The Heart

冠军的心

China, 2019, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 104 mins.

Director: Liu Fendou 刘奋斗.

Rating: 6/10.

Offbeat story of a retired boxer and the young recipient of a heart transplant is a mixed bag.

STORY

Beijing, the present day, summer. Tan Kai (Yang Kun) is a retired boxing champion who now works as a taxi driver. He’s divorced from his wife (Chen Li’na) due to charges of domestic violence, and only able to see his beloved young daughter (Wang Zhiyin) clandestinely. (In his final match, in 2015, he had narrowly won against rising star and longtime friend Wang Yao [Hou Xu]; as a result of the fight, Wang Yao had ended up in a coma and later died. Wang Yao’s mother [Shen Danping] had donated her son’s heart to science and it had ended up in the body of a young woman, Lichuan [Xia Zitong], who’d been abandoned by her parents and originally been told by her doctor [Yan Minqiu] she wouldn’t live past the age of 14.) As well as by the transplant, Lichuan has been sustained by her love of singing; but there are signs that the heart is now being rejected by her body. Despite warnings from her doctor that any stress could kill her, Lichuan has entered a singing competition, The Sound of Stars 最强星声. Around this time, Tan Kai tracks down the recipient of his friend’s heart and finally meets Lichuan. He tells her music is out, as he just wants to keep her alive; she still goes ahead with the competition, during which she collapses and is hospitalised. Her doctor tells Tan Kai she needs surgery costing RMB300,000. He says he’ll pay for it and, though seriously out of shape, he decides with the help of crippled friend Zheng Zhong (Yu Ailei) to re-enter the ring in some high-risk matches in Thailand organised by ruthless promoter Mr. Four (Shi Yanneng).

REVIEW

Maverick film-maker Liu Fendou 刘奋斗 makes a belated return as a director of truly offbeat material with The Heart 冠军的心, in which a lonely, retired boxer befriends the young woman who’s received the title organ of a man he killed in the ring. Largely poignant and melancholic in flavour, but also marbled with plenty of Liu’s trademark black humour, it gets by on the strength of its lead performances until a finale in Thailand that fails to satisfyingly square the film’s emotional circle. Shot in mid-2015, certified in mid-2017, and finally released in mid-2019, it hardly registered at the Mainland box office, with a microscopic RMB800,000.

It’s the fifth directorial outing by Beijing-born Liu, 50, in a chequered career that’s seen the quirky crime tale Green Hat 绿帽子 (2004), arty flop Ocean Flame 一半海水一半火焰 (2008) and two commercial outings (comedy The Pretending Lovers 假装情侣, 2011; horror Night Blooming 隔窗有眼, 2013), inbetween work as a writer on several prestigious movies around the turn of the century, such as A Beautiful New World 美丽新世界 (1999) and Spring Subway 开往春天的地铁 (2002). Heart also has a curious connection with Liu’s terrific rom-com short A Bed Affair 床上关系II (2014, see poster, left), whose character names it recycles despite the two films having no plot connection.

Heart is both a boxing movie with a twist and a relationships movie with a twist, and its main problem is that it’s more engaging as the former than the latter. When retired boxer Tan Kai, now plugging away as a Beijing taxi driver, finally decides to re-enter the ring to pay for punkette Lichuan’s surgery (when her body starts to reject the transplant), his decision is more convincing at a professional than emotional level. Liu’s script takes considerable pains to shore up the decision – Tan Kai is divorced and can only see his young daughter clandestinely, so Lichuan is a surrogate for his paternal feelings – but the emotional underpinnings aren’t allowed to bloom in the performances by singer-actor Yang Kun 杨坤, 42 at the time of shooting, and actress Xia Zitong 夏梓桐, 24.

Physically and with bruised makeup, Yang (good as the drugs mule in Lethal Hostage 边境风云, 2012) looks the part but remains a dour enigma; ditto Xia (notable as Fox Girl in The Monkey King 西游记之大闹天空, 2014), who mostly looks just glum as the shaven-headed girl who’s been rejected by her parents and told she wouldn’t live past the age of 14. “I want to be worthy of the heart of your [boxing] ‘brother'” is as close the dialogue gets to building a reason for their relationship, while her desire to be a professional singer is bolted on to the script to give her a sense of personal ambition.

Both actors perform well withing the limits allowed by Liu but his direction is cool and remote, despite sharp, clear photography of summertime Beijing by d.p. Chen Ying 陈莹 (Love in Cosmo 摇摆de婚约, 2010; The Pretending Lovers) that partly mitigates the film’s autumnal emotions. The most colourful personality is actually Tan Kai’s once-cocky, now crippled boxing pal Zheng Zhong, nicely played by reliable character actor Yu Ailei 余皑磊. Other roles are fleeting, from Chen Li’na 陈丽娜 as Tan Kai’s frosty ex-wife to Yuan Yuan 袁苑 as his trainer. As a ruthless boxing promoter, Shaolin martial artist Shi Yanneng 释彦能 looks too young for the cigar-chomping part.

Fight choreography supervised by US martial artist Clayton Barber is on the nose, bringing a real veracity to the boxing scenes, as well as a blackly comic sequence where Tan Kai takes on three robbers in the rain. Extra authenticity is provided by martial artists like the US’ Freddie Poole and Israel’s Tomer Oz among the cast of boxers. The presence of ace Hong Kong fixer Lin An’er 林安儿 [Angie Lam] as one of the editors hints at post-production difficulties. The film’s Chinese title means “Heart of a Champion”.

CREDITS

Presented by Hehe (Wuxi) Pictures (CN), Wuxi iCosmos Pictures (CN), Hehe (Shanghai) Pictures (CN), Lian Ray Pictures (CN), Black Ant (Shanghai) Film (CN), PF Media (CN), China Magic Film (CN), Beijing Weiying Technology (CN). Produced by Wuxi iCosmos Pictures (CN).

Script: Liu Fendou. Photography: Chen Ying. Editing: Wang Yilun, Lin An’er [Angie Lam], Huang Bojun. Music: Yi Dong-jun. Music direction: Wang Di. Production designer: Ma Yun. Art direction: Niu Ranran. Styling: Song Xin. Sound: Wang Sheng, Wen Bo. Action: Clayton Barber, Eric Jacobus, Freddie Poole. Visual effects: Liu Ying, Cai Meng (MoreVFX). Executive direction: Zhang Hongwei.

Cast: Yang Kun (Tan Kai), Xia Zitong (Lichuan), Yu Ailei (Zheng Zhong), Yan Minqiu (Lin, doctor), Shi Yanneng (Si Ge/Mr. Four), Yuan Yuan (Wang, Tan Kai’s trainer), Hou Xu (Wang Yao), Huang He (commentator), Gao Yuyang (Little Fattie), Liu Chuang (referee), Chen Xingyu (Tan Kai’s assistant trainer), Zhao Tieren (Zhang), Shen Danping (Wang Yao’s mother), Chen Li’na (Tan Kai’s ex-wife), Wang Zhiyin (Tan Kai’s daughter), Sun Shuaihang (Lichuan’s father), Hu Caihong (Lichuan’s mother), Fu Mingzhe (Lichuan’s younger brother), Liu Xianda (Wang Yao’s assistant trainer), Freddie Poole (Lopez, boxer), Eric Jacobus (Lopez’s assistant trainer), Hu Ming (head robber), Tomer Oz (Oz, bearded foreign boxer), Temur Mamisashvili (foreign boxer).

Release: China, 14 Jun 2019.