Tale of the Night
长沙夜生活
China, 2023, colour, 16:9, 105 mins.
Director: Zhang Ji 张冀.
Rating: 7/10.
All-through-the-night ensembler, set in Changsha, has involving performances and plenty of local atmosphere.
STORY
Changsha city, Hunan province, south central China, the present day. At 20:00 insomniac Jing Weiwei (Yin Fang), who recently returned after three years studying in Beijing, bumps into He Xixi (Zhang Jingyi) in the philosophy section of a 24-hour bookshop he regularly haunts. Annoyed that she is sitting on his usual stool, and reading a manga in that section of the shop, he gets into an argument with her. She is just whiling away the time until she leaves at dawn on a train to Beijing. She lets him know what she thinks of him but he follows her when she leaves the shop. At 20:10, the popular restaurant Big Sister Li’s Big Food Stall 丽姐大排档 is getting ready to open. After 20 years Li (Su Yan), who is a tough boss with her staff, is handing over the running to longtime assistant Xu (Wu Haochen), as her health is no longer up to the demanding job. The restaurant is actually owned by her son but they fell out a couple of months ago. Among early takeaway customers on her last night is Liang Baoqi (Zhou Siyu), a migrant worker from the northeast who buys an order for two people. At 20:35, in bustling Haixin Square, stand-up comic He An (Zhang Yixing) avoids his ex-girlfriend Xiaoke (Qian Dongni) on his way to Xiao Ma Comedy Club 笑嘛脱口秀, where he’s due to be one act of several that night. He goes into a huff when the owner (Cao Haha) won’t let him go on first because his act is too serious for an opener and he always insists on using local dialect rather than Mandarin. A well-meaning colleague, who acknowledges the professional work He An has put into the craft of stand-up comedy, tries to persuade him to make his act more relatable by bringing in more personal elements. At 21:00, on the Changsha Eye observation wheel, Chen Qingzhi (Bai Yufan), a migrant worker from the northwest, is closing down as he sees his colleague Liang Baoqi, who’s just been stood up by his girlfriend and left with a spare takeaway meal. He consoles Liang Baoqi when the girlfriend then dumps him over the phone. Meanwhile, sulking outside the comedy club, He An bumps into his father, He Dunhua (Luo Gang), with whom he’s rarely been in touch since He Dunhua got divorced. The father lectures him on getting a proper job and being respectful to people, especially his parents. He then watches He An’s act, which is a complete flop. Meanwhile, Jing Weiwei has followed He Xixi to a bookshop, where he’s mistaken for a poet who’s late for a lecture there. Jing Weiwei bluffs his way through the misunderstanding with a moving soliloquy that impresses He Xixi. She finally agrees to him accompanying her on a night-time stroll through the city. At 22:00 Li’s restaurant is buzzing with diners, many of them celebrities, all under the welcoming but watchful eye of Li herself. On the street, with some musicians, He Xixi sings an English song about wandering, and as the two later continue walking they have a philosophical discussion. Outside the comedy club He An and his father argue violently, and as He An staggers downstairs his ex-girlfriend throws a cup of liquid over him. At her restaurant Li consoles a customer from Lanzhou (Zhou Dongyu) who’s sad over dumping her confused boyfriend (Wang Yuexin). At 23:00, in the gardens of the Yuelu Academy of Classical Learning, He Xixi tells Jing Weiwei about her elder half-brother, a certain He An, the son of her father’s first wife, a certain Li, and how she once secretly went to see He An’s stand-up comedy act and was completely embarrassed by how bad it was.
REVIEW
An all-through-the-night ensembler set in the relatively unfamiliar location of Changsha, capital of Hunan province, Tale of the Night 长沙夜生活 is a performance-driven light drama with a strong (cameo-studded) cast and plenty of local flavour that’s let down by some pat resolutions to its interlocking storylines. Overall, however, it marks a noteworthy directing debut by Zhang Ji 张冀 that just manages to scrape a 7/10 thanks to its involving characters and some striking moments. A Hunan-born scriptwriter in his late 40s, Zhang has worked regularly over the past decade on Mainland-set movies of Hong Kong film-maker Chen Kexin 陈可辛 [Peter Chan] and Chen is prominently billed, along with veteran d.p. Zhao Xiaoshi 赵晓时 (Devils on the Doorstep 鬼子来了, 2000), as creative producer 监制. However, the film, light on major names, raised hardly a ripple at the spring box office, taking just RMB20 million.
As well as co-writing pictures like The Ark of Mr. Chow 少年班 (2015, dir. Xiao Yang 肖洋) and box-office hit The Island 一出好戏 (2018, dir. Huang Bo 黄渤), Zhang is best known for his long collaboration with Chen, from American Dreams in China 中国合伙人 (2013), through child-abduction drama Dearest 亲爱的, (2014) and women’s volleyball picture Leap 夺冠 (2020), to tennis biopic Li Na 李娜, which wrapped in early 2019 but has since vanished without trace. Several of those collaborations were with other writers, so it’s impossible to gauge Zhang’s individual contribution, and not all were worthy of note (e.g. Dearest). Night is his most ambitious solo effort, a clever idea that takes four, seemingly unlinked pairs through a long night of change in Changsha and gradually reveals connections between them.
The structure – presumably due in part to credited script planners Wu Huiling 吴慧玲 and Xiang Yaowei 向尧惟, co-writers with him on youth comedy Coffee or Tea? 一点就到家 (2020), with Chan also creative producer – works easily, without any forced elaboration. After first revealing the connections between characters (almost casually) an hour in, the script then appears to climax in a moving but standard way before – to its massive credit – ending less conventionally in a way that reasserts the city itself as the main character. (The film’s Chinese title simply means “Changsha Night Life”.)
The first (and essentially leading) pair are introduced at the start, as insomniac intellectual Jing Weiwei, who haunts the philosophy section of a 24-hour bookshop, finds bolshie He Xixi on his favourite stool reading a manga. It’s the starting point for an adversarial relationship that threads its way through the film as Jing Weiwei, clearly fascinated by the young woman who’s killing time before her dawn train out of the city, follows her around, and she, between giving him a hard time, gradually falls for him. It’s to the credit of actor Yin Fang 尹昉 (the sympathetic detective in Better Days 少年的你 (2019), here in an introverted role, and actress Zhang Jingyi 张婧仪 (skilled at 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) that the edgy relationship remains interesting enough to carry the viewer along. The fact that both Yin, 36 but looking younger, and Zhang, 23, are Hunan-born also adds extra authenticity.
As the film fans out to include a tough but weary restaurateuse (Su Yan 苏岩, after a six-year absence) and her longtime apprentice (TV actor Wu Haochen 吴昊宸), an ambitious stand-up comic (Zhang Yixing 张艺兴) and his estranged dad (Changsha-born Luo Gang 罗钢), and two migrant workers on the city’s observation wheel (Zhou Siyu 周思羽, Bai Yufan 白宇帆), all the characters are shown as integral parts of the city, either by occupation or by birth, rather than just constructs plonked in the script. In the film’s standout performance, Su, 48, who was memorable as the ballet mistress in Youth 芳华 (2017) and married best friend in Only You 命中注定 (2015), is terrific here as the frowsy head of a trendy late-night eaterie who’s decided to hand over to her loyal no. 2. The crowded restaurant scenes include a large number of actors cameoing as themselves, several of whom are natives of either Hunan (Shen Mengchen 沈梦辰) or Changsha (He Jiong 何炅). The neatest of all is a sad-funny scene with actress Zhou Dongyu 周冬雨 and Hunan-born Wang Yuexin 王栎鑫, playing a young couple breaking up but not really knowing why.
Su is run a close second in the cast by Zhang as a wannabe stand-up comedian who’s totally self-obsessed with his career; it’s not a likeable role, and like several in the film is given a pat conclusion, but it’s finely observed by the actor-singer. Other roles are all solidly cast, though in the story of the two migrant workers (the script’s weakest) Zhou and Bai don’t get much to chew on.
Aside from the copious use of local dialect and the stress on spicy Hunan cuisine, the film’s flavoursome atmosphere owes much to the work of d.p. Xi Bing 席冰, who largely works on commercials and shorts. His use of neon and LED lighting helps underline the idea of a city that never sleeps, and a complex, 90-second shot following the comic up to a night-club is just one of several techniques used to further involve the viewer in the action.
Shooting took place in Changsha during Jun-Aug 2022, under the title 群星闪耀的夜晚 (literally, “Night of Shining Stars”).
CREDITS
Presented by Xiaoxiang Pictures (CN), Beijing JQ Media (CN), China Film (CN), Shanghai Taopiaopiao Movie & TV Culture (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN), Hunan Blazer Pictures (CN), Tianjin Lian Ray Pictures (CN), Nam Kwong Culture & Creativity Industry (CN). Produced by Beijing JQ Spring Pictures (CN), CPC Changsha Municipal Committee Publicity Department (CN), Hunan Blazer Pictures (CN).
Script: Zhang Ji. Script planning: Wu Huiling, Xiang Yaowei. Photography: Xi Bing. Editing: Fang Wei. Editing advice: Xu Hongyu [Derek Hui]. Music: Liu Dajiang. Art direction: Lu Wenhua. Costume design: Chen Jiaqi. Styling: Wu Lilu [Dora Ng]. Sound: Huang Zheng.
Cast: Yin Fang (Jing Weiwei), Zhang Jingyi (He Xixi), Su Yan (Li), Wu Haochen (Xu), Bai Yufan (Chen Qingzhi), Zhou Siyu (Liang Baoqi), Wu Jun (Xie), Luo Gang (He Dunhua), Zhang Yixing (He An), Liao Fan (bookshop weirdo), Zhou Dongyu (Lanzhou girl in restaurant), Wang Yuexin (Changsha boy in restaurant), He Jiong (himself), Shen Mengchen (herself), Jin Mengjia (herself), Qi Sijun (himself), Li Shaminzi (herself), Xiang Yaowei (coffee-shop girl), Ren Ke (pompous man in bookshop), Yin Qi (pompous man’s female companion), He Huilan (punk girl in bookshop), Chen Guo (Xiaoman, restaurant buyer), Qian Dongni (Xiaoke, He An’s ex-girlfriend), Cao Haha (comedy-club presenter), Shi Kai (Xiang), Cao Guo (Cao Guo, opening comedy-club act), Zhao Weiguo (Wu, widowed restaurant customer).
Release: China, 28 Apr 2023.