Editing: Zhu Lin, Xu Chen. Music: B6 [Lou Nanli]. Song: Tang Hanxiao (music), Xiaolv. Art direction: Chen Weiren. Costumes: Hou Wenhua. Styling: Li Hua. Sound: Wei Xiaoyang, Wang Gang, Liu Xiaosha. Visual effects: Liu Qin. Executive direction: Qiu Yue.
Cast: Zhang Jingyi (Yu Yan), Chen Minghao (Yu Zhijian, her father), Xin Yunlai (Yu Zhou, her elder brother), Jiang Qinqin (Zhou Lin, her mother), Bai Ke (Gu, music teacher), Zhang Yu (Yu Zhicheng, her uncle), Ouyang Na’na (Xiaoqi), Chen Haosen (Tong Mingsheng), Zhang Yuzi (Xiaowen), Huang Jianxin (Yu Dahai, Yu Yan’s grandfather), Dong Hao (Uncle Lin), Yi Lijing (Xiaolin, lawyer), Zhang Haiyu (fish trader).
Release: China, 17 May 2025.